By Pearl S.Buck
Characters
Dr.
Sadao Hoki : A Japanese doctor
Hana: His wife, Japanese
Sadao’s
father: A true, die-hard Japanese, blindly patriot
The
old General: Japan’s army General; Sadao’s patient
Tom: An American soldier who got ashore near Sadao’s house following a serious
injury
Yimi: Sadao’s maid, in charge of the babies
Gardener: Sadao’s gardener, an old man, in service since Sadao’s father’s time
The
cook: Sadao’s cook, an old man, in service since Sadao’s father’s time.
An
officer
Summery
Sadao was a Japanese surgeon. He studied in America and returned with Hana, a Japanese girl whom he met there, and married her in Japan and settled down comfortably. While most of the doctors were sent to serve the Japanese army in the World War II, Sadao was allowed to stay home because he was wanted by the old General who was dying.
But one night into his uneventful life came an American Navy-man, shot, wounded and dying. Though unwilling to help his enemy, Sadao took the young soldier into his house and provided him with medical aid. He was in danger from that moment. Soon his servants left him. Dr. Sadao saw that the soldier was getting well and absolutely alright.
Once his patient was no more in need of him, the doctor turned out to be his assassin, conspiring to kill him in his sleep. He informed the General of the American and the General promised he would send his private men to kill the American. Sadao awaited the American’s death every morning but to his gloom the man was still alive, healthier and posing danger to him.
At this point Sadao becomes the real man in him: a true human being who realizes the essential worth of human life and universal brotherhood. He thinks beyond countries and continents and races and wars. He finds no reason to believe that the American is his enemy. Sadao rescues the American.
- Dr. Sadao, a Japanese surgeon
finds a wounded American soldier on the beach near his house.
- He is unable to throw him back
though he was his enemy as he was a doctor and his first duty was to save
a life.
- Hana his wife though initially
reluctant joins her husband in operating and nursing the enemy soldier
back to health.
- It is dangerous to keep the enemy
in the house so all the servants left.
- Hana does the housework alone.
- The General did not send Sadao
with the troops as he is an expert surgeon and the General might need him
any time for an emergency operation.
- Even General comes to know that
Sadao is harbouring his enemy , he does not take any action and suggest
that he would send his private assassins to kill the enemy and remove his
body.
- Dr. Sadao performs an emergency
operation and succeeds.
- The
General promises a reward and saves the life of doctor Sadao who in return
helps the American soldier escape in his boat.
Short Answer Type Questions
Q1.Why didn’t Dr. Sadao put the wounded man back
in the sea even though he was his enemy?
Ans. Dr. Sadao could not put the wounded man back in the sea even though he
was an enemy because he was a Doctor and the foremost duty of a doctor is to
save life. He knew the man would die if not tended medically. This would be
against medical ethics. So, he rescued him to give medical treatment.
Q2. How did the servant
express their displeasure?
Ans. The servants did not like the idea of helping an enemy. Yumi refused to
wash the white man. They stopped working; but became watchful as long as a
white man was harbored there.
Q3. How did Hanna show her
human side to the wounded man after the operation?
Ans. Hanna nursed the man herself. When he was getting ready to face some
fearful eventuality she told him not to be afraid of anything. Then she knelt
and fed him gently from the porcelain spoon. She also told him that he would be
soon strong.
Q4. What did Dr. Sadao do
to send off the man?
Ans. As soon as it was dark Dr. Sadao dragged the stout boat down to the
shore. He put food, bottled water and two quilts. He medically examined the
man. Then gave him his own little flashlight to signal for food, gave him
Japanese clothes, covered his blond head and let him go.
Q5. What message does ‘The Enemy’ give?
Ans. ‘The Enemy’ gives the
message that humanism transcends all man made prejudices and barriers. Here Dr.
Sadao upholds the ethics of medical profession in treating an enemy. The story
is a great lesson of peace, love, sympathy, fellow feeling and humanism.
Q6. What will Dr Sadao and his wife do
with the man?
Ans. Dr Sadao and his wife want to put
an end to the life of the young man, despite operating on him successfully because
they are torn between their spirit of patriotism and the ethical demands of the
medical profession. The doctor tried to inject the young man in one of his
feeble moments but since the young man lived despite their attempt to end his
life, the couple decide to tend to him and help him live and recover.
Q7. Dr Sadao was compelled by his duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana, his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?
Ans. Hana was a traditional Japanese woman who was in the habit of acquiescing to her husband’s wishes. More than that, she had a tender heart and felt that she could not roll the American back into the sea. Having lived in America for many years, she could not really view the man as an enemy.
Long Answer Type Questions
Q1. There are moments in life when we
have to make hard choices between our roles as private individuals and as
citizens with a sense of national loyalty. Discuss with reference to the story
you have just read.
Ans. When Doctor Sadao Hoki and his wife
Hana realised that the man who had been washed ashore was actually an American
prisoner of war, they were torn between the natural human instinct to take the
man into their house and minister to his needs or to respond as Japanese
citizens and turn him over to the authorities. Being a doctor who had spent
most of his life learning to save lives, Sadao was overcome with the urge to do
the same for the American. He also realised that the man was in need of urgent
medical attention. In the end, the couple allowed their empathetic human
instinct to dictate the course of action and they took the American inside
their house to tend to his needs.
