ACT V

(A short time later in the same morning)

SCENE:  The Morrisons’ living room. Adam, Kimiyo, and Adam’s father, Edward, are present.  Kimiyo and Adam are seated together on the sofa and Edward is sitting in an armchair, closer to Adam than Kimiyo. He resolutely avoids eye contact with Kimiyo.

EDWARD:  (Sitting stiffly upright, holding a cup of tea) So – Nottingham, you said, then?

ADAM:  Yes. We’ve got a small flat there, near the university. A bit noisy and there isn’t much of a garden, but it’s very convenient for shopping.

EDWARD:  (Nodding) Going to be back for a while this time, then?

ADAM:  (Looking progressively more ill-at-ease) For the better part of two years. Then we’ll be – heading back.

EDWARD: (Nodding. He takes a long sip from his tea, but says nothing)

ADAM:  (Glancing quickly at Kimiyo)  So, Dad – Herbert was saying your hip replacement was a huge success.

EDWARD: (Scowling down at his teacup as he adjusts it on his saucer) Amazing what they can do nowadays, these surgeons. Part of you goes to pieces, gets bunged up – bingo, they can fix it or replace it – just like that. (Laughing grimly) As long as you aren’t on the NHS, that is. Never thought I’d be able to walk again without any pain, the way it was. Turns out now I can do everything but bend over to put on my own shoes and socks. Damned nuisance, but when I think about what it was like before I had the operation – well, there’s no comparison. Night and day.

KIMIYO:  (Bravely, obviously nervous as she turns to address Adam’s father) This I know from my family: my grandmother, she have this operation too. Very bad hip, always cry when try to walk, then operation and – now  fine. She say exactly same: never imagine feel better again, then go to hospital, come out – almost like new. But hard to put on shoes. (Stumbling over her words in her nervousness)

ADAM:  (Patting Kimiyo’s hand, obviously moved by her show of bravery) This is your grandmother in Okinawa?

KIMIYO: No – one from Osaka.

EDWARD:  (Pointedly not looking in Kimiyo’s direction)  Yes, it’s amazing what they can do nowadays. 

(A silence settles over the room. KIMIYO turns and flashes a look of anguish at ADAM who presses his lips together and shrugs. EDWARD sips from his teacup and stares at the Christmas tree) 

KIMIYO:  (Softly) Mr Morrison?

EDWARD:  (Frowning down at his teacup, he says nothing)

KIMIYO:  (Brushing off Adam’s hand as he tries to reach for hers) Mr Morrison, Adam – he just now told me about your time. Your very bad war-time in Japan. He never tell me this before today, so I did not – I had no idea of this until just now. So, I want to tell you – I want you to know this. That if you say to Adam – if you say to Adam that you cannot forgive – ever – then I can understand this. Because my family, they too – sometimes when my father and my grandfather drink alcohol, they too speak of the war, you see, and I know –

EDWARD:  (Rising abruptly without so much as a glance in Kimiyo’s direction, muttering indistinctly) Think I’ll just go and – (he leaves the room in some haste) KIMIYO AND ADAM do not speak for a moment, then ADAM turns to KIMIYO and notices that she is crying.

ADAM:  (Miserably) Jesus, Kimi, I am so sorry –

KIMIYO:  (Wiping her eyes, fiercely) Don’t!  Just – don’t! You don’t tell me at all until last minute, you say nothing! (She buries her face in her hands)

ADAM:  (Wretchedly, trying to put his arm around her) Please let me – (Kimiyo angrily bats his hands away)

KIMIYO:  (For a minute, she remains with her face in her hands, huddled on the
sofa, shoulders heaving. Then she takes a deep breath and turns to look up at Adam, her face a mask of anger and misery)  I must ask you one thing – (she begins to cry again, quietly sobbing for a few moments, then rallies and sits up again, putting a little distance between herself and Adam)   I must ask you just this: Did you marry me because I am a Japanese?

ADAM:  (Horrified) Jesus, Kimi – how can you even think that?

KIMIYO:  (Bursting into tears again, with real anguish) Then why you marry me? You are good looking guy with job – lots of girls like you, interested in you – why you marry me?

ADAM:  (Gazing at her with great tenderness) Do you honestly have to ask that? Do you really not know the answer?

KIMIYO:  (Virtually hissing at him in her anger) Yes!

