Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story (8 page)

I brought my hand to my mouth to stifle a cry. I watched in horror as Lieutenant Tanaka kicked Soo-hee a second time and growled, “You whore! We must take care of this.” He grabbed my
onni
by the hair and marched toward the infirmary. Soo-hee got to her feet, stumbled and fell, and scrambled to her feet again. Lieutenant Tanaka never slowed as he dragged Soo-hee to the infirmary to see Doctor Watanabe.

T
WELVE

C
olonel matsumoto’s men
said he was a brilliant military tactician. It was rumored he was being considered for an even higher office. He worked long hours and I never saw him when he wasn’t deep in thought about something. He could be cruel to me, but he could be surprisingly gentle, too. He no longer humiliated me when he raped me and almost seemed ashamed afterward. But he still raped me nearly every night he was in Dongfeng.

I lounged on the daybed alongside the Colonel in his private quarters near the center of town. I hadn’t slept the night before thinking about how to convince him to send Soo-hee to the hospital in Pushun for her abortion. I ran a finger over the rosewood table next to the bed. “Colonel Sir, have you gotten a letter from your family in Nagasaki?” I asked.

“I received a letter yesterday,” he answered.

“That’s wonderful. What do they say?”

“Nothing you need to know.”

I wrapped my
yukata
around me and reclined on the silk bed covers. Next to the bed was a picture of the Colonel’s family—his wife with an upper-class smile, a pugnacious-looking boy about eight years old, and a girl only a few years younger than me dressed in a pretty white kimono. Next to the picture was a bowl containing two round
amanatzu
. Their citrus smell filled the room. I laid my legs alongside the Colonel’s muscular frame. The smooth skin on his chest shimmered with the afterglow of sex. His head rested on a
dakimakura
pillow and he stared at the ceiling where a fan slowly turned.

“When will you see your family again?” I asked.

“I do not know,” he said. “I cannot see the future. It might not be for a long time. Why do you care?”

“I have heard the war is ending.”

The Colonel glared at me. “Who told you that?”

“I’m sorry, sir. It is just a silly rumor.”

The Colonel turned his eyes to the ceiling again. He folded his arms over his bare chest. “Eat some
amanatzu
,” he ordered. “They were shipped from Kumamato for the senior officers. I doubt you get much fruit at the comfort station.”

I put a hand on the Colonel’s leg. It was warm and dewy. “Thank you for taking care of me.” I picked up one of the yellow fruits. “What will happen when the war ends? I mean, when Japan has defeated the Americans?”

“We will rule all of Asia of course,” the Colonel said.

“Yes of course. I mean sir, what will happen to the
ianfu
when the troops return to Japan?”

The Colonel pulled his head off the pillow. “Why do you ask such questions? Am I a prophet? How do I know what will happen to anyone when the war ends?”

He was right. I was asking too many questions again. I lowered my head. “Please forgive a silly girl for asking stupid questions,” I said.

The Colonel lay back on the
dakimakura
pillow. “You haven’t eaten any
amanatzu
. Eat some. You are too thin.”

“Thank you, sir.” As I peeled the
amanatzu
, I let my
yukata
slip open revealing my breast.

The Colonel eyed my breast and the fan in the ceiling turned. “I don’t eat
amanatzu
this time of year,” he said staring. “They are sour. Take as much as you want.” He returned his gaze to the ceiling.

I ate a section of the fruit. It was indeed sour, but I ate it anyway.

“Colonel Sir,” I said, “may I ask for something?”

“Ask.”

“Sir, my sister is pregnant. Doctor Watanabe is giving her an abortion. Please sir, have her sent to the hospital at Pushun for the abortion. She will be better off there.”

The Colonel shook his head. “I will not do that.”

“Please sir, as a favor to me.”

With a powerful swipe of his arm, he pushed me off the bed. I fell on the floor with a thud and what was left of the
amanatzu
tumbled across the floor. “Why should I care about what happens to a Korean girl?” he said. “I only serve the Emperor.”

