June 16, 2024 • 55 mins
The Campbell Playhouse was a radio drama series that aired on CBS from 1938 to 1941. Here's a breakdown of what made it interesting:
Listen to our radio station Old Time Radio https://link.radioking.com/otradio
Listen to other Shows at My Classic Radio https://www.myclassicradio.net/
Entertainment Radio | Broadcasting Classic Radio Shows | Patreon
Remember that times have changed, and some shows might not reflect the standards of today’s politically correct society. The shows do not necessarily reflect the views, standards, or beliefs of Entertainment Radio
- Star Power: It was directed by and starred the legendary Orson Welles, known for his innovative use of sound effects and captivating voice.
- Classic Adaptations: During its first two seasons (1938-1940), the show focused on hour-long adaptations of classic plays, novels, and even some popular movies. Think "The Count of Monte Cristo" or "Rebecca" brought to life through radio.
- Shifting Format: After Welles left, the show continued for a season with a shorter format (30 minutes) and a focus on lighter fare, often featuring Hollywood actors.
Listen to our radio station Old Time Radio https://link.radioking.com/otradio
Listen to other Shows at My Classic Radio https://www.myclassicradio.net/
Entertainment Radio | Broadcasting Classic Radio Shows | Patreon
Remember that times have changed, and some shows might not reflect the standards of today’s politically correct society. The shows do not necessarily reflect the views, standards, or beliefs of Entertainment Radio
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
The makers of Campbell Soup present theCampbell Playhouse Orson Wells producer Good Evening.
(00:40):
This is Orson Welles our story.Tonight is The Patriot by Pearl Buck.
If the Campbell Playhouse selection is thebest new book for April, chosen from
the publisher's large Spring list. Thisbox enormously successful books on the Orient,
starting with A Good Earth, havecreated a new conception of the Chinese peasants
in the West, and have broughther, among other tributes, that rare
(01:00):
honor, the Nobel Prize for Literature. In her newest book, ms Buck
writes of the emergence of China asa nation. She also has a great
day deal to say about Japan.In The Patriot, she treats of the
peoples of both countries not only inrelation to their present battle over the ownership
of China, but in the gentlerperspectives of their mutual arts and virtues.
(01:23):
This Evening, we are fortunate inhaving this book here in the studio with
us. She is graciously consented tospeak to you before the end of this
program, and also with us.Tonight is Anime Wong, the beautiful Chinese
American star you've all seen on thescreen. And so ladies and gentlemen,
we present the patriot a story ofthe coming alive of the new China,
and that the people of the Orientwho are solving the bit of problems as
(01:46):
human relationships in times of stress.See my name is I one. My
father is the great Shanghai banker Wo. I'm the youngest of his two sons.
(02:09):
H But when I was going tothe university, I learned of the
suffering and privations of my people inChina, and I became a revolutionist.
Twas En L'an, a young studentwho converted me and first told me of
the brotherhood of young Chinese who wereorganizing secretly in the schools and in the
mills, and indeed everywhere in China, arming the poor, teaching them and
preparing them for the new order oflife which was to be. Each day
(02:32):
when school was over, we metwith the others in secret in a deserted
classroom. Com m now, comrade, the things we have hope for every
day. The new government that Hankowis growing stronger. When the time comes,
he will sweep down the Yangtze Riverone mass A great man. He
who is he? Who is itthat will come, who is this great
(02:53):
man? Juang Kai shek jung kaiche jug Kai shek. Well that time
comes, comrade, we must beready. What does it mean to be
ready? To be ready means preparingthe people their minds and their bodies,
preparing them for the day of theirliberations. My father's house was in the
(03:15):
European Quarter in Shanghai. It witha great square brick mansion built in the
French tire by a French architect fortyyears before. Not in the least Chinese,
but like a wealthy house in Paris, with foreign furniture in the huge
rooms and thick carpets on the floor. Uh, my son, yes,
father, come here, you looktired. I want I am tired.
(03:37):
Mother, You are late. Iwon. We had a meeting after school.
What are these meetings? My son? Should the son of who the
banker attend them? Student meetings?Father, and get yourself entangled, I
want young students can do nothing tochange those in control, but those in
control can cut off your heads.Besides, none of you understand that all
(03:58):
all that is involved in running acountry. Yes, father, I also,
at twenty had certain foolish ideas.Yes, I want you to be
careful. Remember you are the sonof Woo. Yes, father, ooh,
good night, my son. Goodnight. Where you're going? I
won to my room to study?Good night? I won? Good night
(04:20):
mother. I went up the widecarpeted stairs, and when I got to
my room there was p and epony of a certain girl, unrolling the
quilts and bringing in hot tea tosit beside my bed. P and a
p and a. I wanna tellyou something, Yes, what is it,
(04:42):
Piania? Have you ever heard ofthe revolution? Of course I have.
It's not a good thing. I'veheard your father's talk about it,
he said, revolutionists star like bandon. Oh no, they're not. How
do you know? Because? Hbecause I am one of'em. I
one, if your father knew,I feel as if you've put your life
(05:05):
into my hands. I one?What is this revolution? When is it
all to happen soon? As soonas junk a share comes. I don't
believe it. You don't believe peAndy, I tell you it's true.
Oh, don't be silly. Iwish I hadn't told you. I wish
(05:27):
you hadn't, except that it helpsme to understand something. What it helps
me to understand you and why yourheart is not to be touched? I
one, you are like a youngpriest. Now in Mane, the young
leader of our movement learned from methat I had confided our secret to Paeony,
and he was very angry. Hetold me I had no business to
(05:50):
speak of these matters to a womanand a slave. He said he must
go to see her, and thatPie and m is be threatened into silence.
And so it was that he cameto see her at my house.
This is my room in Lone.What is that's on the floor? That's
a carpet? Am I to stepon it? It's foolish, but so
(06:11):
you can. If I had it, i'd sleep under it. Now the
door shut. Here we're free.You can see anything you like, and
Pie and they will bring his teain a little while. Is that your
bed? Yes? I never sawsuch a bed. I never saw anything
like this. All that silk,what is it for the curtains? I
can't help it. I was borninto this house. I don't know anything
(06:33):
else. I'm not blaming you,I Wan, I'm asking myself if I
had been born into this, wouldI ever have run away and joined with
a revolutionists? I don't know.Do you like it? Here? And
none? I don't know. It'sbeautiful, but I don't know what would
I do here? This soft thingunder my feet all the time. I
like to take off my coat andspit on the floor. No, I
(06:57):
I'm glad I was born as Iwas. Who's a a peeny? Your
home? Early? I won?I thought you and your friend might like
these pop dumplings in write cake?Thank you, Peenny? And none,
this is peeny. Please do notride. I'm not one of the family.
I'm only a servant, and I'monly a peasant's son. I've never
been in a house like this before, so you're in lone. I know
(07:21):
why you came here today. Youwere afraid I might tell your secret that
ey one is a revolutionist? Don'twordy? Who should I tell? I
didn't know you, Penny. Nowthat I've seen you, I'm not afraid
anymore. Now, why don't youtwo eat while the dishes are hot?
Why not the three of us?Oh, I'm not U used to set.
(07:42):
Oh I'm used to serving' not sittingdown with the others and the revolution
There is no such thing as oneto be served and the other. That
said, Hey, I won.I won't sit down unless we sit down
together. And I'm as hungry asa starved dogs. Tell me in lone,
in line, tell me more aboutthis. Nothing could stop it.
(08:07):
Nothing could stop the marching of thattriumphant figure of Chiang Kai shehek he left
Tang Khan was proceeding down the riverwith his great army q Kiang Yang king
Wu. The cities on its banksfell like fruits into his hands. Shanghai
grew hot with expectation and fear.It was like the coming of a storm.
There was the disturbance among the peoples, like the first rufflings of the
(08:28):
wind over the country and the sea, and then there was the intense,
waiting stillness. But I never couldbe quite sure how Peony felt. And
one day I asked her outright.She'd come into the garden where everything was
breaking into bud I'd gone to lookat a hawthorne flowing. Are you a
(08:50):
real revolutionist, Paeony? I don'tknow. I shall wait and see how
it is. No, but whatwhat do you believe? He in me?
You must believe in right or wrong. I'm not a priest like you.
You believe in Jianghai shik as thoughhe were a god. I know
he's only a man. No,I don't. I don't believe in any
(09:13):
gods, but I believe in therevolution. The revolution is only what people
do. If they do well,then I am one of them. I
knew she was wrong, was wrongto measure one's belief by what people did,
a thing was right or wrong initself. But I could not forget
what she'd said. And that night, before I slept, I locked my
door, and from a secret placein my desk, I drew out a
(09:35):
picture i'd cut from a magazine,a picture of the young chan Ki Sheik.
I sat looking at it. There'sa face at once bold and kind,
harsh and dreaming. I don't worshiphim, I thought, but I
believe in him. I want huh, I want huh. Get up,
(09:56):
hidy of your clothes? Father,what's the matter? Still die you?
P foolish boy? Wicked Dicease itboy. Here's a paper, hundreds of
names on it. Do you knowwhat this is? It's a list,
a list of revolutionists. Your nameis on the list. At any moment,
soldiers will be here to seize you. Chun kay shecheck has come,
Chunky Shik but father, that meansyou said, Chang Kai Shek is here.
(10:18):
If he's here in the city,he came straight to Shanghai. F
you don't know what that means.Saw him yesterday he met with us,
with all the bankers. We toldhim Shanghai must not be disturbed our businesses.
If he wants money, that isto warm with his government. Will
you touch yourself? I want?What do you want to be killed?
Father, Chang ky Sheck? Henever agreed. Horse, he agreed.
(10:39):
Man is no fool. Everything isarranged. First you will purge the city
of revolutionists. Then he's betrayed us. Chunky Sheck has betrayed us, all
of us who believed it. Let'sgo to the other time. As tell
me I want. You are goingnowhere except the docks to a ship for
Japan. The car is waiting ready. No, I won't go, Father,
(11:00):
I can't go on this one.You are going at once. I
gave my personal words. If theyerased your name from the list, you
would leave the country today. Ifyou don't understand, you're making me into
a tree. You are already atraitor. The government has condemned all revolutionists
to death. They have thousands ofnames that I won by one. What's
(11:20):
the matter, Peony, Peony,come here? The young master is sick.