ADAM:  (Nodding) Okay, you want to know:  I’ll tell you. I married you because I was attracted to you – because you were kind to that old lady who kept yelling at the clerk behind the counter at the consulate – remember her? The American who’d lost her passport and had to get another visa for Japan? She was a pain in the arse and the people at the consulate weren’t being any help at all, but you kept trying to help her, trying to find out where she had to go next, translating for her, showing her where to wait – and then later she didn’t even thank you and you just shrugged it off. Remember?

KIMIYO:  (Shrugging, but listening attentively)

ADAM:  (Taking a deep breath) Well, I remember. Because that – the way you did that like it was nothing – like it was natural to want to help some obnoxious stranger and not seem all that bothered that she didn’t even thank you – that got me interested straight away. I married you because (thinking)  – because of your goofy laugh and the way you’re slightly bow-legged. Because of your intelligence and your fluent but fractured English – the way you really try to communicate, not just talk. Because of your sense of humour, your humility, your sensitivity and gentleness, your wacky fashion sense. Because I’d never met a single woman even the tiniest bit like you with even a fraction of your virtues. Because I fell in love with you – head over heels, heels over head. Okay? I don’t give a rat’s arse about whether you’re Japanese or Tunisian or Finnish. Is that enough?  Do I need to go on? Are you willing to believe that I didn’t single you out because of your nationality?  Well?

KIMIYO:  (For a few moments she sits still and says nothing. Then she straightens up and turns to face Adam)  What is bowlig?

ADAM:  (Taken aback) Bowling? What does bowling have to do with this?

KIMIYO:  (Irritated) Not bowling, bowlig. You say marry me because I am bowlig.

ADAM:  (Obviously completely confused, then reason dawns)  Bow-legged. I said Slightly bow-legged. (Demonstrates what he means with index finger and thumb of one hand) Your legs, see – just a little like this.

KIMIYO:  (Attempting not to smile) I am not bow-legged.

ADAM:  (Hugging her to him) Yes you are.

KIMIYO:  (Her voice muffled) No, I am not. Also, my laugh is not goofy and fashion sense is okay. Not wack-ee. (There is a long pause as Adam and she continue to embrace)

ADAM:  (Smiling) Absolutely, whatever you say.  You laugh like a nightingale. You dress like – like – Christian Dior.

KIMIYO:  (Nodding at first, then pulling back) Hey! Christian Dior is man.

ADAM:  (Laughing) Never said he wasn’t!

KIMIYO: (Giggling and snuggling closer to Adam)  Everything else you say about me, though – all true.

ADAM:  Except for the bit about your humility – (ducking as Kimiyo attacks him
with sofa cushion)

STEPHEN:  (Entering the room) Oops – sorry – (smiling)

KIMIYO:  (Straightening up and disentangling herself from Adam) It is okay – just   (fending off husband’s affectionate caresses) - Adam, stop! – just – we are discussing marriage.

STEPHEN: (With indifference) Mmm. Where’s Dad?

ADAM:  (Sitting up straighter) God knows. Kimiyo was brilliant – she really tried to talk to him – but he buggered off. Couldn’t take it.

STEPHEN:  (Sitting down and sighing) You have to realize, Kimiyo, that Dad spent – I think it was almost four years – in your country. He was one of the guys they captured in Singapore at the beginning of the war, see. He did a little time on the Burma Railway, then they shipped him to Japan on one of those hellships you hear about. You’ve heard of them? Those ships where they crammed hundreds – thousands – of guys into the hold, hardly any water, not enough food, no sanitary facilities? Ships they didn’t even mark ‘Carrying POWs’ so they wouldn’t get blasted to bits by the American Navy?

KIMIYO:  (Quietly) I have heard. I travel in Australia two-three month, visit to the Philippines, Malaysia – so I have heard.  

ADAM: (Giving Stephen a hard look) You can skip all the history, Stephen – Kimi’s not some bimbo who thinks Japan is all cherry blossoms and geisha girls.

STEPHEN:  (Defensively) I’m not calling her a bimbo. I’m just saying – (he stops and collects his thoughts) – lots of Japanese people, the ones I’ve met, anyway – they don’t get it. You tell them your Dad was a POW they say, so what? What’s that got to do with me, I was born after the war. I’m may not be a world traveller like you, Adam, but I meet a lot of these guys at work, engineers mainly. (Stands up and begins to walk over to the Christmas tree, then turns back to Adam and Kimiyo, obviously agitated) And they seem to think that if you mention anything to do with the war – anything besides Hiroshima or Nagasaki, that is – if you try and talk about anything to do with Japan’s role in the war, you’re picking on them.

