Chapter 4 The Enemy Solutions
Question - 21 : - Why were the servants crying when they left Dr. Sadao’s house ?
Answer - 21 : -
Because of the prisoner of war being kept in the house, the servants had decided i to leave Dr. Sadao’s house. But they were crying. The cook and the gardener did so because they had served Sadao since he was a little boy in his father’s house. Yumi cried because of the children.
Question - 22 : - What did Hana think when she saw a messenger come to the door in the official uniform ?
Answer - 22 : -
When Hana saw a messenger at the door in the official uniform, she thought that perhaps the servants had told about the American prisoner of war. She heaved a sigh of relief when the messenger told Dr. Sadao that he was needed because the General was in pain again.
Question - 23 : - What did the General suggest Dr. Sadao to get rid of the young American ?
Answer - 23 : -
The General suggested Dr. Sadao that it would be best if the escaped prisoner of war could be quietly killed. He said that he had his own private assassins, who could be sent to Sadao’s house, kill him, and remove his body.
Question - 24 : - How did Dr. Sadao plan to get rid of the young prisoner of war ?
Answer - 24 : -
Dr. Sadao told the young man that he would put his boat on the shore tonight, with food and extra clothing in it. Dr. Sadao asked him to row the boat to that little secluded island not far from the coast.
Question - 25 : - How could the young American escape from the island if he reaches there ?
Answer - 25 : -
That island was secluded. Nobody lived there because it was submerged in storm. The young man could live there until he saw a Korean boat pass by through which he could escape.
Question - 26 : - How did normalcy retain in Dr. Sadao’s house ?
Answer - 26 : -
After the young American had left Dr. Sadao’s house his servants had returned. Yumi had cleaned the guest room thoroughly. She had burned sulphur in it to get the white man’s smell out of it.
Question - 27 : - How did the General react when Dr. Sadao told him that the young American had escaped ?
Answer - 27 : -
The old General felt that it was indeed careless of him not to send his private assassins to kill the young American. He said that it was not due to lack of patriotism or neglect of duty. Due to his suffering he thought of nothing but himself.
Question - 28 : - Do you think the story ‘The Enemy’ presents a clash between a man’s national loyalty and human interests ?
Answer - 28 : -
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.
Question - 29 : - Where did Sadao study medicine? Why was he not sent abroad with the troops?
Answer - 29 : -
Dr. Sadao was the only son of his parents. His house was built on a spot of the Japanese coast, where he had often played as a little boy. His father never joked or played with him but he took limitless pains upon him. Sadao’s education was his father’s chief concern.
That is why he was sent to America to study medicine and surgery. Sadao had come back to Japan when he was thirty years old. Dr. Sadao was not sent abroad with the troops because he was making perfect a discovery which would render wounds entirely clean. Also there was some slight danger that the old General might need an operation for a condition for which he was now being treated medically. Therefore for this possibility also Sadao was being kept in Japan.
Question - 30 : - How did Dr. Sadao and Hana find that the wounded man was an escaped prisoner of war ?
Answer - 30 : -
While standing on the verandah of their house, Dr. Sadao and Hana saw something black coming out of the mists. It was a man. He was flung up out of the ocean. He went unsteadily a few steps with his arms above his head. They saw that the man was on his hands and knees crawling.
Then they saw him fall on his face and lie there. Sadao ran quickly down the steps and Hana followed him. They came towards him and found him terribly wounded. The man lay motionless with his face in the sand. Sadao thought that he was perhaps a fisherman who was washed from his boat.
Dr. Sadao found that an old cap stuck to the wounded man’s head soaked with sea ‘ water. He was in wet rags of garments. When he turned the man’s head and saw the face they were shocked. Hana said in a whispering tone that it was a white man.
The wet cap of the white man fell away. They saw his long yellow hair. It seemed that for many months his hair had not been cut. From the white man’s cap, Sadao found that he was U.S. Navy’s sailor and thus was a prisoner of war. He had perhaps escaped and that is why he was wounded in the back.