Hee neey, she's going your less. We looked for her everywhere on
God where Peony, Pony, ponyhigh lay on deck. The ship was
(11:54):
moving slowly among small green islands.In the east. I could see flights
of Japanese fishing vessels, their sailswhite against the blue sky. That was
the only way to enjoy my completehelplessness, not to think, not to
remember. If only I could've warmedin Lana. He was perhaps dead,
already shot against the wall and peeand me pion A was gone. I
(12:16):
closed my eyes, let knights driftover me. In days pass me.
By the fourth day we landed atNagasaki. We we wan, wait what
are you WOI one, yes,if you please, I'm that humble one.
Oh we have been inshed specting you. I am miss Muraki's son.
My name is Bunjie. My fatherinvite you to our house. We drove
(12:39):
out through the narrow streets and upperhill away from the town. We stopped
before a thatched roof gate, brickwall, tiny red varnished footbridge over a
stream garden. Everything this garden perfect, not a leaf on the grass,
not a rock out of place,and the stream tinkling and put a lot
official waterfall. This is where welive. My father's garden is quite famous
(13:05):
in Japan. And that there ismy father. Now he is retired.
He is growing old. All dayhe is in his garden. Father,
boonjee, you are here, father. This is our guest in this house.
I won the son of my oldfriend, who is welcome beyond any
others. Very kind of you toaccept me, sir. I do not
(13:26):
deserve it. Your father is myfriend, and all we have is yours.
You are to goodness, to Murki, and you are lucky. I
want. The cherry trees are aboutto bloom. You have come at just
a good moment. In six daysor Japan will be in blossom. Here
is your room, see I want. It opens on the garden. And
when you are ready to sleep,clap your hands, and a maid servant
(13:48):
will spread your quilk on the map. And no one will come here except
the gardeners. It is quite yourown. When BOONEI had gone, I
sat down and looked about me.Her house was still. I felt wrapped
about in peace life. Here wasplanned. There were lightness and clarity and
absolute cleanliness, and in spite offragility, a feeling of long settled stability,
(14:13):
and the sense that life had beenlived here precisely like this, unchanged
for generations. For the midday andyear. We sat upon silvery mats about
a low table, facing the garden. Mister and missus Mraki Bongie and I.
There was cool and fresh. Arosy young girl came into a tray
of bulls. No one spoke toher. She set a ball in front
(14:33):
of each of us and bright theway. Uh. That was my sister.
She is shy and she will noteat with us today because you are
a stranger. But you will getover it. Shall I speak to your
sister? Is at your custom?Ah? Only sane man has wool?
Uh? My mother says, waituntil afterwards. She will come in again.
(14:56):
Her name is Thomas. What themean? Thank you there? My
mother says, she is sorry shecannot speak in your language. She asks
if you have enjoyed our poor food? I like everything, I everything here
I won Yes, mister Morkie.Your father has written me that he wishes
you to learn our business. Inthe morning, you will have a place
beside Bunjie in the office. Bunjiwill help you. In the afternoon.
(15:20):
You may study or play. Ifyou are not happy, you will tell
me. But I'm sure I shallbe happy. Sir. I like all
my house to be happy. Nowif you will forgive us who I want
my wife and I At this hourevery day, our gardener is waiting for
us. There are things to decide, those irises. They must be tray.
(15:41):
Now you will see Tama will comein. I know my sister.
How should you behave to her?I won like a modern young man.
Oh? Who No, I won'ttell you. You should judge for yourself.
Yes, she comes, Boonie.Please, this is my sister Tama.
And this Tama is WOOI wan ourguest who has come to live with
us. We shake hands. Yes, who we want? Yes, Bunji
(16:03):
told me you are a modern youngman. Yes, I also like to
be new, though my father doesnot wish it. Please sit down.
Thank you. What were you saying, Bunjie when I came in, thinking
you do it a secret between?Now you see how she is. I
want you must understand. She istwo girls. Toma is before our parents.
She is very proper and so shy. The mother Thomas is a modern
(16:26):
girl, bold and brazen, andlike him to talk to young men at
that university, to which I don'tdon't believe him. I want I shall
believe only what you tell me yourself, no one else, you see.
I feel myself very lucky to havecome to your home. I can't tell
you how unhappy I was. Ithought nothing, nothing could be any good.
(16:48):
Just this morning I thought that now, just being in this house made
me feel suddenly happier. We areall happier for your company, I want,
Toma, is it not so?Oh you see, yes, me
too. Oh so through two wintersI stayed on in Japan. In the
(17:11):
spring of the second year, Inoticed a change in the house. Tama,
Bunji's sister was at home more oftennow all day she was about the
house in her sauce Japanese dress.Thoma has finished at the university. She
is at home now preparing for Maryfrom marriage. Bunchie. Tama going to
be married? Oh, nothing isdecided. Then Tama is to be married,
of course, but not for soshame Bunchie. Is she engaged?
(17:33):
Oh that is not my affair.I I'll tell you this, though I
won. My father wants her tomarry General Sick. General Sick see enim.
He's an old man as fair asa bull frog. General Seki is
my father's friend, a great patriotand a samurai. He wants a healthy
young wife who will give him sons. And my father says it will help
the country. Oh, old Seki'sblood and Talma's health. Well, I
don't think young girl should marry oldfat men. Could she love him?
(17:57):
Don't think about such things. Itdoes no good. Love isn't important.
I'm not thinking of love. I'mthinking of Toma. That day for the
first time, I thought, whatif they were the same thing? Love?
And for two years I've been livingin the same house with her,
(18:19):
And in all that time we'd neveronce spoken to each other alone. Always
when we were together there was someoneelse present, a maid, servant of
gardener, or missus Morky herself.And then one summer's day at the office,
Boone looked up suddenly from his deskand laugh, I want to climb
a mountain, a mountain when whytomorrow? Why not? We've not had
a holiday since the New year,and we will take Toma with her?
(18:41):
Shall we she used to go withme always before you can you come?
I don't know. I won Itdepends on whether she thinks it's worthwhile,
that is worthwhile to stand the stormafter, I means my father, Oh
well, I I'll ask her anyway. She can do what she likes.
Besides, it may rain in thenight, and then we will none of
us go. Why do you laugh? Oh for nothing. I don't like
(19:03):
general sticky either. That's why itwas clear moonlight that night. When I
saw her early in the morning,I felt that all the time i'd known
it to be fine, and thatshe'd come. She was wearing a cotton
dress, slot and blue and white, like a peasant girls. They started
soon after dawn, like any twobrothers and a sister. Hey bonjee bonjee,
(19:30):
I meet you at the scree where'dyou see? We meet you there?
Tama, Trama, have you everseen such a Dailis not been such
a day since I came to Japan. There are not many such days even
in Japan. Now, I thinkin the whole world. It's beyond anything
(19:52):
I've ever known. Tama, Iwanna tell you I've been. I can
try to tell yes, you mustn'tmarry an old man. Tell him.
I don't I beg you? Doyou not think I shall marry whom I
please? Look, there's Boongie Harufrom the rocks already. How slow we
(20:12):
are, boongie woogie. We wereall day in the mountains. We swam,
we ran in the hills. Wewere very hungry. We ate,
we laughed, and finally we starteddown again towards home. It was getting
(20:34):
dark. Comma, yes, Iwon. Have you liked to stay?
Yes, It's been the best dayof my life and you I don't know
what this day has been in mylife, but it does not be like
any other day. It rained inthe night. I heard the pattering on
(21:00):
the roof in the darkness, andI thought she hears it too. When
I woke, the tiny garden ofmy room was green and dripping with freshness,
and I thought she sees it too. When I came home from the
office the next day, mister Murrakywas waiting for me. I won.
(21:23):
Yes, mister Murracy, I've hada letter today from your father. I
won. He's pleased with your progress. I told him you were doing well.
Yes, sir, your father writesme, that there is great improvement
in China. Order is quite restored. Order will always prevail. That is
what the young must learn, notdesire, not wilfulness, not impetuous wishes
(21:48):
for for anything. Mister murraky Ihave decided to send you to Yokohama to
help in our offices there. Ihave arranged that you will live there in
the hostel where the other young clerkslive. Yes, sir, since I
always do at once what I havedecided upon that length, you will leave
tomorrow. So that is all.Good nights, good night, Tama,
(22:25):
Tama, Tamala, Tama. Whois it Tama? I want? Yes,
I won't come in, Tima.I'll stay here, but come to
the edge of the garden close tome so we can talk a little.
Pleas I'm going away tomorrow. I'mgonna read them on Let's see you wait,
(22:47):
I'll blow out the candle. Iwon't if anyone care to something terrible
with happening, general faking. Youwouldn't. You wouldn't ever marry him,
would you? Yes, I hadto see you. I'm being sent to
Yokohama tomorrow tomorrow time. I don'tknow when i'll come back. Please help
(23:08):
me what should we do? Helpyou? I want by doing time to
Hamah, don't speak to me likethat, like a like a stranger.
Didn't we have a good time onthe hills. That was only yesterday?
Yes, yes we did, Tama, don't marry anybody. I don't want
(23:29):
to marry anybody. Look Tima,that miss, it's like a curtain.
The hiders a good spirit sentence.I told you I believed inspid it feet
began to harry feet, cand avoidit. Do you believe timing two people
(23:52):
born to marry? Yes, Imust go. I will write you as
soon as you tell me where,and we will meet again. If it
is our fate, it is ourfaith. You are listening to the Campbell
(24:26):
Playhouse selection of the best New Bookfor April, The Patriots by pearlss Bug.
That year in Yokohama was the longestof my life. There were no
quiet gardens, there no screen shadowedhouses, and in the office I was
(24:49):
surrounded by strangers. Now. Iwrote to Tama, and one night when
I came home to my room,there was a letter from her awaiting me.