Q2. How would you explain the reluctance
of the soldier to leave the shelter of the doctor’s home even when he knew he
couldn’t stay there without risk to the doctor and himself?
Ans. Though the Doctor and his wife were
Japanese, they had displayed extreme kindness towards him. He was an American
prisoner of war who had escaped and was given refuge by the kind doctor and his
wife even though this act was fraught with danger for the two of them. He had
obviously suffered at the hands of the Japanese while in prison and the scars
on his neck were the evidence of the torture that he had undergone. He was
afraid that if he left their house he would be discovered and would have to
face the dire consequences, possibly further and even worse torture.
Q3. What explains the attitude of the
General in the matter of the enemy soldier? Was it human consideration, lack of
national loyalty, dereliction of duty or simply selfabsorption?
Human Consideration
In the matter
of the enemy soldier, the General had taken a soft stand and spared his life as
well as imprisonment for treason in the case of Dr Sadao on account of human consideration.
(a) The General’s humanitarian instincts made him identify with
the wounded soldier, who too, needed Dr Sadao’s medical intervention
to survive.
(b) He favoured being treated by Dr Sadao because this doctor,
a humanitarian, unlike the other two Japanese surgeons, placed saving of human
life above the technical perfection of their skill.
(c) Having been to Princeton, the
General had imbibed American values for human life and unlike most Japanese who
could turn over a prisoner to execution, showed his leanings towards human
consideration in making decisions.
(d) He did not gloat over his
victories in battle but rather felt weighed down by the added responsibilities
that each victory brought alongside, showing his deeply human instincts.
(e) Instead of outright action he
suggests that the prisoner is killed by assassins so that both he and Dr Sadao are spared the agony of
killing a fellow human being in cold blood.
Lack of national loyalty
There is no lack of national loyalty as
the General contemplates ways of getting rid of the enemy under all
circumstances. Though educated in Princeton, he is at heart Japanese and
decides on getting rid of the prisoner by using hired assassins who know the
native technique of internal bleeding. A true loyalist, he knew that serving
his country did not mean taking lives of enemies unnecessarily. Thus despite
proclaiming to Sadao that he would arrange for assassins he trusted Sadaos
judgement in finding an alternative and effective way out of the problem. The
General makes a self-confession explaining that he had not sent the assassins
because he was preoccupied with his own health condition instead. This was a
face saving answer as both the men knew that no true patriot kills an enemy in
cold blood. The General rewards the doctor for his kindness indicating that
true patriotism is not about taking advantage of a fallen and defeated enemy.
Dereliction of duty
The General is a cool strategist who
plans actions like a professional soldier. While trusting his medical needs in his
surgeons hands, he goes ahead and secures victories for his country. For him,
his victories in battle are not occasions of personal success but moments of
introspection and planning for the duties thrust upon him by additional
victories. He knew of every move within his command and thus was aware of the
presence of the enemy and Dr Sadao’s medical intervention to save his life, in
the spirit of humanity. His duty as an officer and a gentleman required that he
find a way that would not jeopardize his surgeon as also not give his enemy
undue advantage. He helped Dr Sadao find a solution to the problem by goading
him into action by suggesting that he was taking the extreme measure of sending
hired assassins, without actually meaning to do so.
Self-absorption
(a) Though the General glibly says that he forgot to order the
assassins to kill the prisoner, taking cover under self-absorption with his
medical condition, the following events distinctly prove contrary to this
statement.
(b) Having ascertained Dr Sadao’s
capabilities as a doctor who is both humane and technically skilled, he carries out his actions
without further thought about his health.
(c) He is concerned about protecting the
doctor facing the complexity of an enemy arriving at his doorstep instead of being absorbed with
the repercussions of such a matter on his own career prospects.
(d) Even in the thick of his own illness he spares a thought
about his doctor’s plight showing his utmost concern for Dr Sadao’s welfare
instead of his own.
(e) The self-absorption was a
perfect ruse to make Dr Sadao devise an escape route for his patient an enemy
soldier.
Q4. While hatred against a member of the
enemy race is justifiable, especially during wartime, what makes a human being
rise above narrow prejudices?
Ans. Though the Doctor hated all
Americans and felt superior to them, he felt that he had to do his best to save
the life of the American prisoner of war who had got washed ashore, close to
his house. The open resentment of his domestic servants and the obvious danger of
giving refuge to an American prisoner of war did not deter him from carrying
out his duties as a doctor. In this way, he rose above the narrow prejudices of
race.
Q5. Do you think the doctor’s final
solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances?
Ans. It was indeed the best solution to
the problem as in this way the American could finally escape the Japanese at
whose hands he had already suffered, the Doctor could assuage his conscience
which would have bothered him had the General’s plan of having the American
murdered, been carried out and his wife, Hana, could feel relieved at the
enemy’s departure.
Questios for Practice
1. Dr. Sadao had to make a hard choice discuss?
2. Why the General did overlooked the matter of enemy soldier?
3. Was the doctor’s final solution best in the circumstances?
4. Who was Dr. Sadao?
5. Why was Dr. Sadao not sent with troops?