ADAM:  (With deceptive casualness) So maybe you are. Sounds like you are to me.

STEPHEN:  (Angrily) You’re too young to remember, maybe, but Dad used to wake up screaming his head off. Remember that? Herbert and I – our room was upstairs from Dad’s and Mum’s, remember?

ADAM:  (Quietly) I remember. I could hear him screaming too.

STEPHEN:  (To Kimiyo) It was horrible. He used to scream at our Mum, used to call her things. It was like he’d wake up and he’d be back in the Camp. I’d wake up and hear him screaming and shouting – swearing, too – and I’d  hear Mum trying to calm him down – and he’d just scream at her, non-stop – and sometimes he’d start crashing around in the room, even. He’s got traumatic arthritis in all his joints because of all the work he had to do – twelve hours a day – and I’ve seen the scars he’s got on his back –

ADAM:  (Angrily) Jeez, Stephen, we’ve all seen the scars, but  – how do you know all of this? About the arthritis, the hellships, the working twelve hours a day? (Turning to Kimiyo) Because he never talks about any of this, Kimi – never. Dad doesn’t’ talk about the war – full stop. (Turning back to Stephen) Has he suddenly started talking about it to you – is that it?

STEPHEN:  (Shaking his head a little sheepishly) No. No, he still doesn’t talk about it. I read about it. In books.  And – well, on the Internet – I fill in the blanks, that’s all.

ADAM:  Let me ask you this, Stephen – okay? What if someone – someone from
India, say – what if they did the same thing to you? What if they started telling you about the Amritsar Massacre, say – all the people who were slaughtered in that? What if they wanted your opinion on it, wanted to know how you personally felt about it? Say one of their ancestors had been one of those unarmed people who got mowed down and –

GWEN:  (Peeking in the door) Yoo-hoo! Can I join you or is this a private club? Only it sounds like you're having more fun in here than they are in the kitchen and --

ADAM:  (Sighing and rubbing his head) You might as well come on in. Indulge in a little Kimi-bashing maybe – go right ahead.

GWEN:  (Puzzled, her eyes flitting from person to person) Have I missed something?

ADAM:  (Muttering) Only a brief history of Dad’s war  –

GWEN:  (Interrupting him) Pardon?

ADAM:  (Shaking his head and muttering) Nothing, really.

GWEN:  (Looking around the room) So I guess it’s Dad who’s holed up in the downstairs loo, huh?  (She walks into the room and flops down in the armchair vacated by her father) Must be him in there ‘cause everyone else is in the kitchen drinking coffee or washing dishes.

ADAM:  (Exchanges looks with Stephen and Kimiyo, then nods) I guess you’re right. He was in here earlier, but –

DIANE:  (Appearing at door) Hey – where’s your Dad?

ADAM:  (Pressing fingers to temples) It would appear that he has holed up in the downstairs toilet.

DIANE:  (Sensing the mood of the room and grimacing) O-key-dokey. Just wanted to let you know that Colin will be joining us after all. He just called and asked if someone would come and pick him up at the station; he’s had car trouble.

VALERIE:  (Joining Diane in the doorway) Anyone know where your Dad is?

EDWARD:  (Suddenly appearing behind Valerie and Diane) I’m right here. (Valerie and Diane jump in surprise)

GWEN:  (Getting up from armchair) Here Dad – I’ve kept it warm for you. Go and sit down.

DIANE: (Jingling car keys as Edward goes to sit down) I’m off to get Colin at the
station. So I’ll be seeing you later –

STEPHEN:  (Almost too eagerly) Hang on – I’ll go with you.

GWEN:  (Out of the side of her mouth, to Adam) What’s with Stephen?

ADAM:  (Shrugs and frowns as he gives her an I’ll-tell-you-later look and shakes his head)

HERBERT (From outside the room) Valerie!

VALERIE: (Drawing in her breath sharply) What?

HERBERT: I need you in here! Right now!  I can’t move this bird on my own.