Wait. She said, we mustwait. I know to delay when
I do not like I have delayedthis many times, and I will again
and again until it will be madeclear to us what our fate is.
(25:10):
And later, as the months wentby, other letters came. They were
short that they carried, all withthe same steady words, I will delay,
it will be made clear to uswhat our fate is. And then
finally it came the last letter.I won. I won. I said
(25:30):
to you, I wanted to marryno one, but my father has told
me there is going to be warwith China. Bunge has been called headquarters,
and so everything is changed. Inwar. Japanese men fight and Japanese
women bear sons. I must marrythe general. Even my mother says that
if there is a war, itis my duty to fight for our country.
I see my duty. It ismy fate, tim I. So
(25:56):
now I went to an old professionalmatch maker for a fee. The man
agreed to go to mister Murroki andput forth my request for Thomas's hand according
to custom. On the eighteenth dayof the next month, he returned,
where have you been? Did nothear from you? I've been at my
business. At my business, there'sbeen a good deal of it. There
(26:18):
was the old suitor, the general. He had to be arranged. But
the young woman managed that very well, oh, oh, by saying she
would kill herself. Yes, andshe went at once to it. I
saw her. She said it.Then she took a knife and drew it
across her wrists before our eyes,across one wrist. Then she prepared to
do it to the other. Andthe mother wept and fainted, and her
(26:40):
father bad her weight, and shestood the blood rushing out of her arm
and soaking into the mat. Andfinally her mother came to herself and moaning
something about her having no children left. Eye, I thought you said there
was some one. The youngest wasgoing to China in the army. Oh
so well. Then the father said, wait, we'll talk it over.
So I waited, and by arranginganother young girl for the old Huotor,
(27:00):
which I did, it all wenttogether, one thing and another. And
when I've arranged things as you couldwish them, the wedding day will be
set soon as the custom is,and the thing is as good as done.
Oh, it was bad, itwas bad. And yet I think
she knew that only shedding her ownblood would make them yield. The old
(27:21):
man had been stubborn until then,But when she did that, he saw
that she was more stubborn than he. Well, now that it is as
good as done, I will adviseyou hasten to make her way yours before
she knows it, For when awoman is stubborn, the ocean itself is
not so sure as her own will. My son, it is with happiness
(27:52):
that I learn of your betrothal tothe daughter of my good friend Muraki.
I am happy for you, butI know better trained women in the world
than the Japanese. You will havea good family life when a little more
time is passed, bring her toChina to see. But not yet.
The people here have a hatred againstthe Japanese because of the recent troubles.
(28:18):
The Manchurian situation would be adjusted reasonablyin the end. Nevertheless, wait a
little while before bringing a Japanese wifehome to China. Comma Colla, my
little wife, what are you thinkingabout? Oh, I'm thinking about a
house. I'm thinking of how Ishould arrange everything I wish. We need
(28:41):
never go down from this mound.It's been so safe and so quiet.
We've been lone together here, sothere were no one else in the world.
Tramma, Yes, let me seeher risk. Huh do Japanese girls
often cut their wrists to get theirown way. It's well, I was,
but my father I understood best whenI did that, and knew I
(29:04):
meant what I said that I wouldmarry you. And even if there had
been a war, you would havemarried me. I know you would.
No, I wouldn't I one ifthere had been a war, I would
have married General Secid. Don't youknow I said I would? Is it?
Very great? General? And protrusthim? But Tima, you mist
(29:29):
love only me. I do loveonly you. I shall always love you.
Then why do you say if thatben a war that would have been
had nothing to do with my lovingyou? I wan? Don't you see
as a Japanese if it's my duty, Tarma, I am your duty.
(29:51):
I I you have no other.The days ran after each other so quickly
that before I could lay hold ofone to treasure it, another had come.
Day followed day. Months slipped intomonths, and we wanted no change.
It was autumn so quickly that Icould not believe it. One morning,
(30:12):
when we arose, we saw thatthere had been frost in the night.
And when I got home the nextevening, I found time. I
was sitting on a bamboo bench outsideour room, looking out over the sea.
You don't mind, do your eye? Won If I don't get up,
I'm tired for sweeping the leaves fromthe lawn. Are you well,
very well? What are you staringat over there in the ocean? I
(30:33):
wish I knew your parents, Iwon, I wish I knew what your
family is and how your home looksover there. Why do you wanna know
them? Because I am about tobecome one of them, one of your
family. Until now I want,I've belonged only to you. I've been
a part of you. But nowI'm going to have a child. Twas
(31:00):
that means that I shall belong altogetherto your family and no more to my
own. It was a boy,and in the spring of the next year
our second son was born. Andafter that things went on as before,
only not quite as before. Somethingwas happening across the sea in China which
could not quite be shut out.It was not a war. The papers
(31:22):
made that clear. It was notto be called a war. It was
in the Emperor's name, nothing butan incident. And then one afternoon,
quite suddenly there was news, realnews. Every paper printed it special editions,
the boy screaming in the streets,great black letters, guestly drive on
the headlines. Three hundred Japanese killed, men, women, and children.
Three hundred Japanese murdered. Three hundredpeaceful Japanese in a little town near Peaking
(31:42):
murdered by Chinese soldiers. I wonWhy did they do things? There must
be a reason. The Japanese musthave done something, something terrible to make
them so angry, Tama, Yes, I was Thomas. I must feel
that you think there may have beensome cause, some reason. What does
it matter what I said? Thanks? When I am your wife, don't
be it a Japanese woman, butI am a Japanese friend. You've already
(32:06):
made up your mind. Haven't youbelieve that my people could simply massacre like
savage? Is not any reason ifyou think that you have no understanding of
me. We've suffered for years whileyou Japanese have been stealing our land and
trade. We've we've laid ourselves backfor years. Yes, and who killed
Japanese and nineteen a hard twenty seventhand nineteen twenty seven? Hama and who
killed Japanese in Changhai In nineteen thirtytwo. It's through. We've already not
(32:28):
Japanese papers. You've held us allthese years against me, no, against
your people. But I am mypeople to you, and amighty you.
One of these Japanese is should bekilledful, Oh Toma, what have we
(32:50):
done? What have we said?All this killing and hatred has nothing to
do with us. Tarma, Tarma, Tarma. At the Maraki dock we
unloaded the latest shipments from China.Now there could be no doubt about it.
(33:14):
It was loot being shipped to theMarakis. The merchandise, for the
most part, hadn't even been packed, piled into the holes, just as
they'd found it in China, thingsthat only a few weeks before had been
in people's homes. And on thatday, for the first time, I
knew it was a real war.They were fighting. Across the water.
From the whold of this ship,there was another cargo. After the freight
had been landed and the unloading crewhad left, I saw many small boxes
(33:35):
begin to be brought off. Eachhad a name written in letters on its
top. As each was brought outon shore, a name was cold,
and each time a little group ofpeople came forward and received the box.
All of these persons were in deepestmorning. There was no sound of loud
weeping. They had been taught tosmile, and those they loved died in
battle, but down their faces theirtears streamed. I moved back, half
(33:57):
ashamed, and knocked against an oldman standing alone, a box wrapped in
his arms as though it were hischild, and looking inadvertently into his eyes,
I saw there such patient sorrow thatI could not but stammer something about
my wonder that there was such patienceand no sign of hatred. And to
this the old man answered gently,why should we hate you? You had
(34:20):
nothing to do with this, Andbesides, our people are taught to suffer
gladly for our country. The tearsburst from his eyes as he said this,
but he only clutched the box morefirmly. Yes, I rejoice,
I rejoice my only son, Andthis old man uttering these words brought light
(34:44):
to me the dusk, the silencein which I had been living broken,
was gone. I was, atthat moment recalled to my old self.
Yes, to that old self whichhad been in the days when I dreamed
of my country and lived to makeof what I dreamed. How these people
love their country. The love ofcountry which I saw shining in this old
man's face. It was the mostbeautiful love in the world. How small
(35:05):
and selfish was the love of onecreature for another. This was a love
infinitely larger, a love unto whichI wanted to throw my whole self.
Had I not known such love,I one, you are like a priest.
Pe and Me had said to me. I longed suddenly to lose myself
and all my doubts in great sacrifice. I had never been so happy,
I now thought, as I hadbeen in those old days with Enlan,
(35:28):
No, not even with Taman,with all her ministering to me. I
am one who is happiest when eyeminister. This is my nature. Only
I hadn't known it. It hadtaken the suffering of other people to show
it to me. And in myown country, how many suffered. Now
I turned. The old man wentaway, but I did not need him
any more. He'd done his work. Fate, that strange fate in which
(35:49):
Tama always believed, had used himfor the necessary moment, and then had
dismissed him Without thinking of them again. I went back to the goods and
the customs, house. But allthe time time, while I listened to
the demands of the customs officers,while I watched clerks open the crates,
and while I checked one paper afteranother, my mind and my heart were
asking, how shall I tell Tomma. At first, on my way home,
(36:16):
I thought I'd simply go without tellingher. I'd write her all down
and the letter. She almost persuadedmyself to this when I stepped into our
house. Usually she was there waitingfor me in the gardener at the door,
but tonight she was delayed. Iwas already inside taking off my shoes
when she came running out of thekitchen, pushing her hair back as she
came out. Oh, I'm solate. Well, I was making something
(36:38):
you like, and it took mesuch a long time Tooma, I must
go home. I am needed there. I said it very quietly, so
that it would not start little.But her body grew stiff, and still
under my arms. The blood fledfrom her face. She did not say,
(37:00):
let me go too. She knewnow that I meant I must go
alone. Yes, I was.I've been miserable all these days. I
haven't known what to do. Iknew what you were saying, but you
didn't tell me. I thought youdidn't know. I was so afraid you
might think it your duty to leaveus. I didn't know what I ought
to do until tonight. An oldman holding a little box of ashes made
(37:21):
me see how sweet and right itis to die for one's country. Of
course, you must go if yourcountry needs you. It's the Japanese.
