Pearl Harbor

By Jim Tsukagoshi

"Pearl Harbor" is a collection of four short stories with similar themes of a powerful, almost spiritual love between a man and a woman that transcends time, location, and background.

Each story is distinctive, yet profoundly interconnected. The central theme throughout each story is true love. Love does not fade regardless of time, sickness, and change. Love is like good wine. It matures over time, and it is profoundly unconditional. Readers will be captivated by each story's ability to share a unique account of our unparalleled ability to commit to the people we love, no matter what.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098392925

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Copyright © 2021 Jim Tsukagoshi

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN (Print): 978-1-09839-291-8

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-09839-292-5

Jim Tsukagoshi

To

Mildred

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locations is entirely coincidental.

Contents

Pearl Harbor

Tatiana

Magic Spell

The Woman with the Flaxen Hair

Pearl Harbor

1.

Bang! Bang! … Bang! Bang!

The violent knocks awoke Paul Davis. Rubbing his eyes, he turned on a bedside lamp. The clock read a few minutes before four o’clock in the morning.

Yoko Ishii, lying beside Paul, rolled onto her stomach and grumbled, What time is it, Paul?

It’s four o’clock, Yoko.

Ensign Davis! You have an urgent wire from D.C. Paul heard a man shouting outside the front door.

Urgent? Who the hell sent an urgent telegram at this hour? Paul got out of his bed and grabbed his nightgown from the back of a chair. He ran down the stairs two at a time. He switched on the porch light and opened the front door. The cool dawn air flew into the hall. A young man in a Western Union uniform was waiting for Paul at the bottom of the stone stairs. Paul walked out onto the concrete porch.

Are you Ensign Paul Davis? the young man asked. Paul nodded to him and stepped down the steps. He grabbed the small yellow envelope the man presented to Paul. Paul thanked the man and went back inside. He opened the envelope. The telegram was from Thomas Ishii, Paul’s friend and Yoko’s brother. Thomas was working for the U.S. Naval Intelligence in Washington D.C. It was a short message asking Paul to stay at home and wait for Thomas’s later call.

Yoko appeared at the top of the staircase in her pajama. Yawning, she raised both her arms upwards. Her ample cleavage appeared from the opening of the pajama top.

From whom? Yoko asked.

From your brother.

From Thomas? Is anything wrong, Paul?

Thomas wants me to stay here today. He will call me later.

My brother might have found a new development or something from intercepted wires. Remember what he did last June?

Paul recalled that he had also been awoken by an early morning telegram from Thomas last June when Germany surprised the world by declaring a war against the Soviet Union. German tanks had crossed the Russian border. Paul climbed up the stairs and kissed Yoko’s cheek. They returned to the bed.

Paul, you were going to report to your post at oh-seven hundred this morning, weren’t you? Can you get permission to extend your leave?

I will call the post at six o’clock. Today is Sunday and no activity is planned for today. I should be excused, Yoko.

Then you will be able to help me set up a Christmas tree! I have already mailed our Christmas party invitation to my uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, and nieces. We haven’t told our engagement to anyone, but I am afraid that everyone is aware that we will make our announcement at the party. I can’t wait for the party. Yoko kissed Paul’s cheek and curled under the blanket.

The battleship Arizona on which Paul was an engineering officer was scheduled to leave Pearl Harbor for a two-week-long exercise a few days later. Their love-making the previous evening had been passionate. They would not see each other for two weeks.

Paul held Yoko from behind. She pressed her hips against him. He unbuttoned her pajamas.

Paul called his post at six o’clock and received permission to take another day off. He stepped out onto the patio facing a large backyard with a cup of coffee in his hand. It was December 7, 1941. The morning air in Hawaii was warm in winter. The overhead was still dark, but the eastern sky over the mountain range was turning blue. The morning star was bright before sunrise. It looked like another sunny day on the Island of Oahu. Paul walked to the edge of the backyard. He saw yellow roses blooming in the darkness on a slope sliding down to a shallow canyon behind the yard. Yoko liked yellow roses and grew them in a garden. Paul cut a few stems with a pair of scissors he had brought from the kitchen.

