Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007
From: Oregon, USA
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March 16, 1945
Location: 100 miles southeast of Shanghai
Course: North
Attached to: TF 27
Mission: Surface Combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 325
Orders: Proceed to Inch'on
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Sayumi Takahashi walks swiftly down the street, the fabric of her linen monpe pantaloons whispering together as she walks. She is carrying a covered shopping basket and taking her usual long strides. Sayumi is tall for a Japanese woman and there was a time when her dress and her walk set her apart and drew curious and sometimes disapproving looks. No more. Now most women are dressed as she is, in monpe and a simple kosode.
The shopping basket is full but not as full as she would like. Food is not yet impossible to come by but the recent rice harvest was a poor one and she only got half as much as she wanted, and that took most of her money. An assortment of vegetables, a little barley, and a couple of eels constitute the remainder of her take.
It isn’t enough but it will have to do for the three of them, herself and Taiki’s parents. The sea lanes to the cornucopia that is the Southern Resource Area are not yet closed but they are narrowing and everyone is having to make do with less.
As she walks Sayumi thinks about Taiki and wonders where he is. She has not heard from him in several weeks. Mail from overseas has virtually stopped, leaving she and countless others to worry and pray and wait. Noboro, Taiki’s brother, was here a couple of weeks ago but now he and his ship, Mutsu, have also disappeared. Everyone talks about the war but no one really knows anything. The radio talks about glorious victories but the “silver bees” roam over Tokyo and Osaka and other places sowing destruction and no one seems able to stop them. They are taught new songs to sing about how the enemy bombers will not dampen their spirits and will come only to be destroyed, but songs do not shoot down the bombers or put out the fires they cause.
Nearing the Takahashi’s modest home Sayumi overtakes a trio of children. The eldest, a girl of about eleven, is arguing with her younger brother and sister. She too carries a shopping basket and all of them look unhappy.
“What is the trouble?” asks Sayumi, taking note of their thin and patched clothes. Poor things, she thinks, they look cold. It is March and the wind still has a lot of chill in it.
As is proper the children all bow slightly to Sayumi, an elder, before addressing her.
“We were sent to the market but Mother did not give us enough money,” says the older girl gravely. “We could not get much food. Mother will be very unhappy with us when we return.” Sayumi notes that all three are thin, with pinched faces that make their eyes seem very large.
“She will say that Father will be cross with us when he gets home,” says the little boy, who is around seven.
“I see,” says Sayumi. “And where is your father?”
“He is on Tinian,” says the boy proudly, “defending it from the enemy.” Sayumi opens her mouth to say something and then closes it again. That their father is dead is almost certain, but they do not need to hear that from her.
“I am sure he is fighting well and is very brave,” she says. “Here.” She reaches into her basket and dips into her own meager store of rice. “This should help your mother be less angry with you.” The children accept the offered rice politely and with many thanks.
As Sayumi watches them go her stomach growls. She cannot regret her act of kindness but wishes there was more food. It would be grand to sit down cross-legged before a table covered with good things to eat, to just once be able to eat until one was sleepy and full. But Sayumi knows it will be a long time before that happens. Maybe a very long time.
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