I understand that. You know Iam the same to you. Oh yes,
I know this has nothing to dowith us. We'll have to plan.
(37:44):
You need a new bagger? Isthe one we have? Good enough?
I shall take very little life bewearing a uniform a few days.
What do you think you and thechildren had better do? He can always
return to my own father's house.He's so fun of the children. Yes,
and I said, probably the bestthing. You will help the children
to remember me. Shall I bean undutiful wife because misfortune has caught us
(38:09):
a m I to blame you.You are not forsaking me. I shall
tell them honor your brave father Whitesbury'scountry. I want maybe spend the little
money and have a big picture ofyou. I put it for the children
(38:30):
will see it every day. We'llflys buy it. We'll do it tomorrow.
That there's a boat in four days. That'll give us time for everything.
Let's tell your father, no,let's tell no one. I want
those four days as though you weren'tgoing. After you've gone, I'll go
and tell him. But they mightseem ungrateful of me. Toma, no,
(38:52):
no, I'll tell him. Letme have my way. You will
understand one thing. You will alwaysun the stand. This is what you
go now. Any japp andees wouldunderstand. There. Then it was the
last day. I felt her asI had felt her all those last days,
(39:13):
as close to me as my ownbody. I knew contillionally what she
thought, and what she wanted,and how near she was at every moment
to weeping. But I knew thatshe had set for herself the goal of
not weeping until I had gone.She would smile at me while I was
there, and and till I couldsee her face no more. We'd gone
through the hours so close together,and yet we had not touched more than
(39:36):
each the other's hands. And soit came to the last moment of all.
In the harbor of the ship's funnelswere beginning to smoke, as the
engines were being fired. The shipwas to sail at noon. We went
together, hand in hand to thegarden where our little boys played. They
were making a dam of small stonesacross the narrow brook, and they did
not look up, but I couldhear their voices. And then, for
(40:00):
one moment I felt that I couldnot do what I had planned. You
must go now. I shall sendfor you and the children as soon as
I can do it. You shallall come. When shall we be wanted?
Her woods, her voice, herquiet, faintal eyes recalled me and
swept me out of this moment againinto the vaster hour, where our individual
(40:21):
lives were now lost. I seizedher in my arms and pressed my cheek
against hers. I looked at heronce, and in her face I saw
eternity between us. I stepped upona ship's deck, and at the same
moment the gang plank began to moveupward. I stood on the deck.
(40:43):
I looked out across the water tothe hills. Now the ship was moving
steadily away from the dark, anda few moments we'd be leaving the harbor.
I searched the slope of the hillnearest the sea. Yes, there
it was our little house, andthe square of green softer than the surrounding
green that was the garden. Andnow I could see the spot of color
that was Tummer. I could notsee her face, and yet I could
(41:06):
feel her eyes straining to see me. A tiny spot of bright orange moved
across the green to stand beside it. That was my son. And then
suddenly, if I could have doneit, I would have leaped into the
sea rushed back to her. Hello, Hello, Hello, I'm in the
longer business in Seattle. I guessI'm your cabin made. I'm Camponese.
(41:30):
The name's Limb Jack. You limbin USA though three generations though. My
old granddad went back to Canton whenhe was sixty. I can't speak my
own language, but I figure Ican fight without talking. I'm going to
fight the Japanese, so am I. My ship steamed up the river.
(41:53):
I could see smoke rising from thecity of Shanghai and buildings with great gaps
in their walls. I went toour old house. My father looked old
and tired. I won, Yes, father, you say that you have
come home to fight for your country. Yes, there are other services than
fighting. I won yesterday. Ispoke with the Generalissimo Chun Kai Shek.
(42:15):
I told him my son was returningto fight for China. He wishes to
use you, Chun Kai Shek.Ten years ago, he would have had
me shot me and my friends.Tell me, Father, did any escape,
Yes, some escaped. They gotaway into the interior. Now they
have a great army there. Itis to them he wishes to send you.
(42:37):
When I told him that the sonof Wu was ready to fight for
China, he gave me these ordersfor you. Ordered Today everyone takes orders
from Chung Kai Shek gladly. Heis a great man, the only man
who will save us now from theJapanese. I believe what you tell me,
father, He has arranged everything.There is a plane waiting for you
(42:59):
at the airport outside the city.Well, I was, yes, father,
I'm going ten years lay between us, ten years of time and all
else. But I recognized him atonce. It was En Lane En Lan,
(43:22):
now the leader of the Great Armyof the North. And that night,
after I'd given him a Generalissimo's message, En Lan told me what had
happened. Told me how that morning, ten years before the morning, chun
Kishek came to Shanghai. He andp and E. P and E,
our little slave girl, had goneto the place of meeting. How they'd
waited for me until the last moment, every second, expecting me and horney
end. When I'd not come,they'd fled together into the interior. They'd
(43:45):
been married now for ten years.That night, when I was alone with
p and A for a while,sitting before the fire, she told me
of her life with inline, thelong hard years of wandering without a home.
And I had two children. Iwas very ill with the lost.
Now I shan't have any more.Peel me. Oh, why should I
(44:07):
not tell you? You are mybrother? The first my son I lost
by a fever. Our life isnot a good life for a small child.
We have been driven so much.He was five. I kept him
as long as that, and thensuddenly he died in a day. We
buried him on the hillside in kemSee it is so far south from here,
(44:31):
I think I shall never see hisgrave again. And then on the
long march north I had this otherone, the little girl. I hope
the long March would be ended beforeshe was born, but no. We
kept climbing over those high mountains anddown the rocky roads and over the desert.
(44:52):
The child was born so small andthin and a girl. We were
still marching, so what could wedo with her? I gave her to
a good farmer's wife. I leftsome money for her and told her I
would come back. That was threeyears ago. Sometimes I can't be sure
(45:13):
if I remember the place or howthe woman looked pee in it. They
didn't land let this happen. Youknow him. He thinks only of the
cause. Are you sorry you followedhim? An't they? No? Of
course I'm not sorry. Without him, what would I have been? I
followed the eighth throughout army for threemonths after it joined forces the Nationalist government.
(45:37):
Then bad news began to come throughShanghatful and nang King was occupied by
Japanese troops. That have in thecity of Suchaw was no longer ours.
And then one day a plane camefor me. Chung Ki Shehek had ordered
my return to Hankow far in theinterior. Who I want? I am
that person? Ever less, I'malways ready for you. I come.
(45:59):
Oh I want? Yes, GeneralChung i Won, you did your work
well in the north, I wan. Is there anything you wish for me
a few days leave to go withmy father. We will visit our ancestral
lands together, which we have neverseen, and then to return to my
place in the army. General Iwon. I had planned to use you
(46:21):
again, but you are married toa Japanese Yes, Generalissimo I am.
Although I know that you are nota spy, there is no way for
me to tell you. I havehere letters written to you by your Japanese
wife. There was a long silence. I stood there looking at the General
(46:42):
Simon and he reading my letters fromTama. They were simple letters, full
of small things, such as howa certain tree had grown in the garden,
and how the chrysanthemums he'd planted togetherhad gloomed again, and how a
storm from the sea had torn thepaper in the lattice to the west,
and she and our oldest child hadended it, and how big the boy
crew, and how she told himtheir father was a hero, and that
(47:02):
he fought for his country, whichwas their too. They were indeed nothing
but the letters which any wife wouldwrite to the husband whom she loved and
was at the front in any war. She had always the beginning of school,
I bought him a brown cloth schoolbag for his books, lit uniform
(47:22):
and the cap such as the otherchildren were. But at the home I
teach him too. I put flowersbefore your picture every day, and every
day I explained to them how braveyou are, and how beautiful a country
China is. How we belonged toChina, though I not belong to you.
(47:44):
The way to us I won.Yes, generalis enough. Will you
give up your Japanese wife at yourcommand? No? I left my wife
and children to come back and fight. I am fighting. When peace comes,
I shall bring'em here. Mysons are Chinese, and she their
(48:04):
mother, is loyal to me.And it will be a long time before
peace comes. I know that thiscity will be in ruins. This city
and many other places when peace comes, there may be no cities left.
There will be the land, Yes, there will be the land. Well
(48:25):
I won. You may go withyour father. Thank you, General,
and after a week's time you willreturn to your place in the army.
Yes, General, there are yourletters orderly. Huh that map of the
new road to Burma. It ishere, General, the new road to
Burma. I went out with thosewords in my ears. That was only
(48:52):
a short while ago. Now I'veheard it's almost finished. Thousands of men
and women at work at it.A strange way to fight at war for
reps, to make a great roadwestward while the enemy bombs the east.
But it's our way. What ifthe real country my sons will know is
(49:14):
this new inner China looking not seawardbut across the mountains of Asia. Who
knows? This concludes the Campbell Playhousepresentation of their best New book for April,
(49:43):
Peerless Bucks, The Patriot, DarringOrson Wells with Anime Won and now
here is Orson Welles and especially reallyinteresting to do the Patriot this week is
Miss Buck, Miss Wang and myselfhave something in common in that we've all
(50:05):
lived in China. Miss Buck,whose father was a missionary, has lived
there most of her life. MissWang, as you all know, is
Chinese, although she was born inthis country. She's achieved an international film
and stage reputation. And as formyself, I visited China just long enough
to be able to say Huang Yushong frosted yellow willows or uh Anna mee
wog, how do you? Howdo you do? Miss Wang? I'm
(50:27):
delighted to meet you. Uh toaim delowed to meet you, Miss Buck.
As the Chinese, I naturally havebeen intensely interested in your books on
China. Thank you, Mitt Bangand mister Wells. I would like to
express to you the I cannot playhouse and to you my grateful appreciation for
the selection of The Patriarch as thebest new book for April. I'm honored.