Yoko came down to the kitchen. Her pony-tailed black hair was damp. She must have taken a shower. She was in Capri pants and wore a white T-shirt with the naval hospital logo where she worked. Her breasts pressed against the cotton shirt. No visitors would show up early in the morning on Sunday. She was not concerned about being naked under the shirt.

Paul walked into the kitchen through a patio door. He placed the roses in a jar on the breakfast table.

Pretty! Paul, can you stay here today?

Yes, the permission was granted, Yoko.

Yoko ran into Paul’s arms. That’s wonderful. I will fix your breakfast. As usual?

Yes, thank you, Yoko. I wonder what Thomas wants to tell me.

Pulling an egg carton and a few strips of bacon out of the refrigerator, Yoko said, When Thomas came back last August during his summer vacation; he was so concerned about the stalemate in the peace negotiations with Japan. He might have news about the negotiations. I hope nothing serious. As you know, more than one hundred fifty thousand Japanese Americans live in Hawaii. If a war breaks out, how will the government treat us? That’s everyone’s worry. This weekend, my parents are visiting some relatives on another island, who have been worrying about their future.

Paul turned on the radio on the kitchen counter to listen to the seven o’clock news. The announcer started breaking news with no preface. President Roosevelt cabled his personal message to Tenno Hirohito to urge his consideration to reopen the suspended negotiations between them. Paul thought that this must be what Thomas wanted to share with him.

2.

Paul Davis and Thomas Ishii had graduated from Columbia University four years earlier. Paul majored in electrical engineering and Thomas, in political science. They were dorm roommates.

Paul’s ancestors were from Wales and settled in Rhode Island. The families traditionally had been engaged in maritime activities. His grandfather was a captain of a navy ship during the Spanish–American War, and his father, Robert Davis, was a Naval Academy graduate. Robert finished his postgraduate training in strategy as a Naval War College senior in Newport, Rhode Island. Then, he was promoted to captain. Robert arrived at his new post at Pearl Harbor in September. He assumed the command of a heavy cruiser that belonged to the Pacific Fleet.

Military families moved around the country, and Paul’s family was no exception. Paul changed his grade schools several times. Their frequent moving was why Robert’s wife, Kim, had left him and Paul when Paul was a fifth-grader. Kim was from Chicago.

There was a pier on Lake Michigan’s shoreline built early in the twentieth century to serve as a dock for freights. The pier was renamed Navy Pier in 1927 to honor the naval veterans who served in World War I. That’s the only thing people in Chicago knew about the Navy. There were no military servicemen in Kim’s family. When Robert visited a naval base in Alabama, he met Kim at a local bar where she stayed during her spring break. She was a charming woman, seven years younger than Robert. She had ash-blond hair, blue eyes, and a slender body. She was instantly attracted to the naval officer who appeared in the bar with his fellow officers—all of them in white naval uniforms. After exchanging several letters, Robert married Kim when she finished college in Indiana.

Robert explained to Kim that naval officers were moved around the country. He made sure that Kim would move to wherever the government ordered Robert to serve. He thought Kim understood that. Kim didn’t. Paul was born in the following year when Robert was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. Robert was transferred to Connecticut two years later, and then to Rhode Island three years after that. Two years later, Robert was sent to London as a naval attaché in the U.S. embassy in London. Kim didn’t join Robert and stayed at her parents’ home in the suburbs of Chicago. Paul lived with Robert’s mother in Newport. Robert finished his duty as an attaché in London for two years and returned to Norfolk. Kim refused to move to Norfolk. Kim complained about this or that and was never happy with the way Robert lived. After several years of separation, Kim filed a divorce suit citing Robert’s lack of support for his spouse. She had always complained that Robert had been insensitive to her needs and was married to the Navy, not her. Moving around from one assignment to another was hard on the marriage.