VALERIE:  (Brightly, to no one in particular) When he calls, I must obey. (Gets up and leaves the room – exits to ‘Kitchen’)

(The remaining four people are silent for a few moments. Gwen is sitting back-to-front on one of the straight-back chairs, examining her fingernails and looking completely nonchalant. Adam and Kimiyo sit and look subdued)

EDWARD:  (Clearing his throat) What did you say your wife’s name was again, Stephen?

ADAM:  (Flashing a quick despairing look at Kimiyo) I’m Adam, Dad.

EDWARD:  (Angrily) I know your name! I’m asking you what hers is! (jerking one thumb in the direction of Kimiyo)

ADAM:  (Looking desperate) Kimiyo. Kee-mee-yo.

EDWARD: (Nodding) Well – (clearing his throat again) Kee-mee-yo – you are the first person from your country that I have spoken to intentionally in over fifty years.

KIMIYO:  (Says nothing, but nods soberly)

EDWARD: If it’d been left up to me back in 1945, I wouldn’t have stopped at – at
(he suddenly looks bewildered) – what were the cities – the ones where they dropped the bomb?

ADAM and KIMIYO:  (Almost simultaneously) Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

EDWARD:  (Nodding) That’s right. I wouldn’t have stopped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Or Tokyo, Yokohama – all those places the Yanks fire-bombed. I’d have kept on going. I’d have filled in the spaces. You understand?

GWEN:  (Looking puzzled) Tokyo? Yokohama? I thought the atom bomb –

KIMIYO: (Shaking her head cautiously, staring at a spot on the carpet) Hiroshima, Nagasaki – they are bomb end of war. Before that almost Japanese cities – many, many big city – bomb flat – like Coventry. By Americans.

GWEN:  (Looking appalled) Jesus, I didn’t know that.

EDWARD:  (Glancing sharply at Gwen)  I’ll tell you something, girl. If the situation had been reversed – if they’d been in planes flying over largely civilian targets – don’t think they’d have stopped before they’d pounded the lot into the ground. All they lacked was materiel. If they’d had the oil, if their manpower and their ammunition had held out, if they’d learned how to split atoms before the Yanks did – they’d have bombed the whole damn world flat without a by-your-leave. Damn near did anyway, in some places.

ADAM:  (Looking horrified, reaching for Kimiyo’s hand; Kimiyo, however, pulls her hand away) Dad – don’t you think it’s time – we’re talking about something that happened over half a century –

EDWARD:  (Facetiously) Over half a century ago – oh yes. (in poncey falsetto
voice)  So long ago – let bygones be bygones  – they’re always saying that.

ADAM:  (Angrily)  Dad, Kimi isn’t even all Japanese. Her family are half Korean, part Chinese. Surely you know how much the Chinese and the Koreans suffered in the war – the Rape of Nanking –  the Korean women they kidnapped and forced to work in their brothels and – and the guys who were brought over practically as slaves to work in the factories – (Kimiyo tugs on his arm in a vain effort to hush him up, but Edward interrupts him)

EDWARD:  (Furiously) Oh, I know about the Koreans alright. Let me tell you about the Koreans. We had them as guards, see, in two of the camps I was in. To begin with, in Thailand, we had two there – cunning, evil bastards both of them. Worse than the Japanese they were – and let me tell you, that took some doing! Then in – (he thinks for a moment, his forehead creased) – in Niigata – (KIMIYO looks sharply up at him at this. A look of relief passes over her face)

ADAM:  (Leaping to his feet angrily) Come on Kimiyo, we don’t have to sit here and take this – (Kimiyo grabs his arm and pulls him back down)

KIMIYO:  (Shaking her head, tears in her eyes, her face frowning in concentration) Sit down, Adam – listen to your father. Because – he lived then. He experienced. (In a lower voice) And my grandfather – the story he says is just same.  

EDWARD:  (Momentarily taken aback by Kimiyo’s unexpected support, but quickly rallying)  The Japs – they’d beat us to get us to work, you see. Or to make us show respect – that was a big thing, respect. You’d be hurrying past one of the guards on your way to the stinking privy – dysentery, you see – we all got it – you’d end up going dozens of  times a day. And you’d forget to bow or salute – so you’d get a rifle butt cracked across your face. Because you’d forgotten to bow! You’d forgotten to show respect!  (For a moment he falters – obviously having lost his train of thought) No respect – you see, and – (frowning) – you couldn’t have that. Chain of command and all that – we were the lowest of the low, at the very bottom of the chain. Had to show respect – (once again he looks puzzled, his lips moving slightly as he tries to recapture his train of thought)

KIMIYO:  (Gently) So – the Koreans. . . ?