It's who you were honored. It'sbeen a privilege to dramatize The Patriot
(50:50):
and now Missus Buck. There area number of things, and I'm sure
our listeners would like to know aboutthe new personal problems the situation the East
is creating. I should think thepredicament of Chinese and Japanese who intermarriage would
be especially difficult. Is it anunusual situation? No, the story I
told in The Patriot is a verycommon one. While I was writing this
book, I was also corresponding witha Japanese woman. She told me that
(51:12):
the Japanese wives, like Tarma,remained loyal to their Chinese husbands and send
them off to war with the feelingthat this is duty. But then Japanese
are trained to a high sense ofduty. Missus, what do you think
it's possible to feel sympathy for Chineseand Japanese and at the same time to
understand them both. When one hashad experience of many wars, one comes
to see that the patan is alwaysthe same. No matter who is the
(51:36):
aggressor and who is attacked, bothare victims and both lose in the end.
You intimate in your story the Chinais looking westward. What does that
mean? No one quite knows yet, except that it will certainly mean a
China different from the one before thewar. The territory which Japan holds is
along the Eastern Sea coast. Roughlyit compares to our own original seton Karnis.
(51:58):
It was a stronghold, a modernin that small strip of territory where
China's great modern cities tensin Shanghai,man King, Hankow, and Cantan.
There were China's modern men and women, her modern schools and industry. But
beyond Hanko is another China, ahuge medieval country where people live and think
as they have for many centuries.Modern life is not penetrated there. But
(52:22):
now a tremendous westward trek has begun. Japan has taken the Sea coast provinces
and peasants, merchants, students,teachers, everybody who can move is going
west. Their own Chinese ancient civilizationflourishes in its purest forms. In a
sense, they are returning to theirancestors. And Young China meets Old China
(52:44):
for the first time face to face. Each of course, will affect the
other profounder. But how who cansay? One's imagination quickens all unknowingly.
Perhaps China is hastening the unification ofa continent. Thank you, miss Bok
for the clarity with which you've explainedthe difficult situation in the Orient, and
thank you miss Wang being with ustonight. In Tonight's Campbell Playoff's production of
(53:13):
The Patriots, the role of Iwanwas played by Orson Wells. Miss Annimee
Wang was Peony. The part ofTamil was played by Margaret Curtis and that
of Who by Ray Collins. MaroonMcCormick was in Land, and Elliott Reed
was Bongjie. The parts of theBroker and chun Kaischek were played by Everett
Sloan. Edgar Barrier played Muraki,and Howard Tichman was Jack Limb. Music
(53:37):
for the Campbell Playhouse is arranged andconducted by Bernard Hermann. And now,
mister Wells, will you tell usplease about next week's story. Well,
next week we'll offer one of themost famous comedies, madern nanas Noah Coward's
witty essay on the ironies and absurditiesmodern love, Private Lives. I to
(54:00):
announce that Miss Gertrude Lawrence will bewith us in Aparte, created so brilliantly
in London and in New York.So until next week until Private Lives,
my sponsors, the makers of CampbellSoups, and all of us in the
Campbell Playhouse remain obediently yours. Themakers of Campbell Soups join Orson Wells in
(54:32):
inviting you to be with us ofthe Campbell Playhouse again next Friday evening,
when that great star, Miss GertrudeLawrance, will appear with him in Noel
Coward's gayest comedy Private Lives. Meanwhile, if you have enjoyed tonight's Campbell Playhouse
presentation, won't you tell your groceryshow tomorrow when you order Campbell's Tomato Juice.
(54:53):
This is Ernest Chapel saying thank youand good night. This is the
Columbia Broadcasting System.
The makers of Campbell Soup present theCampbell Playhouse Orson Wells producer Good Evening.
(00:40):
This is Orson Welles our story.Tonight is The Patriot by Pearl Buck.
If the Campbell Playhouse selection is thebest new book for April, chosen from
the publisher's large Spring list. Thisbox enormously successful books on the Orient,
starting with A Good Earth, havecreated a new conception of the Chinese peasants
in the West, and have broughther, among other tributes, that rare
(01:00):
honor, the Nobel Prize for Literature. In her newest book, ms Buck
writes of the emergence of China asa nation. She also has a great
day deal to say about Japan.In The Patriot, she treats of the
peoples of both countries not only inrelation to their present battle over the ownership
of China, but in the gentlerperspectives of their mutual arts and virtues.
(01:23):
This Evening, we are fortunate inhaving this book here in the studio with
us. She is graciously consented tospeak to you before the end of this
program, and also with us.Tonight is Anime Wong, the beautiful Chinese
American star you've all seen on thescreen. And so ladies and gentlemen,
we present the patriot a story ofthe coming alive of the new China,
and that the people of the Orientwho are solving the bit of problems as
(01:46):
human relationships in times of stress.See my name is I one. My
father is the great Shanghai banker Wo. I'm the youngest of his two sons.
(02:09):
H But when I was going tothe university, I learned of the
suffering and privations of my people inChina, and I became a revolutionist.
Twas En L'an, a young studentwho converted me and first told me of
the brotherhood of young Chinese who wereorganizing secretly in the schools and in the
mills, and indeed everywhere in China, arming the poor, teaching them and
preparing them for the new order oflife which was to be. Each day
(02:32):
when school was over, we metwith the others in secret in a deserted
classroom. Com m now, comrade, the things we have hope for every
day. The new government that Hankowis growing stronger. When the time comes,
he will sweep down the Yangtze Riverone mass A great man. He
who is he? Who is itthat will come, who is this great
(02:53):
man? Juang Kai shek jung kaiche jug Kai shek. Well that time
comes, comrade, we must beready. What does it mean to be
ready? To be ready means preparingthe people their minds and their bodies,
preparing them for the day of theirliberations. My father's house was in the
(03:15):
European Quarter in Shanghai. It witha great square brick mansion built in the
French tire by a French architect fortyyears before. Not in the least Chinese,
but like a wealthy house in Paris, with foreign furniture in the huge
rooms and thick carpets on the floor. Uh, my son, yes,
father, come here, you looktired. I want I am tired.
(03:37):
Mother, You are late. Iwon. We had a meeting after school.
What are these meetings? My son? Should the son of who the
banker attend them? Student meetings?Father, and get yourself entangled, I
want young students can do nothing tochange those in control, but those in
control can cut off your heads.Besides, none of you understand that all
(03:58):
all that is involved in running acountry. Yes, father, I also,
at twenty had certain foolish ideas.Yes, I want you to be
careful. Remember you are the sonof Woo. Yes, father, ooh,
good night, my son. Goodnight. Where you're going? I
won to my room to study?Good night? I won? Good night
(04:20):
mother. I went up the widecarpeted stairs, and when I got to
my room there was p and epony of a certain girl, unrolling the
quilts and bringing in hot tea tosit beside my bed. P and a
p and a. I wanna tellyou something, Yes, what is it,
(04:42):
Piania? Have you ever heard ofthe revolution? Of course I have.
It's not a good thing. I'veheard your father's talk about it,
he said, revolutionists star like bandon. Oh no, they're not. How
do you know? Because? Hbecause I am one of'em. I
one, if your father knew,I feel as if you've put your life
(05:05):
into my hands. I one?What is this revolution? When is it
all to happen soon? As soonas junk a share comes. I don't
believe it. You don't believe peAndy, I tell you it's true.
Oh, don't be silly. Iwish I hadn't told you. I wish
(05:27):
you hadn't, except that it helpsme to understand something. What it helps
me to understand you and why yourheart is not to be touched? I
one, you are like a youngpriest. Now in Mane, the young
leader of our movement learned from methat I had confided our secret to Paeony,
and he was very angry. Hetold me I had no business to
(05:50):
speak of these matters to a womanand a slave. He said he must
go to see her, and thatPie and m is be threatened into silence.
And so it was that he cameto see her at my house.
This is my room in Lone.What is that's on the floor? That's
a carpet? Am I to stepon it? It's foolish, but so
(06:11):
you can. If I had it, i'd sleep under it. Now the
door shut. Here we're free.You can see anything you like, and
Pie and they will bring his teain a little while. Is that your
bed? Yes? I never sawsuch a bed. I never saw anything
like this. All that silk,what is it for the curtains? I
can't help it. I was borninto this house. I don't know anything
(06:33):
else. I'm not blaming you,I Wan, I'm asking myself if I
had been born into this, wouldI ever have run away and joined with
a revolutionists? I don't know.Do you like it? Here? And
none? I don't know. It'sbeautiful, but I don't know what would
I do here? This soft thingunder my feet all the time. I
like to take off my coat andspit on the floor. No, I
(06:57):
I'm glad I was born as Iwas. Who's a a peeny? Your
home? Early? I won?I thought you and your friend might like
these pop dumplings in write cake?Thank you, Peenny? And none,
this is peeny. Please do notride. I'm not one of the family.
I'm only a servant, and I'monly a peasant's son. I've never
been in a house like this before, so you're in lone. I know
(07:21):
why you came here today. Youwere afraid I might tell your secret that
ey one is a revolutionist? Don'twordy? Who should I tell? I
didn't know you, Penny. Nowthat I've seen you, I'm not afraid
anymore. Now, why don't youtwo eat while the dishes are hot?
Why not the three of us?Oh, I'm not U used to set.
(07:42):
Oh I'm used to serving' not sittingdown with the others and the revolution
There is no such thing as oneto be served and the other. That
said, Hey, I won.I won't sit down unless we sit down
together. And I'm as hungry asa starved dogs. Tell me in lone,
in line, tell me more aboutthis. Nothing could stop it.
(08:07):
Nothing could stop the marching of thattriumphant figure of Chiang Kai shehek he left
Tang Khan was proceeding down the riverwith his great army q Kiang Yang king
Wu. The cities on its banksfell like fruits into his hands. Shanghai
grew hot with expectation and fear.It was like the coming of a storm.
There was the disturbance among the peoples, like the first rufflings of the
(08:28):
wind over the country and the sea, and then there was the intense,
waiting stillness. But I never couldbe quite sure how Peony felt. And
one day I asked her outright.She'd come into the garden where everything was
breaking into bud I'd gone to lookat a hawthorne flowing. Are you a
(08:50):
real revolutionist, Paeony? I don'tknow. I shall wait and see how
it is. No, but whatwhat do you believe? He in me?
You must believe in right or wrong. I'm not a priest like you.