Knowing his parents had been separated and living with his grandmother, an eleven-year-old boy had been mad at his mother. He came to have a dislike for women in general. He stopped seeing the girl he had been seeing for some time and quit attending school events in which girls participated. He even avoided greeting women in his neighborhood. He was angry with women.

However, at the same time, Paul knew that he had been longing for love and an intimate relationship with the opposite sex. Without realizing it, he tended to be attracted to older women. It was unfortunate for Paul that he didn’t have any close male friends to share his sorrow and grief. When he was in high school in Newport, he approached a female college student. After seeing her for some time, Paul switched his partner to a woman who worked as a marina secretary. It didn’t last long. Then, a bartender in a resort hotel. Again, a short-term relationship. She vanished one day, leaving a note. It said, There’s a menace in your mind. Some hate in your mind. You never love women … never! He was unsuccessful in finding real relief and love from those women. He was attracted to their exterior beauties, pretty faces, and voluptuous bodies. Paul got women’s flesh but no spirit in the relationships. They were in the place of his mother and no more than a temporary diversion. Joy never filled the hollow in his mind. Instead, he felt further depressed and disgusted with himself.

This continued when he started his college life at Columbia. When Paul was going to finish his junior year, he saw a woman ten years senior to him who was working in an office in Manhattan. Paul had been unable to distinguish real life from an illusion. He was deeply depressed when Thomas Ishii, Paul’s dorm mate, invited him to spend their last summer in college at Thomas’s home in Hawaii.

Thomas Ishii was born on Oahu, one of the Hawaiian Islands, between his Japanese–American Nisei parents. Thomas Ishii’s grandfather had immigrated to Hawaii from Japan as a farmhand in the late nineteenth century. He married a Japanese–American woman and opened his own gardening business in Honolulu when his work contract ended. Thomas’s father, Satoshi Ishii, expanded his father’s gardening business. He started acquiring pineapple farms with money he earned in the gardening business. Satoshi’s pineapple business flourished. He closed his gardening business in Honolulu and moved his family to the central part of the island, where he had consolidated his small farms to a large one. Satoshi built a house across a local highway from the farm. The house was about forty minutes away from Waikiki and thirty minutes from Pearl Harbor. Thomas graduated from high school with honors and was admitted to Columbia. He majored in political science with an emphasis on U.S. relations with Asia. Thomas found that the father of his dorm mate, Paul, was a naval officer.

Thomas wanted to work in the field of foreign relations after graduation. His primary interest was to become a part of the efforts to rebuild peaceful diplomatic relations between the United States and Asia, especially with Japan. Thomas wanted to know how U.S. military leaders assessed the current situation and their opinions on Asia’s future policies. Paul suggested Thomas visit Paul’s father, Robert Davis, who was in the Naval War College in Newport, and discuss various military issues in the Pacific. Thomas spent a week in Newport one summer and visited Commander Davis.

Commander Davis told Thomas that since more than eighty percent of U.S. trade was with Europe, the U.S. government’s main concern was about Hitler’s threats. Robert admitted to Thomas that most U.S. leaders had been indifferent to Asia. He lamented that that was why the United States had not paid close attention to the Asian situations. Robert also told Thomas that some admirals believed that the U.S. Navy could destroy all Japanese naval fleets in three months. Robert expressed his concern that the United States underestimated Japan’s military strengths. Thomas was impressed with Robert’s candid opinions, and he continued to receive information from Robert.

Thomas also visited one of his father’s distant cousins in Japan. He was a retired rear admiral of the Imperial Navy. Thomas visited the admiral’s summer house in Kamakura, a one-hour train ride from Tokyo. Kamakura was a seaside town that was not far from Yokosuka, a major naval port in Japan. The admiral was a pro-western naval officer, a minority in Japanese naval circles. The admiral took Thomas to a nearby beach. While they walked on the sandy beach, the admiral whispered to Thomas that a man fifty yards behind them was a secret security police officer trailing the admiral. His house was bugged, and that’s why the admiral wanted to have their conversation outside his home.