I scrambled to my knees and crawled to him. I brought my face over his thighs and began to unbutton his underwear. He looked down at me as I pulled his penis from beneath his underwear and began to stroke him. He didn’t respond, so I brought my face in close. The musty smell from the sex we’d had earlier was strong on him.

The Colonel leaned back and grabbed a bottle of
sake
off the nightstand. “It will not work,” he said evenly.

“Please sir,” I pleaded, “I will do anything.”

The Colonel pulled the cork from a
sake
bottle and reached for a glass as if I wasn’t there. “Leave me. Now,” he said.

I removed my hands from him and slowly stood. As the Colonel poured a glass of
sake
, I bowed and pulled on my
tabi
. At the door, I slipped on my
zori
and left the Colonel alone in his quarters.

I walked between the low stucco buildings toward the comfort station with my head down. I took the path next to the infirmary. I stopped and put a hand on the infirmary wall. Inside was Soo-hee, waiting for her abortion.

I had tried. I had been willing to do anything. But I had failed and now my
onni
’s life was in the fat hands of Doctor Watanabe.

*

“You’re clean,” Doctor Watanabe told me as I lay on his cot inside the infirmary’s tile inspection room with my legs spread. “I don’t know how you do it. All
ianfu
eventually get pregnant or contract some kind of disease, but not you. You’re lucky.”

I was seeing the doctor for my monthly inspection for venereal disease. Every month the fat doctor would poke and probe each girl looking for signs of disease. The soldiers were supposed to use condoms with us, but the Japanese were low on supplies and we had to reuse condoms until they broke. They usually lasted only two or three times and all of the girls got venereal disease except me. Perhaps the comb was giving me luck after all.

“Doctor Sir,” I said as I stood from the cot and pulled on my short pants, “may I see my sister before the troops come back tomorrow? I will be too busy to see her after that. She is only upstairs from here. Please, sir?”

“No. She is too sick for visitors,” the doctor answered from the washbasin.

“Sir, she is my sister.”

“Don’t talk back girl,” the doctor said over his shoulder. “I said no.”

I lowered my eyes. “Will she be all right?” I asked. “Will she recover from the abortion?”

“She’s bleeding inside,” the doctor answered drying his hands on a towel. “I don’t have time to do an operation. If she doesn’t stop bleeding on her own, she will die.”

The doctor’s words hit me like a punch in the stomach. I stopped buttoning my shirt. “She must go to the hospital in Pushun!” I cried. “Please doctor, send her there.”

The doctor turned his fat frame toward me. His eyes were red and his face sagged. “Do you think they will take an
ianfu
when they have so many Japanese soldiers to care for? They will laugh at me for sending her.”

“Can anything be done? Please, doctor.”

The doctor motioned for the nurse to send in the next
ianfu
. He ordered me to go back to the comfort station. “There is nothing I can do for your sister,” he said.

T
HIRTEEN

T
he laundry was
four poles supporting a corrugated metal roof next to the latrine. Three metal washtubs rested on low wooden tables. Behind the laundry were wire clotheslines strung from posts. Several sets of bedding dried in the warm sun.

As I washed a stack of bedding, Jin-sook and Mee-su came in, each carrying an armful of the
geisha
’s laundry. Mee-su asked me what I had heard about Soo-hee.

“She is no better,” I answered.

“She’s a fool,” Jin-sook said dropping bedding into a tub. “She pushes the
kempei
too much. She should do as I do. Make friends with them.”

“The Japanese are not our friends, Jin-sook,” I said.

“You pretend they aren’t,” she said, “but you have become friends with the Colonel. He gives you books and you never get a beating. I became friends with Lieutenant Tanaka and haven’t gotten a beating since we came here. I have made friends with the
geisha
s, too.”

“You are their slave,” Mee-su said, kneading the laundry into the water. “You do everything they say.”

“That’s not true,” Jin-sook said. “I just… respect them.”

“Well, I’m glad Soo-hee stands up to the
kempei
,” Mee-su said. “We will all be in trouble if she dies.”

