Yamamoto’s Decision: World War II Play from Sherwood Ross

ACT THREE, SCENE ONE

Time: Several days later.
Setting: Yamamoto’s office

(Yamamoto is seated behind his desk in white dress uniform with three rows of medals across his chest. There is an armchair beside the desk, a leather couch and armchair against a wall, and a slide projector that faces in the direction of a projector screen so the audience can view the slide presentation. Door left is opened by Akio who peers in.)

Akio:I dropped in to see if you were still with the Admiralty. I wasn’t so sure the other night.
Yamamoto: Tojo will be here any minute.
Akio:I’ll go.
Yamamoto:Nonsense, I need your support. (Akio enters) I thought you were going to quit. What happened?
Akio:It was my flask talking.
Yamamoto:Sit down over there. I need a shit-yard expert for this meeting.
Akio:I’m not military any more.
Yamamoto:Don’t make me laugh. Quick: who do you like Saturday, Northwestern or Iowa?
Akio:Uh, Iowa. (Yamamoto makes a note in a black book.)
Yamamoto:Good man!
Fumio:(Enters) Did I hear you say Iowa?
Yamamoto:Okay, you’re in.
Fumio:The Razor is here.
Yamamoto:Not so loud. He might decide to give you a shave. When I tap the pointer twice, you advance the slide.
Fumio:Hi! (Fumio exits, leaving door open, and returns, announcing, “General Tojo, Sir!” Tojo enters dressed in plain olive brown uniform, no medals. He is a short man of military bearing, horn-rimmed glasses, bald, lean and tough. Yamamoto, Akio and Fumio: bow low. Tojo bows briefly, seats himself ramrod straight in the chair next to the desk. Fumio takes a chair near the door, sits ramrod straight.)
Yamamoto:Tea?
Tojo:I have no time for ceremony. (Nodding toward Akio.) What is he doing here?
Yamamoto:Much of what I want to talk to you about concerns shipyards. He runs the biggest.
Tojo:(To Akio) About our past differences: War is not for the squeamish. When you would not open fire as ordered, we had no choice. I wish you every success out of uniform.
Akio:Same to you, — and the sooner the better.
Tojo:(To Aki0) You never did have any manners. When I start running this country I will make a point of teaching you a little respect. (To Yamamoto) Now, what’s all this about?
Yamamoto:I’ll speak bluntly: give up this idea of attacking America. You can’t beat them.
Tojo:What choice do we have? Look how they are pressing us. They cut off our scrap metal, our oil, the lifeblood of empire, moving their fleet from San Diego to Hawaii. Enough!
Yamamoto:They pressure us because of China. Maybe it’s time to pull out.
Tojo:Out of the question! Will America withdraw from The Philippines? They started that war on Spain and seized those islands. It’s time we liberated them. When they get out of Manila, I’ll get out of Shanghai.
Yamamoto:You attack The Philippines, America will fight. Guaranteed.
Tojo:Americans: jazz and decadence. Their president is a cripple.
Yamamoto:To rise to power, a cripple must have some strength, no?
Tojo:Fifteen nations have bigger armies.
Yamamoto:With the huge Navy this cripple is building, no foreign army can get close to them. Look at Hitler: the Royal Navy stops him from crossing twenty miles of the English Channel.
Tojo:Are you implying your Navy cannot defeat America’s?
Yamamoto:Anything is possible. But we must be realistic. I asked you here to show you something. (Yamamoto nods to Fumio. The lights on the set are dimmed but the audience should be able to make out the actors.)
Projector Screen: map of the United States.
Tojo:Ah, the land of Mickey Mouse!
Yamamoto:We have only a handful of shipyards. Roosevelt is building new shipyards everywhere. They’re cranking out battleships, carriers. The Brooklyn Navy Yard, Philadelphia Navy Yard, Norfolk… They’re building destroyers in Maine and submarines in Wisconsin.
Tojo:I thought Wisconsin was for cheese and beer.