The admiral told Thomas that the Japanese Navy, in general, had better knowledge of the western world than the army. Most of the army leaders were pro-Hitler and anti-America, even though Japan relied on the United States for almost all strategic material such as oil and aluminum. He said that the army’s propaganda was gaining public support, and that negative sentiment against the United States and England was spreading through the country. The admiral was seriously worried about an unexpected clash brought by Japan’s warlike attitude toward the two countries. The Japanese embassy in Washington D.C. had been trying not to make the relationship with the United States worse so that Japan could keep importing materials from overseas. The admiral said it’s unfortunate, but the Japanese embassy’s efforts did not necessarily represent the Japanese consensus and might mislead the United States. Thomas realized the seriousness of a potential military conflict between the two countries.

3.

Knowing Paul’s unusual attitude toward women, Thomas often suggested Paul join him in campus activities where young men and women mingled together. But Paul refused Thomas’s offers. When they approached the end of their junior year, Thomas thought spending their last summer in college in Hawaii might help to bring Paul a new life. Thomas invited Paul to his home in Hawaii to spend the summer break together. Paul’s father, Robert, had spent a few years at Pearl Harbor aboard a destroyer before he married Kim. Robert also encouraged Paul to accept Thomas’s invitation. Robert expected that Hawaii’s sunny climate might help to cure Paul’s depression.

They got on board a passenger ship, the SS Lurline of Matson Navigation Company, which provided cruising services between San Francisco and Honolulu with three luxurious vessels. It was in late July, but the air was chilly when the ship left the pier. But a day later, the boat was making headway in warmer air toward Hawaii. They enjoyed sailing on sunny days.

The ship approached the pier next to the naval base in Pearl Harbor. They sighted the business buildings in downtown Honolulu from the deck. Thomas and Paul leaned over the rail to watch the people who gathered on the pier. Spotting Yoko, his sister, Thomas gestured to Paul to look at a woman waving her neckerchief below the deck. Yoko was four years younger than Thomas.

She had graduated from high school in May and was going to attend nursing school in September. At a glance, Paul knew she was a beautiful woman. He noticed her shape and curves.

When they got ashore, Yoko hugged Thomas at the gangway’s foot and extended her hand to Paul. A firm handshake for a woman. What Paul first noticed about Yoko: her eyes. Large black eyes were staring at Paul. A stray lock of dark hair fell over her eye. A breeze moved it aside. High cheekbones and full lips. Her lower lip had a notch in the center. Her body was full of vigor under the warm sun, filling out her Capri pants just about right. She was tall for a Japanese woman, five feet and eight inches.

Paul heard something in her voice. There was deep warmth in her voice, which attracted him. It had been a long time since Paul had been captivated by a young woman. Something else also interested Paul. She was carrying intelligence within her. Paul felt something jump inside his body. He also sensed Yoko felt the same way toward him.

Paul had encountered someone that would change him forever. Paul looked straight into her eyes. She inclined her head meaningfully. Her eyes twinkled. She was able to diminish the grief he felt deep down. He discovered the woman. Paul longed for care from women and never thought that he could care for a woman. Now, in front of him, a woman he wanted to care for was smiling at him. Marrying this woman? It sounded trivial to him. Love at first sight?