“She will not die,” I said, looking at the tub. “I have a plan.”

Jin-sook looked from the laundry tub. “A plan? What is it?”

Yes, I had a plan, but I was not going to tell anyone, especially Jin-sook. Without answering her, I gathered my laundry and headed to the clothesline. “Be careful,” Mee-su said. “
Kempei
is watching you.”

I hung the bedding on the line and took a clean set for my room. When I got to the courtyard, Lieutenant Tanaka was sitting in a chair leaning against the
geisha
’s barracks. His
shinai
rested in his lap. Private Ishida looking bored as usual, leaned against a wall. Tanaka bent forward as I walked by. “Come here girl,” he said.

I walked to him and lowered my head. His high, black boots were freshly polished.

“Look at me,” he said. I looked at him. His eyes were small and sharp. “You’re not going to cause trouble for me if your sister dies, are you, Namiko Iwata?” He stroked my thigh with his
shinai
.

“No,
Kempei
,” I answered.

“You won’t do something stupid like run away or hurt one of the men?”

“No,
Kempei
.”

“Good, because Colonel Matsumoto cannot help you if you do. I am
Kempei-tai
—military police. The Colonel has no authority over me. So do as I say or you will earn yourself a beating.” He tapped my thigh with his
shinai
. “And I will give you a good one. Understand, girl?”

“Yes,
Kempei
.”

“Go on now. The troops are returning tomorrow. They need you. It is a great service you do for them.” He leaned his chair back against the stucco wall.

As I carried my laundry to my room, I glanced at Private Ishida who turned away.

*

After I had spread my bedding, I went to the courtyard. It was humid and clouds were forming in the west. The
ianfu
had put on their
yukata
s and were waiting on their steps for the soldiers to arrive.

I went to the
geisha
barracks and inched open Seiko’s door. “Seiko,” I said with a slight bow, “I need your help.” Inside, Seiko was preparing her room. The room was twice as large as mine and had a table and a light. Instead of a mat on the plank floor, there was a low bed with a mattress.

“Why should I help you?” Seiko asked.

“Please. I need to see Soo-hee. She’s dying.”

“I don’t care,” Seiko said.

“Seiko, you and I, we are not so different. I heard you crying in your room the night Maori died.”

Seiko spread clean bedding across her mattress. “Maori was a good Japanese woman. Soo-hee is a Korean.”

“I promise to be your servant for a month if you help me. Please, Seiko.”

“I will not do anything that will get me in trouble.”

“You are Japanese and Doctor Watanabe is a regular customer of yours. Talk to him. Tell him if Soo-hee sees me, she will recover and return to work. He will listen to you.”

Seiko raised an eyebrow. “If I do that, you will be my servant for a month?”

“Yes, I promise. I’ll do anything you say.”

“What if the doctor says ‘no’?”

“You are his favorite. If you ask, he will agree.”

Seiko turned to her bed. “Okay. I will talk to him. I’ll let you know what he says.”

“Thank you, Seiko.” I bowed as I backed out of her room.

*

A while later, Seiko came to me from across the courtyard. She told me she had good news. She said she talked with Doctor Watanabe and persuaded him to let me see Soo-hee. She said she cleared it with the
kempei
too. “And now you must be my servant for a month,” she said.

My heart skipped. “Thank you, Seiko.”

“Lieutenant Tanaka said you should go before the soldiers come. You have a half hour. And then come back here. You can start working for me right away.”

I bowed and thanked Seiko again. I ran to my room and closed the door. I took the comb with the two-headed dragon from inside my chamber pot. The dragon was so white and the gold spine so bright that I knew it would give Soo-hee good luck. I slipped it inside a fold of my
yukata
and quickly headed for the infirmary. In the courtyard, the comfort women rested on their steps, fanning themselves in the summer heat. Mee-su and the other girls watched as I crossed the courtyard. Mee-su slowly shook her head at me.

