and go away from the city, which is very much like Yokohama, to Kyoto. And there I live, work, marry. Have a child. But nobody grows old. I help design airplanes in a factory — airplanes nobody uses, probably — waiting for war to come and find me. I feel that none of my workers or friends change, become more worthy. Everyone stays the same. Soon I am bored. I think of other things — about heroic times, when there were ways to gain honor and live a full life. I think of days after Japan was created, and of the Sun hiding in a cave, and what happened to Her. I think of Jemmu Tenno. But nothing changes outside — it is just very deep night. I don’t know enough about such things.
“So I think of a library. It is barely clear in my mind before I am wandering through stacks of books and racks of newspapers, reading about all sorts of things. I learn what has happened since I left. I find news about the war. Real news? I don’t know. But there is so much, so self-consistent, that I decide I cannot have made it all up. My captors must inject some of real world into my creation. I find English books about the war, and other subjects, so I learn how to read and speak English. I don’t need to rest, so I study for days, weeks, time no matter. I learn the war had gone badly. We had lost. And surrendered. The emperor declared that the beginning of Japan was a myth, and he was not descended from the Sun Goddess, but was a mortal.”
“Emperor Showa,” Carina interjected.
“Yes, Hirohito when he was alive. That night, to soothe myself, I hang a ribbon for Japan in my shrine. Then I go to other parts of the library and find books on Japanese history, besides traditional ones I have read in school. My thoughts about the past are clearing. I decide first on nineteenth century, since I had heard a lot about it from my grandfather, who was actual samurai. I learn aboutBushido , the warrior’s way. Next morning, I go outside library, and nineteenth century is outside door. I go out to live as a traveling priest. That lasts, I think, for many decades.
“But after turn of century, as war with Russia grows near, I become unhappy. I go to shrine and make it night outside. With that night goes two wives, one who had died in childbirth, three children, many friends.
“When day comes, I am in a Japan I have never seen before. I haven’t created it myself, not intentionally. I decide it has been created for me by thekami .
“It is the twelfth century. I am a man named Tokimasa, a very important adviser. I begin to see what thekami wish me to do. I am to examine Japanese history, to find what has flawed us.”
“They told you that?” Elvox asked.
“No, never speak. Never show. But this is strong suggestion, no? I think perhaps I will see how to change history, to bring Japan to enlightenment before my time comes — an experiment. To decrease pain and killing and ignorance. I try to …”
He stopped and looked down at the table. “That is all my shame. From the very beginning it is my shame, to be captured alive, to accept the destruction of my land, to act so before thekami who are testing me. You say there are things I will have trouble understanding. Well, you cannot easily understand my shame.”
“Hoji Tokimasa was a member of the Taira clan,” Carina said. “He was given charge of two Minamoto boys, Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, sons of Kiyomori, a chieftain killed by the Taira. Yoritomo married your daughter … uh, Masa, but you didn’t accept the marriage until they had a child. When Yoritomo staged a revolt against the Taira, you … uh, Tokimasa switched allegiance.”
“That is history,” Kawashita said. “And I was too weak to change it second time around. When I created, what I meddled with — it would have been better if I had killed Masa in her bed as an infant.” His voice was quavering with bitterness, and his eyes brimmed with tears.
Elvox was impatient. “How long before the Perfidisians left and
“So I think of a library. It is barely clear in my mind before I am wandering through stacks of books and racks of newspapers, reading about all sorts of things. I learn what has happened since I left. I find news about the war. Real news? I don’t know. But there is so much, so self-consistent, that I decide I cannot have made it all up. My captors must inject some of real world into my creation. I find English books about the war, and other subjects, so I learn how to read and speak English. I don’t need to rest, so I study for days, weeks, time no matter. I learn the war had gone badly. We had lost. And surrendered. The emperor declared that the beginning of Japan was a myth, and he was not descended from the Sun Goddess, but was a mortal.”
“Emperor Showa,” Carina interjected.
“Yes, Hirohito when he was alive. That night, to soothe myself, I hang a ribbon for Japan in my shrine. Then I go to other parts of the library and find books on Japanese history, besides traditional ones I have read in school. My thoughts about the past are clearing. I decide first on nineteenth century, since I had heard a lot about it from my grandfather, who was actual samurai. I learn aboutBushido , the warrior’s way. Next morning, I go outside library, and nineteenth century is outside door. I go out to live as a traveling priest. That lasts, I think, for many decades.
“But after turn of century, as war with Russia grows near, I become unhappy. I go to shrine and make it night outside. With that night goes two wives, one who had died in childbirth, three children, many friends.
“When day comes, I am in a Japan I have never seen before. I haven’t created it myself, not intentionally. I decide it has been created for me by thekami .
“It is the twelfth century. I am a man named Tokimasa, a very important adviser. I begin to see what thekami wish me to do. I am to examine Japanese history, to find what has flawed us.”
“They told you that?” Elvox asked.
“No, never speak. Never show. But this is strong suggestion, no? I think perhaps I will see how to change history, to bring Japan to enlightenment before my time comes — an experiment. To decrease pain and killing and ignorance. I try to …”
He stopped and looked down at the table. “That is all my shame. From the very beginning it is my shame, to be captured alive, to accept the destruction of my land, to act so before thekami who are testing me. You say there are things I will have trouble understanding. Well, you cannot easily understand my shame.”
“Hoji Tokimasa was a member of the Taira clan,” Carina said. “He was given charge of two Minamoto boys, Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, sons of Kiyomori, a chieftain killed by the Taira. Yoritomo married your daughter … uh, Masa, but you didn’t accept the marriage until they had a child. When Yoritomo staged a revolt against the Taira, you … uh, Tokimasa switched allegiance.”
“That is history,” Kawashita said. “And I was too weak to change it second time around. When I created, what I meddled with — it would have been better if I had killed Masa in her bed as an infant.” His voice was quavering with bitterness, and his eyes brimmed with tears.
Elvox was impatient. “How long before the Perfidisians left and
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