Yamamoto:Shipyards in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, Long Beach, San Diego, Houston, New Orleans, and Mississippi, you see? The American navy is already fifty percent bigger than ours.
Tojo:Quantity is not quality. You’re the one who harps on that! (Yamamoto taps pointer.)
Projector Screen: (Painting of battleship U.S.S. Washington.)
Yamamoto:The Washington, first of a class of eight new battleships, the rest in service by 1942.
Tojo:I heard what they say about Washington. First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.
Yamamoto:That’s the baseball team.
Tojo:So outbuild them!
Yamamoto:What with? Half the national budget goes to fight China! (Yamamoto taps pointer.)
Projector Screen: (Cruiser ‘Brooklyn.’)
The new Brooklyn cruiser. She can fire one hundred and seventy shells a minute. So many fly up at once the night sky looks like fireworks.
Tojo:Her lights will make a perfect target for you. (Yamamoto taps pointer.)
Projector Screen: (Aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise.)
Yamamoto:If war broke out, they could build a hundred carriers to our ten. And did you ever think about pilots? America is a big country with hundreds of airports. When our farmers see an airplane they look up into the sky because it’s an unusual event. In America, farm boys drive cars to the airports and fly planes on weekends for their own recreation! Young men put on air shows and fly so low over the farms they’re called barnstormers. Thousands of them can be trained for combat overnight. We’ve got starving rice farmers while American boys eat beef and build muscle.
Tojo:How come you don’t show me Popeye the Sailor Man?
Yamamoto:Speaking of personnel, Roosevelt is doubling the size of the navy.
Tojo:He’s taking the bums out of the hobo jungles and feeding them spinach. When war comes, spinach is their secret weapon.(Yamamoto cannot help but smile at them. He makes a “cut” sign across his throat and Fumio turns the projector off.)
Yamamoto:There is no point my reasoning with you, Hideki. You make a joke of everything.
Tojo:Next you’ll tell me their planes are better. You yourself worked on the Zero. Is it the best fighter plane in the world or not?
Yamamoto:For right now, yes. But the Americans have got four new pursuit planes in production and a long-range bomber coming off the assembly line at Boeing. We can’t begin to match that.
Tojo:The Army guarantees those bombers will never get close enough to strike Japan.

Yamamoto:Do you really think a small island nation with no oil can defeat a country with rich oil supplies? Not only do I have to destroy the world’s second largest navy but if we attack America the British will bring in the biggest navy in the world against us. And at this moment, now, the fish stalls are empty due to a gasoline shortage.
Tojo:(Sputtering) Well, let the fishermen get up earlier in the morning. (Akio laughs.) You— don’t push me!
Yamamoto:He laughs because the industriousness of our fishermen is not the issue.
Tojo:I think all that time you spent studying geology at Harvard addled your brains.
Yamamoto:The issue is the oil shortage.
Tojo:Why didn’t a playboy like you attend the University of Southern California and major in gardening? Americans love their Japanese gardeners. You could be weeding the estate of a Hollywood movie star. (Fumio is on his feet.)
Fumio:No one dares insult the admiral that way!
Yamamoto:(Akio and Yamamoto are on Fumio in a flash. Yamamoto slaps his face and they push him away. Fumio: buries his head in his hands and sobs.) My apologies. He’s already lost one eye. Next he’s going to lose his head. (Softly) Hideki, you’re perceptive. You have a reputation for integrity. That nickname they call you, that’s a compliment. You must know the Emperor doesn’t want any war with America. He’s quoting a peace poem.
Tojo:That poem is for public consumption. Outwardly, he potters with his microscopes and marine biology specimens. Inwardly, he’s samurai. Samurai!
Yamamoto:
But taking on the Western powers is rashness.
Tojo:There will never be peace until the white imperialist is driven out of Asia. (Shouting) America out of the Philippines! England out of India! France out of Indo-China! The Dutch out of the East Indies!
Yamamoto:Yes, they exploit. But so do we.
Tojo:We are the liberators of the yellow people of Asia. That’s not the same as imperialists. The Americans are racists. They close their borders to Asian immigrants. They segregate Japanese schoolchildren in San Francisco. They lynch Negroes, those Ku Ku Kluxes?
Yamamoto:Ku Klux Klans. (Fumio contains himself; lifts his head up; dries eyes with sleeve.)
Tojo:Their sanctimony! How did those famous American families achieve their wealth — the Forbes family, the Astors, the Delanos — yes, the president’s own forefathers — they all got rich pushing dope down the throats of Chinamen. I proclaim co-prosperity for Asians.
Akio:Like you’re doing in Manchuria, turning a million men into opium-eaters and their wives into whores..