Yoko was an all-around athlete. Hawaii was a U.S. territory but not yet a state in the 1930s. Schools sent their students to sports competitions on the mainland. Yoko had won hundred-yard dashes and high jumping events in California several times. She was also an excellent swimmer and even joined local boys for surfing. The northern shore of the island, where big waves came offshore during winter, was a popular surfing spot. Her supple body and long legs clearly showed her athletic superiority. She was an honor student. She had been the queen of the homecoming at the school a year earlier. Yoko was a popular object of young admirers around her. Since Thomas’s male friends had surrounded her since she was small, she thought of herself as if she were just a member of the boys’ group. Yoko instinctively tried not to be attracted to boys or men. Looking at this man coming down the gangway following her brother, Yoko first thought she saw a man no different from other men or boys. But when he stood before her, Yoko saw something different in him. She wondered what. When she shook his hand, Yoko realized that there was deep grief in his eyes. The man was smiling at Yoko, but she saw the grief behind his smiles. Yoko had never experienced seeing such a man.

When she finished high school, Yoko wanted to go to nursing school to become an R.N.

There was a large naval hospital at Pearl Harbor with 250 beds. A hospital ship, the USS Solace, also laid anchor off Battleship Row at Ford Island. Over ten thousand hospital corps officers and corpsmen and over five hundred nurses worked for the Navy. After the class activity, Yoko visited the hospital. She was deeply impressed with those men and women who took care of wounded and sick service members, especially those nurses in white uniforms treating patients. Yoko wondered whether her desire to become a nurse had originated with her instinctive affection for people who suffered. Yoko was told during her visit to the hospital that a good nurse must offer not only sympathy but more importantly empathy. Walking with Paul, Yoko thought that she wanted to uncover the grief the man concealed within him.

Thomas stepped in behind the wheel of a black Ford in the parking lot. Paul sat in the passenger seat and Yoko was in the rear seat of the car. Thomas headed north toward the central part of the island. Yoko leaned forward from the back seat, placing both her arms on the front seat’s back. She asked Paul, Thomas said that you study engineering. What would you like to be after graduation?

Turning back to Yoko, Paul answered, I would like to work for a company like General Electric or Westinghouse as an engineer. He placed his left elbow on the top of the seat. His elbow touched Yoko’s hand. Seeing that, Paul hesitantly shifted his elbow an inch.

Yoko asked again. I understand that your father is a high-ranking naval officer. Won’t you like to join the Navy?

Paul looked straight, and a moment later, he said under his breath, Yeah, my father is a commander and attends the War College. He may be an admiral someday. He paused for another moment. He hesitantly continued, But I don’t like to work for the military. They move men and their families around all over the country. I like to stay at one place to have friends and enjoy local things.

Yoko knew that he was a lonely man who wanted a warm family life. He must be carrying an iceberg inside him. Paul added, I want to raise a family that won’t break up. Yoko remembered a letter from Thomas; he’d written about Paul’s mother vanishing.

After about half an hour from the harbor, the car approached a two-story house. When Thomas pulled up next to a black Buick, Satoshi and Akiko Ishii appeared at the front porch. Thomas got out of the car and bowed from his waist to his parents. The parents also bowed to Thomas. Paul wondered if making a bow would be an appropriate greeting with Asian people. While he wasn’t sure about that, Satoshi extended his hand to Paul for handshakes. Paul felt relieved and offered his hand to Akiko. Surprisingly, Akiko enveloped Paul’s waist with her arms and pulled him hard. A tight embrace, as if he were her son. His throat was tight. When was the last time he felt such warmth from a stranger? Paul felt something cold inside him starting to melt.

Paul followed Thomas and walked onto the front porch. The house was on a local highway, which ran north to south on the island. There were two mountain ranges on Oahu. Koolau Range, on the eastern side of the island running from northwest to southeast of the island. The other, Waianae Range, ran on the western side of the island in the same direction. The central part of the island was sandwiched between two ranges. The house was nearest to the west range. From the front porch, Paul saw a vast pineapple farm spread across the highway. The house was large, indicating Satoshi Ishii’s success in business. Four columns stood on the concrete front porch, and the walls were covered with bricks. The house looked like a colonial style.

Thomas gestured to Paul to step into the hallway. Inside was a large living room, dining room, kitchen with a breakfast table, bathroom, and a master bedroom on the first floor. Thomas led Paul