EDWARD:  (Remembering, nodding)  Oh yes, the Koreans. There was one real bastard in Thailand, you see. Lee his Korean name was – mind you, they were all Lee as far as I could tell – never seen an entire country with so few surnames among them – and this brute – this Lee fellow – it wasn’t just that he wanted discipline. The Japs were great for discipline, but this fellow Lee was – he was different. He didn’t just want discipline, see, he wanted – it was power. That’s what he wanted. He liked beating you, hurting you – because it gave him power.

ADAM:  (Passionately) Dad, Kimi’s family – her mother’s family especially –
they’re Christians. They really hated the whole idea of a war –

EDWARD:  (Laughing grimly and shaking his head) Oh, they’ll all tell you that! Ask
any German what his father did during the war – ask any Jap – and they’ll tell you they didn’t know anything, never did anything. That they were pacifists. Well, I can tell you one thing. Pacifists were pretty thin on the ground back then. The people who lived near our factory – the civilians  – they’d line up and spit on us when we left for work in the morning. Throw things, taunt us. I never saw any pacifists. They never got anywhere near us, that much I can tell you –

KIMIYO:  (Leaning forward) Not so many -- that is true. But – they were there. Just as peoples who say ‘this war is stupid’ – who say ‘we cannot beat America – why try?’ Many peoples – some communist peoples and also Buddhist and Christian – they do not agree with war, think war is very bad and stupid – those peoples say things against government, against war, and they are beaten, they are taken by Kempeitai – you know Kempeitai? Military police?  Put in military prison, famous prison in Tokyo. And these people – the communists – they are still in jail after the war. They never get out.

EDWARD:  (Interrupting her scornfully) So your family, then – all Christians, were
they? All pacifists?

KIMIYO:  (For a moment she says nothing, staring at a point in the floor ahead of her. Then she looks up and meets Edward’s eyes) No. Not all pacifist. Not all Christian. No. Not all – good people, either.

ADAM:  (Disgustedly) Come on, Kimiyo – there’s no reason for you to defend yourself or your family! Don’t rise to it!

KIMIYO:  (Shaking her head quietly) No, Adam. Your father asked – so I will tell
him. Many people say same thing about Korean guard, you see – not just your father, not just other P-O-double-you. I studied – not in school, because in Japanese school almost they don’t teach – that is wrong, I know, but it is true. They do not teach in almost  schools in Japan, about war, about Japan’s bad thing. Only Hiroshima, Nagasaki, big Kanto Air Raid. I learned these things about Japan’s bad history because father’s father is Korean, and because I heard this in – oh, so many place. Other peoples say this to me – Thai peoples I knew, also Filipinos, Australians and other Japanese Korean I know. So many men, Korean men, were brought to Japan during war time to help in factories, because all young Japanese men are gone as soldiers all over Asia. So Korean men work as slaves like P.O-double-you do, and also they work as guards in those camp. And they are anxious to be good worker, have Japanese peoples say they are – loyal worker (she has some trouble with the Ls and Rs in this phrase and frowns in concentration), and also – this I think and nobody tell me, just I think it – they are cruel because treated cruel. You know?

EDWARD:  (Says nothing for a moment, then suddenly speaks. His voice is thick with bitterness and sadness) Half the time we couldn’t even tell the difference between them and the Japs – not at first. And they had food, better shelter, medicine. So how is it they were treated cruelly?

KIMIYO:  (Shaking her head) Mr Morrison, treated cruel does not excuse. I know. But I must tell you – my grandfather – father’s father – his brother was guard in one camp. He was guard at Moji camp. You know Moji?

EDWARD:  (Nods) I was there. Almost all of us went there first.

KIMIYO:  (Nodding) This my grandfather say about his brother – he is not kind man, you know? He is – bully. He bullies peoples. My grandfather always say he is so glad he is not P.O.double-you in those camps with his brother. Bad enough to be brother of him. He feels – this is my grandfather – he feels very sorry for those P.O.double-you boys in Moji where his brother was guard.

ADAM:  (Clearing his throat) What – what happened to him? After the war?

