Chapters 21 + 22

A new character is introduced on page 202, William Harris. A genius and a giant he had a photographic memory and became close friends with Louie. Another character is Gaga – a duck who was really more of a morale booster than anything. Morris code was used among prisoners to communicate as well as a rather daring move by speaking in English (which the guards didn’t understand) directly to guards in an inquisitive tone, but they were talking to each other and the guards didn’t know. Harris – who spoke Japanese as well as several other languages – created two books for address keeping for all the POWs and Japanese/English translations. Then came smoking, cigarettes were handed out to everyone and some people were so addicted that they traded the little food they were given for the smokes. Phil was being taken to the mystical place called Ashio, a POW camp that forced the prisoners into mining labor.

Back home a letter arrived announcing Louie’s disappearance, the neighborhood felt sad and lost hope as days went on. All except Louie’s family, “to the family, Louie was among them still, spoken of in the present tense, as it her were just down the street expected at any moment. Sylvia, Louie’s sister gets a job at the military base after selling most of her belongings to maybe get more information about her brother. When Pete and the family would go out to the town the passersby would give them oblique glances because they pitied them for not being able to accept the truth about their son. There was hope though; Deasy (the pilot who had been searching for the downed Super Man) had found documents describing Phil and Louie being taken to Japan via boat. Back to Louie: he had heard planes coming and going from the islands airstrip, he didn’t know where it was but he asked his friend Tinker if he could fly a Japanese plane. Tinker replied with “if it has wings” and this was the start of an idea that Louie, Tinker and Harris were going to escape. With Harris developing Beriberi Louie was determined to get food no matter what. He stole left and right but was finally allowed to work as a barber to the guards, though intimidating the pay was a ball of rice which was incentive enough to do anything. The Americans had captured Saipan, a critical island very close to mainland Japan. With the allies closing in the “kill all” policy was becoming more and more of a threat, in fact the island of Tinian which held 5,000 Korean prisoners instated the policy; killing all of the 5,000 prisoners. The trio of prisoners came to the realization that a boat would be better than plane and devised a route consisting of roughly 150 miles to the port, crossing the sea of Japan, and landing somewhere in china where they would somehow find refuge. To them it was much less then what they had done before they were found by the Japanese and with the kill all rule sneaking up on them it was the only viable option for life. Then the day before the planned escape day, someone had escaped. The officials made a new decree stating that any men caught would be executed and “for every escapee, several captive officers would be shot. Louie, Tinker, and Harris suspended their plan.” One of the officer guards found the maps that Harris had drawn, he beat Harris to and well after consciousness. When he woke he had a permanent glaze in his eyes and couldn’t recognize his friends. Louie was then taken along with Tinker, Duva and a few others to go to yet another POW camp – Omori. After being in a place like Ofuna for over a year how could anyone be sane? This determination was one of the skills he had when he was a child, and he has held on to it so closely that it is still in his mind even after being in a mental and physical wasteland. With interest in the armed forces this is a danger that I have to acknowledge, though I would never want this to happen to me (or anyone for that matter) I don’t know if I could deal with it as well as Louie does.