Yamamoto:(Tojo starts for the door. Yamamoto, seeking to keep the conversation going, steps in his way.) Let’s reason together. How would you conquer America, anyway? Land the army in Los Angeles and fight your way to Washington?
Tojo:If I have to, we’ll get cowboy suits and six-shooters and ride across on horseback!
Yamamoto:You can’t stop half way. You’ll have to dictate peace terms in the White House.
Tojo:Hit them hard enough, they’ll sue for peace. War is never certain. Sometimes you have to shut your eyes and take the plunge. (Yamamoto steps aside to let him pass.)
Yamamoto:This war could destroy Japan.
Akio:(To Yamamoto) Let him go. You can’t change a delusional man.
Tojo:(To Akio) If I destroy Japan, I’ll start with some old seadogs first. (Tojo storms out.)
Yamamoto:(To Fumio) You get out, too. Never in my life have I seen such reckless audacity. I should clap you in the brig! Don’t you dare speak! Confined to barracks! Get out of my sight until I send for you! (Fumio exits, leaving Akio and Yamamoto shaking their heads.) Can you imagine him threatening Tojo that way?
AkioI didn’t help you much, either.
Yamamoto:(Smiles) You were great. Fumio has utterly no judgment.
Akio:Nothing wrong with Fumio’s judgment. It’s Tojo.
(Akio removes flask from his suit coat pocket, takes a swig and hands it to Yamamoto, who also drinks deep.)
YamamotoI just read a book by the American writer Cain. It’s about a couple disgusted with a spoiled daughter. The book ends with the couple sitting on their bed and the man passes his wife a bottle of rye and says, ‘Let’s get stinko.’(laughs) Stinko! (They both laugh.)
Akio:I’ve been telling you Stinko’s the only remedy left for Japan.
Yamamoto:Let’s hope we can brew enough of it go around.
Blackout

ACT THREE, SCENE TWO

Place: Yamamoto’s home
Set: Same as Act One, Scene One.

(Door chime. Reiko answers. Akio, in business suit, stands at the door.)

Reiko:Aki? (She does not invite him in.)
Akio:May I come in?
Reiko:Take your shoes off. (Akio: removes his shoes.) Tea? (Akio: nods.)
Akio:(Entering, waving his hand at the room). Still the same lovely green feeling…

Reiko:Does Isoroku know you are here?
Akio:I didn’t know myself I was coming.
Reiko:Ah, your feet led you here by themselves.
Akio:Would you prefer to go out for a glass of wine?
Reiko:Gossips will chirp. (Beat) So, what’s up?
Akio:I am thinking about coming back home for good.
Reiko:The playboy gives up the Ginza?
Akio:Enough of Tokyo. I dream of Nagaoka.
Reiko:And the shipyard?
Akio:I’m quitting. (Beat) How is your father?
Reiko:The same complaint.
Akio:Sorry. And the children?
Reiko:(Anxiously) Stop it! Why are you–has something happened to Isoroku?
Akio:No! No!
Reiko:Did you travel all this way to visit me? (Akio Nods) You are interested in me? (Akio nods. Reiko sighs) You were always the best-looking boy of all. I cared for you once, you know that. (Beat) Now answer my question. How’s your wife?
Akio:(Downcast) In a private sanitarium.
Reiko:Do you visit her?
Akio:(Shrugs) She doesn’t know me. She only wears white. She fears impurity. I see her… when I can…
Reiko:(Beat) Did Isoroku happen to suggest to you I am available?
Akio:Oh, no! No! Nothing like that! Maybe I should go.
Reiko:I think so, too. You’ve lived in his shadow for so long. Now, his wife’s lonely…it reads like a cheap story.
Akio:I think you still care for him.
Reiko:The more he ignores me, the more jealous I am. Actually, I have not been too warm to him. Maybe you could get me a job at Yoko’s? I could play courtesan.
Akio:That’s not why men go there.