When I got to the infirmary, I didn’t see Doctor Watanabe or Lieutenant Tanaka. I hadn’t seen Seiko talk with the doctor or the
kempei
. I thought Seiko might be setting me up, but I didn’t care. I was already in the infirmary and Soo-hee was on a bed on the second floor. I had to give her the comb.

I hurried up the stairs to the infirmary ward. At the end of the hallway, a Japanese nurse sat at a desk writing on a chart. I snuck across the hallway to a large, white room with a long row of evenly spaced cots. Sheets hanging from metal rods surrounded several cots. High on the wall, small windows opened out to the town. I did a quick scan of the cots, but didn’t see Soo-hee.

A bandaged soldier sitting on the floor next to his cot lifted his head. He asked if I had come for him. I told him I was here to visit my sister.

“When you’re done, come see me,” he said. “You can help with my recovery.”

I walked down the long room. My
zori
slapped against the tile floor. Another soldier lifted his head off the pillow and nodded at me. A third rolled over and pulled his blanket over his shoulders.

In a corner, separated from the soldiers by a white sheet, I saw someone lying on a mat on the tile floor. I went there and saw it was Soo-hee. My poor
onni
’s face was pale except for gray circles around her eyes. Her lips were chapped, her hair, greasy and tangled. I knelt and took her hand. It was clammy and cold.

Soo-hee opened her eyes. “Little sister,” she said weakly, “why are you here? You will get in trouble.”

“Seiko talked to the doctor and he said it was okay.”

“Do not trust her, Ja-hee.”

I brushed a strand of hair from Soo-hee’s face. “
Onni
, you look so sick.”

Soo-hee’s eyes became cloudy and she pushed her head in the pillow. “Ja-hee, I do not think I will recover. I said I would never leave you. I’m sorry.” Tears welled in her eyes.

I came in close. “No, you will not die,” I whispered. “I’ve brought the comb.” I scanned the room and saw that no one was looking. I reached inside my
yukata
and pulled out the comb. I slipped it into Soo-hee’s hand. “Here,” I said, “take it.”

Soo-hee shook her head. “No. If I die, they will take it. And then the dragon can’t protect you.” She pushed the comb back at me.

“But, Soo-hee,
Ummah
gave it to you. If you have it, it will help you. It has not helped me.”

“It has helped you, little sister. You must believe in it.”

Suddenly Soo-hee’s eyes grew wide.

“What do we have here?” a voice boomed from behind me. I spun around, and saw the high, black boots of the
Kempei-tai
.

“
Kempei
sir,” I said with a gasp. “The doctor gave me permission to visit my sister.”

Lieutenant Tanaka stepped past me and peered down at Soo-hee. “What do you have there in your hand?” Soo-hee wrapped her hand around the comb. He bent down and slapped her hard. He pulled the comb from her hand.

“No!” I cried, lunging for the comb.

Lieutenant Tanaka grabbed a fistful of my hair and held me away. I ignored the pain and fought for the comb but he was too strong. He held the comb up and examined it. “My, my,” he said. “You have been hiding it all this time? You should have given it to your
kempei
.”

I stopped struggling but Lieutenant Tanaka held on to my hair. “Please sir, let Soo-hee have it,” I pleaded. “It will help her get well.”

“Oh, no, I cannot do that. Colonel Matsumoto should see it, don’t you agree? I’ll give it to him when I tell him why you will not be with him tonight.”

“
Kempei
, Seiko asked the doctor for permission for me to come here. He said I could.”

“That’s not what Seiko told me. She said you asked her to watch for me so you could sneak in here against orders. Come,” he said with a jerk of my hair, “let’s go see Colonel Matsumoto.”

As Lieutenant Tanaka dragged me away, Soo-hee pushed herself up on an elbow. “
Kempei
, Sir,” she said, “the comb is mine, not Ja-hee’s. I should be punished for hiding it.”

Lieutenant Tanaka looked down at Soo-hee. “If you’re going to die, girl, do it more quickly,” he said evenly. “And don’t worry about your sister. I will take care of her.”