You believe in Jianghai shik as thoughhe were a god. I know
he's only a man. No,I don't. I don't believe in any
(09:13):
gods, but I believe in therevolution. The revolution is only what people
do. If they do well,then I am one of them. I
knew she was wrong, was wrongto measure one's belief by what people did,
a thing was right or wrong initself. But I could not forget
what she'd said. And that night, before I slept, I locked my
door, and from a secret placein my desk, I drew out a
(09:35):
picture i'd cut from a magazine,a picture of the young chan Ki Sheik.
I sat looking at it. There'sa face at once bold and kind,
harsh and dreaming. I don't worshiphim, I thought, but I
believe in him. I want huh, I want huh. Get up,
(09:56):
hidy of your clothes? Father,what's the matter? Still die you?
P foolish boy? Wicked Dicease itboy. Here's a paper, hundreds of
names on it. Do you knowwhat this is? It's a list,
a list of revolutionists. Your nameis on the list. At any moment,
soldiers will be here to seize you. Chun kay shecheck has come,
Chunky Shik but father, that meansyou said, Chang Kai Shek is here.
(10:18):
If he's here in the city,he came straight to Shanghai. F
you don't know what that means.Saw him yesterday he met with us,
with all the bankers. We toldhim Shanghai must not be disturbed our businesses.
If he wants money, that isto warm with his government. Will
you touch yourself? I want?What do you want to be killed?
Father, Chang ky Sheck? Henever agreed. Horse, he agreed.
(10:39):
Man is no fool. Everything isarranged. First you will purge the city
of revolutionists. Then he's betrayed us. Chunky Sheck has betrayed us, all
of us who believed it. Let'sgo to the other time. As tell
me I want. You are goingnowhere except the docks to a ship for
Japan. The car is waiting ready. No, I won't go, Father,
(11:00):
I can't go on this one.You are going at once. I
gave my personal words. If theyerased your name from the list, you
would leave the country today. Ifyou don't understand, you're making me into
a tree. You are already atraitor. The government has condemned all revolutionists
to death. They have thousands ofnames that I won by one. What's
(11:20):
the matter, Peony, Peony,come here? The young master is sick.
Hee neey, she's going your less. We looked for her everywhere on
God where Peony, Pony, ponyhigh lay on deck. The ship was
(11:54):
moving slowly among small green islands.In the east. I could see flights
of Japanese fishing vessels, their sailswhite against the blue sky. That was
the only way to enjoy my completehelplessness, not to think, not to
remember. If only I could've warmedin Lana. He was perhaps dead,
already shot against the wall and peeand me pion A was gone. I
(12:16):
closed my eyes, let knights driftover me. In days pass me.
By the fourth day we landed atNagasaki. We we wan, wait what
are you WOI one, yes,if you please, I'm that humble one.
Oh we have been inshed specting you. I am miss Muraki's son.
My name is Bunjie. My fatherinvite you to our house. We drove
(12:39):
out through the narrow streets and upperhill away from the town. We stopped
before a thatched roof gate, brickwall, tiny red varnished footbridge over a
stream garden. Everything this garden perfect, not a leaf on the grass,
not a rock out of place,and the stream tinkling and put a lot
official waterfall. This is where welive. My father's garden is quite famous
(13:05):
in Japan. And that there ismy father. Now he is retired.
He is growing old. All dayhe is in his garden. Father,
boonjee, you are here, father. This is our guest in this house.
I won the son of my oldfriend, who is welcome beyond any
others. Very kind of you toaccept me, sir. I do not
(13:26):
deserve it. Your father is myfriend, and all we have is yours.
You are to goodness, to Murki, and you are lucky. I
want. The cherry trees are aboutto bloom. You have come at just
a good moment. In six daysor Japan will be in blossom. Here
is your room, see I want. It opens on the garden. And
when you are ready to sleep,clap your hands, and a maid servant
(13:48):
will spread your quilk on the map. And no one will come here except
the gardeners. It is quite yourown. When BOONEI had gone, I
sat down and looked about me.Her house was still. I felt wrapped
about in peace life. Here wasplanned. There were lightness and clarity and
absolute cleanliness, and in spite offragility, a feeling of long settled stability,
(14:13):
and the sense that life had beenlived here precisely like this, unchanged
for generations. For the midday andyear. We sat upon silvery mats about
a low table, facing the garden. Mister and missus Mraki Bongie and I.
There was cool and fresh. Arosy young girl came into a tray
of bulls. No one spoke toher. She set a ball in front
(14:33):
of each of us and bright theway. Uh. That was my sister.
She is shy and she will noteat with us today because you are
a stranger. But you will getover it. Shall I speak to your
sister? Is at your custom?Ah? Only sane man has wool?
Uh? My mother says, waituntil afterwards. She will come in again.
(14:56):
Her name is Thomas. What themean? Thank you there? My
mother says, she is sorry shecannot speak in your language. She asks
if you have enjoyed our poor food? I like everything, I everything here
I won Yes, mister Morkie.Your father has written me that he wishes
you to learn our business. Inthe morning, you will have a place
beside Bunjie in the office. Bunjiwill help you. In the afternoon.
(15:20):
You may study or play. Ifyou are not happy, you will tell
me. But I'm sure I shallbe happy. Sir. I like all
my house to be happy. Nowif you will forgive us who I want
my wife and I At this hourevery day, our gardener is waiting for
us. There are things to decide, those irises. They must be tray.
(15:41):
Now you will see Tama will comein. I know my sister.
How should you behave to her?I won like a modern young man.
Oh? Who No, I won'ttell you. You should judge for yourself.
Yes, she comes, Boonie.Please, this is my sister Tama.
And this Tama is WOOI wan ourguest who has come to live with
us. We shake hands. Yes, who we want? Yes, Bunji
(16:03):
told me you are a modern youngman. Yes, I also like to
be new, though my father doesnot wish it. Please sit down.
Thank you. What were you saying, Bunjie when I came in, thinking
you do it a secret between?Now you see how she is. I
want you must understand. She istwo girls. Toma is before our parents.
She is very proper and so shy. The mother Thomas is a modern
(16:26):
girl, bold and brazen, andlike him to talk to young men at
that university, to which I don'tdon't believe him. I want I shall
believe only what you tell me yourself, no one else, you see.
I feel myself very lucky to havecome to your home. I can't tell
you how unhappy I was. Ithought nothing, nothing could be any good.
(16:48):
Just this morning I thought that now, just being in this house made
me feel suddenly happier. We areall happier for your company, I want,
Toma, is it not so?Oh you see, yes, me
too. Oh so through two wintersI stayed on in Japan. In the
(17:11):
spring of the second year, Inoticed a change in the house. Tama,
Bunji's sister was at home more oftennow all day she was about the
house in her sauce Japanese dress.Thoma has finished at the university. She
is at home now preparing for Maryfrom marriage. Bunchie. Tama going to
be married? Oh, nothing isdecided. Then Tama is to be married,
of course, but not for soshame Bunchie. Is she engaged?
(17:33):
Oh that is not my affair.I I'll tell you this, though I
won. My father wants her tomarry General Sick. General Sick see enim.
He's an old man as fair asa bull frog. General Seki is
my father's friend, a great patriotand a samurai. He wants a healthy
young wife who will give him sons. And my father says it will help
the country. Oh, old Seki'sblood and Talma's health. Well, I
don't think young girl should marry oldfat men. Could she love him?
(17:57):
Don't think about such things. Itdoes no good. Love isn't important.
I'm not thinking of love. I'mthinking of Toma. That day for the
first time, I thought, whatif they were the same thing? Love?
And for two years I've been livingin the same house with her,
(18:19):
And in all that time we'd neveronce spoken to each other alone. Always
when we were together there was someoneelse present, a maid, servant of
gardener, or missus Morky herself.And then one summer's day at the office,
Boone looked up suddenly from his deskand laugh, I want to climb
a mountain, a mountain when whytomorrow? Why not? We've not had
a holiday since the New year,and we will take Toma with her?
(18:41):
Shall we she used to go withme always before you can you come?
I don't know. I won Itdepends on whether she thinks it's worthwhile,
that is worthwhile to stand the stormafter, I means my father, Oh
well, I I'll ask her anyway. She can do what she likes.
Besides, it may rain in thenight, and then we will none of
us go. Why do you laugh? Oh for nothing. I don't like
(19:03):
general sticky either. That's why itwas clear moonlight that night. When I
saw her early in the morning,I felt that all the time i'd known
it to be fine, and thatshe'd come. She was wearing a cotton
dress, slot and blue and white, like a peasant girls. They started
soon after dawn, like any twobrothers and a sister. Hey bonjee bonjee,
(19:30):
I meet you at the scree where'dyou see? We meet you there?
Tama, Trama, have you everseen such a Dailis not been such
a day since I came to Japan. There are not many such days even
in Japan. Now, I thinkin the whole world. It's beyond anything
(19:52):
I've ever known. Tama, Iwanna tell you I've been. I can
try to tell yes, you mustn'tmarry an old man. Tell him.
I don't I beg you? Doyou not think I shall marry whom I
please? Look, there's Boongie Harufrom the rocks already. How slow we
(20:12):
are, boongie woogie. We wereall day in the mountains. We swam,
we ran in the hills. Wewere very hungry. We ate,
we laughed, and finally we starteddown again towards home. It was getting
(20:34):
dark. Comma, yes, Iwon. Have you liked to stay?
Yes, It's been the best dayof my life and you I don't know
what this day has been in mylife, but it does not be like
any other day. It rained inthe night. I heard the pattering on
(21:00):
the roof in the darkness, andI thought she hears it too. When
I woke, the tiny garden ofmy room was green and dripping with freshness,
and I thought she sees it too. When I came home from the
office the next day, mister Murrakywas waiting for me. I won.
(21:23):
Yes, mister Murracy, I've hada letter today from your father. I
won. He's pleased with your progress. I told him you were doing well.