Reiko:Ho! ho! How many thousands of geisha houses and secret apartments in Tokyo to satisfy mens’ fantasies? (Pause) I’ll get you a custard. (Akio takes a quick sip from his flask. She goes to stove, removes a lid from a pot, and ladles the dessert into a plate and sets it down before Akio.) It won’t hurt you to eat real food for a change.
Akio:Men don’t visit only for sex. (She hands him a spoon.)
Reiko:I agree. The courtesans puff them up with flattery. I’ll bet Yoko says, “Of all the lovers I’ve known, Isoroku, you are absolutely the best.”
Akio:This custard is delicious.
Reiko:Am I’m making you uncomfortable?
Akio:Your speculations are very entertaining. (Reiko folds her arms across her chest and waits.) There’s a young, attractive girl at Yoko’s I care for. She plays the samisen.
Reiko:(Irritably) So what are you doing here with me?
Akio:I’m trying to explain. I wanted to start over with her. I’ve wasted the best days of my life.
Reiko:And don’t forget the nights.
Akio:But, I’ve decided, I’m better off with a woman my own age.
Reiko:So of all the older women in Japan, you pick your best friend’s neglected wife. Sweet revenge for us both, right? (Beat) Hey, I’ll be you’ve broken with him over the attack on Hawaii, haven’t you? You have, I can feel it!
Akio:I know nothing about that.
Reiko:Please, boys in the schoolyard play they’re bombing Pearl Harbor. You’re at odds with him.
Akio:It’s that, well, I’d like to think I might have you in my future.
Reiko:You had that chance. Instead you introduced me to the man who filled my life with emptiness. (Beat. Akio puts up hands defensively.)
Akio:I am going to retire here.
Reiko:After you do, maybe we could discuss it. Hey, Aki, what do you think about this: If we made love, I’ll shut my eyes and pretend you’re the man you want to replace in my affections. You’ll shut your eyes and imagine the samisen girl. Won’t we be ecstatic! (Laughs.) You can’t stay here so long. Put your shoes on. (Akio nips from flask.)
Akio:Reiko… we could have…uh, a life of mutual rewards and satisfactions.
Reiko:How romantic! Hurry up and quit. Isoroku never will. Only let’s not call it “love.”
Akio:I-
Reiko:Go! Go! (Akio leaves. Reiko turns to audience.) What a surprise, huh? I’m so hungry for love I could eat him like an apple. If only he had come years ago.
Blackout

ACT THREE, SCENE THREE

Time: Midnight.
Setting: Upstairs bedroom, Yoko’s Tea House

(At rise, Yoko is asleep on a futon on the floor, large enough for two persons. Yamamoto is standing at a writing desk working on some plans, pen in hand. His blue naval jacket is draped over a chair. He wears only a loincloth. There is a commotion from left rear, a pounding on the door downstairs and cries of “Open up!” Tokuko rushes in to the bedroom without knocking. Yoko awakens with a start. She wears a white slip.)