KIMIYO:  He stayed Japan. Married to Japanese woman, my great auntie Mariko, very good woman, gentle and sweet. He can get no job – so always angry at Japan and Japan government. Also angry at Japanese peoples – angry at my great auntie Mariko, too. Other Japanese guard – worse guys than him even – they are free, like he is, after war, they get job, manage to live. But he – always looking for job, but cannot get because Korean. So finally he got coal worker job, but never good job, no pension, (starting in surprise as EDWARD lets out an explosive sound of disgust, then rallying to finish her piece) – even though he has to work so hardly. And it is true that Japanese peoples hate Korean peoples – they really do. Maybe you do not see this in camp – I did not have this experience in childhood time, but – it is true. So he was always angry. And he beat my great auntie Mariko, my family is always so sorry about this, because she is good woman, always treat him kindly, faithfully to him. Peoples are so cruel to him, so he is cruel back to others. It is terrible – but this happens.

(As Kimiyo finishes talking, there is a silence in the room.  GWEN is looking at
nothing in particular, as is ADAM; EDWARD is staring off into space)

KIMIYO:  (A little hesitantly – carefully feeling her way) So many peoples in war – good peoples, bad peoples, young ones, old, too – they die. In my family too – in all families in Japan. Always, after war my grandfather wondering why good people die – so many of them. For instance, grandfather’s daughter – my father’s sister – very good, kind person – she died in fire-bombing of Osaka, but my grandfather’s brother live. Live only to be angry, to hate so much, hate P.O.Double-you, also to make my great auntie Mariko miserable. Finally, five years ago, he die – still angry, still bully to my great auntie. Good people die and bad ones too – but why not only bad ones? This my grandfather say so many times – why so many good people die? Kind ones, good ones who try to love other peoples, even enemy –

GWEN:  (Curiously) Your great aunt – Mariko? What happened to her?

KIMIYO:  (Smiling) Oh – she is happy now. She goes to her church and very active to do good thing, makes foreign friends, visits Philippines and Taiwan with church group. And she is learning foreign languages – Korean and English, even Tagalog. She is very happy.

EDWARD:  (Suddenly clears his throat to speak, then grows quiet. There is a mood of expectation as the other people in the room wait for him to speak. Finally, staring straight ahead of him, he begins to speak haltingly) There was a lad in our camp – Tom – I suppose he was about eighteen. Smart lad – learned the lingo right away, he could speak to the guards so that they could understand him. They made a bit of a pet of him, actually – used to make the rest of us a little edgy to hear him nattering away to them, to tell you the truth. . . We’d rib him about it – ask him what he was trying to do, getting so friendly with the guards. And he’d say – he’d answer that the guards were only human. That they had their own problems, their own reasons to be the way they were. That he wanted to understand them . . . (begins to look as though he isn’t sure what he is going to say next)

ADAM:  (Gently, after a pause) So – what happened to him?

EDWARD:  (Confused) Eh?

ADAM:  (Prompting him) What happened to Tom, the boy in your camp?

EDWARD:  (Putting his face in his hands) Tom – (despondently) oh Lord, Tom.  (ADAM, KIMIYO and GWEN exchange uncomfortable looks as he cries, rocking back and forth) Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord.

VALERIE:  (Suddenly appearing at the door) Tea, anyone? And I’ve got some fruit
cake and scones and mince pies – Gwen, I wonder if you’d give me a hand? (She exits into Kitchen)

GWEN:  (Casting a quick, anxious look at her father, who is still sitting with his head buried in his hands) Uh – sure thing.  (She remains seated)

ADAM:  (Gently) I’m sorry, Dad. I’m really sorry.

EDWARD:  (Drawing in his breath slowly, trying to compose himself)  We used to get rations from the Red Cross, you see. They’d send us care packages – milk, tinned meat, that sort of thing. But we almost never got any of it. That and the medicine – we almost never saw it, even when we needed it most. The guards thought of those care packages as one of their perks, you know – ate the food themselves or traded it on the black market along with the medicine. So Tom – Tom would go and steal some, from time to time, when we asked him to. Started off only taking a few tins, which he always shared with us. The guards trusted him, you see, so it was safer for him to do it than it would have been for anyone else.  But as time went on and we got hungrier and hungrier – well, we egged him on. Got him to pilfer more and more until one day – midwinter it was, and over two feet of snow –

GWEN: (Curiously) It snows? In Japan?