Yes, sir, your father writesme, that there is great improvement
in China. Order is quite restored. Order will always prevail. That is
what the young must learn, notdesire, not wilfulness, not impetuous wishes
(21:48):
for for anything. Mister murraky Ihave decided to send you to Yokohama to
help in our offices there. Ihave arranged that you will live there in
the hostel where the other young clerkslive. Yes, sir, since I
always do at once what I havedecided upon that length, you will leave
tomorrow. So that is all.Good nights, good night, Tama,
(22:25):
Tama, Tamala, Tama. Whois it Tama? I want? Yes,
I won't come in, Tima.I'll stay here, but come to
the edge of the garden close tome so we can talk a little.
Pleas I'm going away tomorrow. I'mgonna read them on Let's see you wait,
(22:47):
I'll blow out the candle. Iwon't if anyone care to something terrible
with happening, general faking. Youwouldn't. You wouldn't ever marry him,
would you? Yes, I hadto see you. I'm being sent to
Yokohama tomorrow tomorrow time. I don'tknow when i'll come back. Please help
(23:08):
me what should we do? Helpyou? I want by doing time to
Hamah, don't speak to me likethat, like a like a stranger.
Didn't we have a good time onthe hills. That was only yesterday?
Yes, yes we did, Tama, don't marry anybody. I don't want
(23:29):
to marry anybody. Look Tima,that miss, it's like a curtain.
The hiders a good spirit sentence.I told you I believed inspid it feet
began to harry feet, cand avoidit. Do you believe timing two people
(23:52):
born to marry? Yes, Imust go. I will write you as
soon as you tell me where,and we will meet again. If it
is our fate, it is ourfaith. You are listening to the Campbell
(24:26):
Playhouse selection of the best New Bookfor April, The Patriots by pearlss Bug.
That year in Yokohama was the longestof my life. There were no
quiet gardens, there no screen shadowedhouses, and in the office I was
(24:49):
surrounded by strangers. Now. Iwrote to Tama, and one night when
I came home to my room,there was a letter from her awaiting me.
Wait. She said, we mustwait. I know to delay when
I do not like I have delayedthis many times, and I will again
and again until it will be madeclear to us what our fate is.
(25:10):
And later, as the months wentby, other letters came. They were
short that they carried, all withthe same steady words, I will delay,
it will be made clear to uswhat our fate is. And then
finally it came the last letter.I won. I won. I said
(25:30):
to you, I wanted to marryno one, but my father has told
me there is going to be warwith China. Bunge has been called headquarters,
and so everything is changed. Inwar. Japanese men fight and Japanese
women bear sons. I must marrythe general. Even my mother says that
if there is a war, itis my duty to fight for our country.
I see my duty. It ismy fate, tim I. So
(25:56):
now I went to an old professionalmatch maker for a fee. The man
agreed to go to mister Murroki andput forth my request for Thomas's hand according
to custom. On the eighteenth dayof the next month, he returned,
where have you been? Did nothear from you? I've been at my
business. At my business, there'sbeen a good deal of it. There
(26:18):
was the old suitor, the general. He had to be arranged. But
the young woman managed that very well, oh, oh, by saying she
would kill herself. Yes, andshe went at once to it. I
saw her. She said it.Then she took a knife and drew it
across her wrists before our eyes,across one wrist. Then she prepared to
do it to the other. Andthe mother wept and fainted, and her
(26:40):
father bad her weight, and shestood the blood rushing out of her arm
and soaking into the mat. Andfinally her mother came to herself and moaning
something about her having no children left. Eye, I thought you said there
was some one. The youngest wasgoing to China in the army. Oh
so well. Then the father said, wait, we'll talk it over.
So I waited, and by arranginganother young girl for the old Huotor,
(27:00):
which I did, it all wenttogether, one thing and another. And
when I've arranged things as you couldwish them, the wedding day will be
set soon as the custom is,and the thing is as good as done.
Oh, it was bad, itwas bad. And yet I think
she knew that only shedding her ownblood would make them yield. The old
(27:21):
man had been stubborn until then,But when she did that, he saw
that she was more stubborn than he. Well, now that it is as
good as done, I will adviseyou hasten to make her way yours before
she knows it, For when awoman is stubborn, the ocean itself is
not so sure as her own will. My son, it is with happiness
(27:52):
that I learn of your betrothal tothe daughter of my good friend Muraki.
I am happy for you, butI know better trained women in the world
than the Japanese. You will havea good family life when a little more
time is passed, bring her toChina to see. But not yet.
The people here have a hatred againstthe Japanese because of the recent troubles.
(28:18):
The Manchurian situation would be adjusted reasonablyin the end. Nevertheless, wait a
little while before bringing a Japanese wifehome to China. Comma Colla, my
little wife, what are you thinkingabout? Oh, I'm thinking about a
house. I'm thinking of how Ishould arrange everything I wish. We need
(28:41):
never go down from this mound.It's been so safe and so quiet.
We've been lone together here, sothere were no one else in the world.
Tramma, Yes, let me seeher risk. Huh do Japanese girls
often cut their wrists to get theirown way. It's well, I was,
but my father I understood best whenI did that, and knew I
(29:04):
meant what I said that I wouldmarry you. And even if there had
been a war, you would havemarried me. I know you would.
No, I wouldn't I one ifthere had been a war, I would
have married General Secid. Don't youknow I said I would? Is it?
Very great? General? And protrusthim? But Tima, you mist
(29:29):
love only me. I do loveonly you. I shall always love you.
Then why do you say if thatben a war that would have been
had nothing to do with my lovingyou? I wan? Don't you see
as a Japanese if it's my duty, Tarma, I am your duty.
(29:51):
I I you have no other.The days ran after each other so quickly
that before I could lay hold ofone to treasure it, another had come.
Day followed day. Months slipped intomonths, and we wanted no change.
It was autumn so quickly that Icould not believe it. One morning,
(30:12):
when we arose, we saw thatthere had been frost in the night.
And when I got home the nextevening, I found time. I
was sitting on a bamboo bench outsideour room, looking out over the sea.
You don't mind, do your eye? Won If I don't get up,
I'm tired for sweeping the leaves fromthe lawn. Are you well,
very well? What are you staringat over there in the ocean? I
(30:33):
wish I knew your parents, Iwon, I wish I knew what your
family is and how your home looksover there. Why do you wanna know
them? Because I am about tobecome one of them, one of your
family. Until now I want,I've belonged only to you. I've been
a part of you. But nowI'm going to have a child. Twas
(31:00):
that means that I shall belong altogetherto your family and no more to my
own. It was a boy,and in the spring of the next year
our second son was born. Andafter that things went on as before,
only not quite as before. Somethingwas happening across the sea in China which
could not quite be shut out.It was not a war. The papers
(31:22):
made that clear. It was notto be called a war. It was
in the Emperor's name, nothing butan incident. And then one afternoon,
quite suddenly there was news, realnews. Every paper printed it special editions,
the boy screaming in the streets,great black letters, guestly drive on
the headlines. Three hundred Japanese killed, men, women, and children.
Three hundred Japanese murdered. Three hundredpeaceful Japanese in a little town near Peaking
(31:42):
murdered by Chinese soldiers. I wonWhy did they do things? There must
be a reason. The Japanese musthave done something, something terrible to make
them so angry, Tama, Yes, I was Thomas. I must feel
that you think there may have beensome cause, some reason. What does
it matter what I said? Thanks? When I am your wife, don't
be it a Japanese woman, butI am a Japanese friend. You've already
(32:06):
made up your mind. Haven't youbelieve that my people could simply massacre like
savage? Is not any reason ifyou think that you have no understanding of
me. We've suffered for years whileyou Japanese have been stealing our land and
trade. We've we've laid ourselves backfor years. Yes, and who killed
Japanese and nineteen a hard twenty seventhand nineteen twenty seven? Hama and who
killed Japanese in Changhai In nineteen thirtytwo. It's through. We've already not
(32:28):
Japanese papers. You've held us allthese years against me, no, against
your people. But I am mypeople to you, and amighty you.
One of these Japanese is should bekilledful, Oh Toma, what have we
(32:50):
done? What have we said?All this killing and hatred has nothing to
do with us. Tarma, Tarma, Tarma. At the Maraki dock we
unloaded the latest shipments from China.Now there could be no doubt about it.
(33:14):
It was loot being shipped to theMarakis. The merchandise, for the
most part, hadn't even been packed, piled into the holes, just as
they'd found it in China, thingsthat only a few weeks before had been
in people's homes. And on thatday, for the first time, I
knew it was a real war.They were fighting. Across the water.
From the whold of this ship,there was another cargo. After the freight
had been landed and the unloading crewhad left, I saw many small boxes
(33:35):
begin to be brought off. Eachhad a name written in letters on its
top. As each was brought outon shore, a name was cold,
and each time a little group ofpeople came forward and received the box.
All of these persons were in deepestmorning. There was no sound of loud
weeping. They had been taught tosmile, and those they loved died in
battle, but down their faces theirtears streamed. I moved back, half
(33:57):
ashamed, and knocked against an oldman standing alone, a box wrapped in
his arms as though it were hischild, and looking inadvertently into his eyes,
I saw there such patient sorrow thatI could not but stammer something about
my wonder that there was such patienceand no sign of hatred. And to
this the old man answered gently,why should we hate you? You had
(34:20):
nothing to do with this, Andbesides, our people are taught to suffer
gladly for our country. The tearsburst from his eyes as he said this,
but he only clutched the box morefirmly. Yes, I rejoice,
I rejoice my only son, Andthis old man uttering these words brought light
(34:44):
to me the dusk, the silencein which I had been living broken,
was gone. I was, atthat moment recalled to my old self.
Yes, to that old self whichhad been in the days when I dreamed
of my country and lived to makeof what I dreamed. How these people
love their country. The love ofcountry which I saw shining in this old
man's face. It was the mostbeautiful love in the world. How small
(35:05):
and selfish was the love of onecreature for another. This was a love
infinitely larger, a love unto whichI wanted to throw my whole self.
Had I not known such love,I one, you are like a priest.
