The Breaking Jewel (Weatherhead Books on Asia) by Makoto Oda

Author:Makoto Oda [Oda, Makoto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction/General, Literary Criticism/Asian/General, LIT008000, FIC000000
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2003-01-16T05:00:00+00:00

9

“Now we’re going to sing some war songs.” With these words, Nakamura jumped up from a hollow under the shore reef where there was a short stretch of grass cover and started walking. The men of his squad, to whom he had given a brief recess in their training for night attacks, were so exhausted they seemed completely drained of vitality. Not only did they lack vitality, but they looked apathetic as they stretched out to rest below the shore reef. Nakamura, recognizing intuitively that in their present shape they wouldn’t last until the American landing, said in a low voice to Kon by his side, “I’m going to inject some spirit into them with war songs.” He stood up and gave the order.

The light of the moon, once again so brilliant and all-pervading it was frightening, made the white sand on the beach sparkle. Nakamura broke into a trot, as if pursuing his own shadow, and entered the wooded area along the shore. A little clearing had been opened in this area, courtesy of the American bombing. Hidden as they were by a thick growth of trees on all sides, they would probably not be visible here from the sky. The soldiers, energized merely by that one shout from Nakamura, jumped up and ran panting after him to the clearing where they assembled.

They automatically drew up in two ranks and, at a word of command from Nakamura, immediately began to sing. First of all, of course, came “What It Means to Be an Infantryman”:

Ten thousand clusters of cherry flowers

Blossom on your collars—*

Storm winds blow the blossoms in Yoshino,

And you, who have been born sons of Yamato,

Will scatter like blossoms in skirmish formation.

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