Evening star., 1938-01-02
A Samurai never sunenders; that was the
code Of Sawaka San. But the woman who
loved his son had Western ideas
BY F. BRInEN AUSTIN

EN- @OOuuN
Cherry Blossom of his existence. Presently,
Lieutenant Mori would be coming to conduct
her and Miss Kkumoto to the dinner and
dance. He smiled softly to himself. Theirs
would be an ideal marriage - the union of
Samurai maid with young Samurai soldier.
Miss Kikumoto had no escort of her own;
she and Sakura went like sisters. Fukoko XII
kumoto San might be distressingly modern
girl - almost "moga" - but she accepted
no male escort while Captain Inazo Sawaka
was at the front. He had not yet been made
officially cognsant of the romance, but he
shrewdly suspected that she and Inazo had
beheld the Love pheasant (as the old
Chinese poets put it) perhaps in the shame
less contiguity of an ugly Western jazz. He
very much disliked Fukoko Sans aggressive
sophistication, but there was no denying her
loyalty to the absent Samurai hero. Despite
her bobbed hair she was true woman of
Nippon. When Inazo returned from the war,
he would not withhold consent.
These were petty temporal thoughts inter-
woven with the evanescent surface show of
things. He would fix his thoughts upon the
real, upon the Eternal The snow-topped
cone of Fumi was eternal Nippon was eternal,
land and people in mystic unity. both the
emanation of single divine soul. Nippons
destiny was to rule the world.
Lord Hotta had formulated that sacred
destiny in his memorial eighty years ago: mo
unity exists among states of the world. .
Rivalries will never cease till someone possess
hegemony that will unite all others under his
sole authority" He knew that prophetic
memorial by heart. Where other nations
intervene. we should do the same. The object
should always be kept in view of laying the
foundation for securing hegemony over all
should be developed. Where foreigners excel
us we should remedy our defects. We should
declare our protection over harmless but
powerful nations. Such policy could be moth
ing else but enforcement of the power and
authority deputed to us by the Spirit of
''The nations of the world will come to look
up to our Emperor as the Great Ruler of all
the nations, and they will come to follow our
policy and submit to our judgment. This ideal
realized, the Ruler of Nippon will have ac-
complished deed commensurate with the
great responsibilities he owes to Heaven and
to the Earth"
How much of that divinely decreed destiny
had been accomplished in his lifetime! And
yet it was only the beginning. Nippon had
only just entered upon the indefinitely vast
struggle. The divinity of the Ruler would in
sure success, but the virtue of the whole people
would be called upon for generations, a virtue
of which the stern mcompromising Samurai
code was the pattern. He was himself Sa-
mural Never would he fail in the example
required from him. 1t was unthinkable that
any Samurai should fail Nippon's future
mastery of the world was bound up with that
tradition of selfess sacrifice, of death rather
than surrender: the warriors tradition, the
tradition that his son was incarnating amid
the battlesmoke of China.
As often he did when alone, he went to the
lacquer chest, reverently took from it the silk
wrapped swords - one long, one short -
that had been his grandfather's His fathers
pair of swords was with Inazo, gloriously car
ried by him in the fighting outside Shanghai.
Through the paper WALL he heard voices.
That was Lieutenant Mori, come to fetch
Sakura and Fukoko Should he call Mori in,