Tokuko:There’s a mob outside.
Yoko:(Sits bolt upright) What do they want?
Yamamoto:Me. I’ll open the door for them before they — (There is a crash and shouting.)
Yoko:Too late! (Sound of many ascending footsteps. Yoko and Tokuko stand behind Yamamoto. Arms folded across his chest, he strikes a pose reminiscent of Rodin’ s statue of Balzac.)
Assassin:(Assassin: enters, dressed in olive drab Army uniform, sword in scabbard, scroll in his hand, and calls back over his shoulder.) The rest of you wait out there. (He hands the scroll to Yamamoto.) For Admiral Yamamoto:, our proclamation! We have a thousand signatures! (Yamamoto takes scroll and without reading it, wipes his rear with it, then throws it contemptuously on the floor.)
Yamamoto:You’ve come to the wrong house. We have plenty of toilet paper!
(Assassin: picks up the paper and reads in a trembling voice.)
Assassin:It is unseemly for Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to be seen in geisha houses!
Yamamoto:(Snorts) That’s it? That’s my crime?
Assassin:You violate public morality.
Yamamoto:Ah, you’re from the geisha house brigade! Sniff around all you like.
Assassin:We are defenders of the morals of Japan!
Yamamoto:(Laughs) So what about the general who sleeps at the Sign of the Carp? When he goes home, I’ll go home.
Assassin:(Enraged.) We order you to leave!
Yamamoto:(Picks petition up and hands it to Yoko whose hand trembles as she holds it.) Hypocrites! (To Yoko) See anybody’s name you know? Give her a moment, she’ll recognize the signatures of her best customers. That’s long enough. (He takes back paper and tears it up and drops it on floor.)
Assassin:We demand you leave this despicable place — within…half an hour!

Yamamoto:That’s plenty of time for a good man. I once pleasured four women in half an hour. Maybe those were your sisters?
Assassin:My what?
Yamamoto:You sisters. I remember them well. They were quick and easy.
Assassin:(Trembling voice.) You must go home to your proper family.
Yamamoto:It’s you who’d better say goodbye to your loved ones. Soon enough you’ll be fighting America.
Assassin:America!
Yamamoto:Yes, and The Netherlands and the whole British Empire. Tojo plans to take on the world. He told me so himself, even while he’s losing a secret war with Russia.
Assassin:Where?
Yamamoto:In Mongolia. Stalin’s boys just slaughtered fifty thousand of your comrades. I’m surprised you didn’t read about it in Asahi.
Assassin:There is no such war.
Yamamoto:Go to the hospitals. Filled with wounded. (Beat) Japan is not ready for war.
Assassin:(Assassin: withdraws his sword. His hand shakes.) Why should I believe you?
Yamamoto:Military experience. See this hand? Two fingers blown off at the battle of Tushima. See this chunk of missing thigh? From a Russian shell. Go on, pull down your pants, let’s see what you’ve got missing!
Assassin:(Lowers his sword.) I can’t…do this.
Yamamoto:Bravo! You tell that Master at the Cherry Blossom Society for me that a man who does not fart, screw, and shit is not a man! (He advances and Assassin starts to back toward door.) Now get out!
Assassin:(Flustered. He hesitates. Raises his sword, then lowers it, backing away.) I will take my own life. I do not really believe the Master like the other acolytes.
Yamamoto:(Calming down.) I like a man who thinks for himself. You have possibilities. Why not report to the ‘Nagato’ tomorrow and I’ll make a sailor of you?
Assassin:I am unworthy of you.
Yamamoto:If you won’t join the Navy, at least shave off that Hitler moustache!
Assassin:Why?
Yamamoto:Hitler has got an army that fights. You couldn’t beat the Zulus, much less the Russians.
(He grabs blue jacket from back of chair and drapes it around his middle and advances toward Assassin doing a bump and grind dance.) Behold, the African King dance! (The Assassin backs up, frightened.) And tell your Master he’ll get his war with America! Tell him Yamamoto will see to it. (Cries like vendor) Get your hot bullets here! We’re all going to eat hot bullets for breakfast!
(Assassin: backs out, and once out of sight we hear him call, “We’re going to fight America!” Cheers erupt. Cries of “America!” “War with America!” Stumbling down the steps can be heard.)
Yamamoto:(Calling after them.) And get some carpenters to fix the door you broke! Assholes! (To Tokuko.) It’s all over. Try to get some sleep. (Tokuko leaves) Let’s not allow them to spoil our night.
Yoko:Oh, Isoroku, is this going to be our last night together?
Yamamoto:Not if I can help it! (Beat.) You know, his Hitler moustache gives me an idea.
Blackout.

Sherwood Ross

Sherwood Ross is an award-winning reporter. He served in the U.S Air Force where he contributed to his base newspaper. He later worked for The Miami Herald and Chicago Daily News. He contributed a weekly column on working for a major wire service. He is also an editorial and book publicist. He currently resides in Florida.