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The story ‘The Enemy’ is set in the time of world war when Japan and America were enemy countries. Dr. Sadao had completed his medical studies from America but had settled in Japan with his wife Hana. Once when they were standing in the veranda of their house, saw a man on his hand and knees crawling. They came towards him and found him terribly wounded. When Dr. Sadao turned the wounded man’s head, he found that he was a white young man. From his cap, Sadao found that he was U.S. Navy’s sailor and this was an escaped prisoner of war.
As was the feeling prevalent at time in Japan, Dr. Sadao hated all Americans. He did not at all cared for the man. So his first reaction was to throw him back into the sea. His national loyalty demanded that the wounded young American should be handed over to the police. Dr. Sadao hated him as an enemy. Dr. Sadao was a distinguished surgeon. He had a tough choice.
If he turned over the wounded man over to police as a prisoner, he would certainly die. As a doctor, he was trained to save a human being’s life as far as he could. Dr. Sadao cared nothing for the white man because he was from the enemy country. But the training of his profession demanded that he should not let a human being die if he could save his life. So the clash was whether he should go with his feeling of national loyalty and let the young boy be killed or as a doctor he should save that wounded and dying human being.