KIMIYO and EDWARD:  (Turning to her, almost in unison) Yes!

VALERIE:  (Angrily)  Gwen!

GWEN:  (Sighing deeply, gets up and leaves)

EDWARD:  (Confused) What was I talking about?

KIMIYO:  (Very gently)  About Tom. Pilfer food, winter day –

EDWARD:  (Nodding, staring at nothing) Ah yes. My word, it was cold  – (he stops talking suddenly and gapes, open-mouthed, his eyes suddenly filling with tears, and his voice becoming quieter) – Snow that thick on the roof and icicles hanging down from the eaves as big around as your fist, and none of us had the proper clothes for it. And Tom – (he frowns and gulps to catch his breath) –  and Tom –

KIMIYO:  (Exchanging glances with Adam) Mr Morrison, it is alright if you don’t  –

ADAM: (Nods, agreeing) Really Dad, maybe you shouldn’t –

EDWARD:  (Nodding, his mouth slightly open) Only it was so cold, you see. . . (he suddenly stops, appearing to have lost his train of thought)

ADAM:  (Looking nervously at EDWARD who is still nodding and frowning, obviously deep in thought)  Really, Dad, you don’t have to –

EDWARD:  (Looking down at his lap, he shakes his head and continues)  You see, we’d egged him on until he was taking more than he could get away with. We knew it – all of us knew it – and yet we were so hungry, you see – always hungry – so we convinced him, we told him that we couldn’t do it without getting caught, whereas he, being young and in the good books of the guards – that they’d never – (despondently) oh Lord – oh Lord–

VALERIE:  (Carrying a tea tray with teapot, teacups on saucers, milk and sugar)
(Brightly) Here we are, everyone – tea!

GWEN:  (Bearing another tray laden with buttered scones, jam, fruitcake and
mince pies, her face screwed up in concentration) Jesus, this thing is heavy – what’s it made out of? Lead?

EDWARD:  (Staring at them in fury) What is this? I never asked for tea!

VALERIE:  (Stiffly but lightly, with well-controlled exasperation) Well, it’s some time before lunch yet, so you’ll just have to forgive me, I brought it anyway.

GWEN:  (Lightly, setting the tray on the table in front of him, shaking both of her hands and wincing) I guess you’ll have to forgive me too, Dad.

EDWARD:  (Thundering angrily, his face a mask of rage) I’ll forgive who I damn well please! 

(KIMIYO and ADAM share a fleeting look – half horrified, half amused in spite of themselves – and GWEN sits back down while VALERIE  sits down and begins to pour tea, her face a mask of indifference)  EDWARD remains seated for a few minutes more with an affronted look on his face, then with no warning suddenly gets up and stomps out of the room)

VALERIE:  (Sighing) God, this family – do you see what I have to put up with? ‘Dad’s coming tomorrow,’ Herbert says, like it’s nothing. Like ‘Here’s the newspaper.’

ADAM:  (Shaking his head) God, I had no idea. I really had no idea.

KIMIYO:  (Softly and sadly, her eyes filled with tears) Your poor father – your poor father.

VALERIE:  (Staring blankly down at her loaded tea trays, addressing no one in particular, in wooden tones) Sometimes I wonder why I bother, really.  I used to think that if I did it all – made the maximum effort, that is – that my hard work would be rewarded. That I’d have done my part so well, that everything else would just fall in place. I thought that all the women going around and whining all the time – that they were the ones who just hadn’t done enough, hadn’t made the effort, so they were disappointed in what they’d got out of life. But now I find – I mean, look at me. Here I am, I do everything to keep this place tidy, to get decent meals on the table, to keep everyone healthy and happy. To make a really special family Christmas. Everything. But all my efforts – (she takes a deep sigh) – it’s like I haven’t really done anything. You’d think people would be happy. Maybe even grateful. (She says this last word with particular vehemence)

GWEN:  (Getting up suddenly) If you’ll excuse me for just a moment, I notice that
it’s gone noon, and this is, after all, Christmas – almost. So I don’t think it’s too early for a gin and soda. Or maybe a little whiskey. Or – well whatever. (She strides off in the direction of her brother’s drinks cabinet in brisk, purposeful manner and comes back to the group bearing several bottles)  Someone go and get some glasses, will you? I don’t know about any of you, but I could use a drink.