Pe and Me had said to me. I longed suddenly to lose myself
and all my doubts in great sacrifice. I had never been so happy,
I now thought, as I hadbeen in those old days with Enlan,
(35:28):
No, not even with Taman,with all her ministering to me. I
am one who is happiest when eyeminister. This is my nature. Only
I hadn't known it. It hadtaken the suffering of other people to show
it to me. And in myown country, how many suffered. Now
I turned. The old man wentaway, but I did not need him
any more. He'd done his work. Fate, that strange fate in which
(35:49):
Tama always believed, had used himfor the necessary moment, and then had
dismissed him Without thinking of them again. I went back to the goods and
the customs, house. But allthe time time, while I listened to
the demands of the customs officers,while I watched clerks open the crates,
and while I checked one paper afteranother, my mind and my heart were
asking, how shall I tell Tomma. At first, on my way home,
(36:16):
I thought I'd simply go without tellingher. I'd write her all down
and the letter. She almost persuadedmyself to this when I stepped into our
house. Usually she was there waitingfor me in the gardener at the door,
but tonight she was delayed. Iwas already inside taking off my shoes
when she came running out of thekitchen, pushing her hair back as she
came out. Oh, I'm solate. Well, I was making something
(36:38):
you like, and it took mesuch a long time Tooma, I must
go home. I am needed there. I said it very quietly, so
that it would not start little.But her body grew stiff, and still
under my arms. The blood fledfrom her face. She did not say,
(37:00):
let me go too. She knewnow that I meant I must go
alone. Yes, I was.I've been miserable all these days. I
haven't known what to do. Iknew what you were saying, but you
didn't tell me. I thought youdidn't know. I was so afraid you
might think it your duty to leaveus. I didn't know what I ought
to do until tonight. An oldman holding a little box of ashes made
(37:21):
me see how sweet and right itis to die for one's country. Of
course, you must go if yourcountry needs you. It's the Japanese.
I understand that. You know Iam the same to you. Oh yes,
I know this has nothing to dowith us. We'll have to plan.
(37:44):
You need a new bagger? Isthe one we have? Good enough?
I shall take very little life bewearing a uniform a few days.
What do you think you and thechildren had better do? He can always
return to my own father's house.He's so fun of the children. Yes,
and I said, probably the bestthing. You will help the children
to remember me. Shall I bean undutiful wife because misfortune has caught us
(38:09):
a m I to blame you.You are not forsaking me. I shall
tell them honor your brave father Whitesbury'scountry. I want maybe spend the little
money and have a big picture ofyou. I put it for the children
(38:30):
will see it every day. We'llflys buy it. We'll do it tomorrow.
That there's a boat in four days. That'll give us time for everything.
Let's tell your father, no,let's tell no one. I want
those four days as though you weren'tgoing. After you've gone, I'll go
and tell him. But they mightseem ungrateful of me. Toma, no,
(38:52):
no, I'll tell him. Letme have my way. You will
understand one thing. You will alwaysun the stand. This is what you
go now. Any japp andees wouldunderstand. There. Then it was the
last day. I felt her asI had felt her all those last days,
(39:13):
as close to me as my ownbody. I knew contillionally what she
thought, and what she wanted,and how near she was at every moment
to weeping. But I knew thatshe had set for herself the goal of
not weeping until I had gone.She would smile at me while I was
there, and and till I couldsee her face no more. We'd gone
through the hours so close together,and yet we had not touched more than
(39:36):
each the other's hands. And soit came to the last moment of all.
In the harbor of the ship's funnelswere beginning to smoke, as the
engines were being fired. The shipwas to sail at noon. We went
together, hand in hand to thegarden where our little boys played. They
were making a dam of small stonesacross the narrow brook, and they did
not look up, but I couldhear their voices. And then, for
(40:00):
one moment I felt that I couldnot do what I had planned. You
must go now. I shall sendfor you and the children as soon as
I can do it. You shallall come. When shall we be wanted?
Her woods, her voice, herquiet, faintal eyes recalled me and
swept me out of this moment againinto the vaster hour, where our individual
(40:21):
lives were now lost. I seizedher in my arms and pressed my cheek
against hers. I looked at heronce, and in her face I saw
eternity between us. I stepped upona ship's deck, and at the same
moment the gang plank began to moveupward. I stood on the deck.
(40:43):
I looked out across the water tothe hills. Now the ship was moving
steadily away from the dark, anda few moments we'd be leaving the harbor.
I searched the slope of the hillnearest the sea. Yes, there
it was our little house, andthe square of green softer than the surrounding
green that was the garden. Andnow I could see the spot of color
that was Tummer. I could notsee her face, and yet I could
(41:06):
feel her eyes straining to see me. A tiny spot of bright orange moved
across the green to stand beside it. That was my son. And then
suddenly, if I could have doneit, I would have leaped into the
sea rushed back to her. Hello, Hello, Hello, I'm in the
longer business in Seattle. I guessI'm your cabin made. I'm Camponese.
(41:30):
The name's Limb Jack. You limbin USA though three generations though. My
old granddad went back to Canton whenhe was sixty. I can't speak my
own language, but I figure Ican fight without talking. I'm going to
fight the Japanese, so am I. My ship steamed up the river.
(41:53):
I could see smoke rising from thecity of Shanghai and buildings with great gaps
in their walls. I went toour old house. My father looked old
and tired. I won, Yes, father, you say that you have
come home to fight for your country. Yes, there are other services than
fighting. I won yesterday. Ispoke with the Generalissimo Chun Kai Shek.
(42:15):
I told him my son was returningto fight for China. He wishes to
use you, Chun Kai Shek.Ten years ago, he would have had
me shot me and my friends.Tell me, Father, did any escape,
Yes, some escaped. They gotaway into the interior. Now they
have a great army there. Itis to them he wishes to send you.
(42:37):
When I told him that the sonof Wu was ready to fight for
China, he gave me these ordersfor you. Ordered Today everyone takes orders
from Chung Kai Shek gladly. Heis a great man, the only man
who will save us now from theJapanese. I believe what you tell me,
father, He has arranged everything.There is a plane waiting for you
(42:59):
at the airport outside the city.Well, I was, yes, father,
I'm going ten years lay between us, ten years of time and all
else. But I recognized him atonce. It was En Lane En Lan,
(43:22):
now the leader of the Great Armyof the North. And that night,
after I'd given him a Generalissimo's message, En Lan told me what had
happened. Told me how that morning, ten years before the morning, chun
Kishek came to Shanghai. He andp and E. P and E,
our little slave girl, had goneto the place of meeting. How they'd
waited for me until the last moment, every second, expecting me and horney
end. When I'd not come,they'd fled together into the interior. They'd
(43:45):
been married now for ten years.That night, when I was alone with
p and A for a while,sitting before the fire, she told me
of her life with inline, thelong hard years of wandering without a home.
And I had two children. Iwas very ill with the lost.
Now I shan't have any more.Peel me. Oh, why should I
(44:07):
not tell you? You are mybrother? The first my son I lost
by a fever. Our life isnot a good life for a small child.
We have been driven so much.He was five. I kept him
as long as that, and thensuddenly he died in a day. We
buried him on the hillside in kemSee it is so far south from here,
(44:31):
I think I shall never see hisgrave again. And then on the
long march north I had this otherone, the little girl. I hope
the long March would be ended beforeshe was born, but no. We
kept climbing over those high mountains anddown the rocky roads and over the desert.
(44:52):
The child was born so small andthin and a girl. We were
still marching, so what could wedo with her? I gave her to
a good farmer's wife. I leftsome money for her and told her I
would come back. That was threeyears ago. Sometimes I can't be sure
(45:13):
if I remember the place or howthe woman looked pee in it. They
didn't land let this happen. Youknow him. He thinks only of the
cause. Are you sorry you followedhim? An't they? No? Of
course I'm not sorry. Without him, what would I have been? I
followed the eighth throughout army for threemonths after it joined forces the Nationalist government.
(45:37):
Then bad news began to come throughShanghatful and nang King was occupied by
Japanese troops. That have in thecity of Suchaw was no longer ours.
And then one day a plane camefor me. Chung Ki Shehek had ordered
my return to Hankow far in theinterior. Who I want? I am
that person? Ever less, I'malways ready for you. I come.
(45:59):
Oh I want? Yes, GeneralChung i Won, you did your work
well in the north, I wan. Is there anything you wish for me
a few days leave to go withmy father. We will visit our ancestral
lands together, which we have neverseen, and then to return to my
place in the army. General Iwon. I had planned to use you
(46:21):
again, but you are married toa Japanese Yes, Generalissimo I am.
Although I know that you are nota spy, there is no way for
me to tell you. I havehere letters written to you by your Japanese
wife. There was a long silence. I stood there looking at the General
(46:42):
Simon and he reading my letters fromTama. They were simple letters, full
of small things, such as howa certain tree had grown in the garden,
and how the chrysanthemums he'd planted togetherhad gloomed again, and how a
storm from the sea had torn thepaper in the lattice to the west,
and she and our oldest child hadended it, and how big the boy
crew, and how she told himtheir father was a hero, and that
(47:02):
he fought for his country, whichwas their too. They were indeed nothing
but the letters which any wife wouldwrite to the husband whom she loved and
was at the front in any war. She had always the beginning of school,
I bought him a brown cloth schoolbag for his books, lit uniform
(47:22):
and the cap such as the otherchildren were. But at the home I
teach him too. I put flowersbefore your picture every day, and every
day I explained to them how braveyou are, and how beautiful a country
China is. How we belonged toChina, though I not belong to you.
(47:44):
The way to us I won.Yes, generalis enough. Will you
give up your Japanese wife at yourcommand? No? I left my wife
and children to come back and fight. I am fighting. When peace comes,
I shall bring'em here. Mysons are Chinese, and she their
(48:04):
mother, is loyal to me.And it will be a long time before
peace comes. I know that thiscity will be in ruins. This city
and many other places when peace comes, there may be no cities left.
There will be the land, Yes, there will be the land. Well
(48:25):
I won. You may go withyour father. Thank you, General,
and after a week's time you willreturn to your place in the army.
Yes, General, there are yourletters orderly. Huh that map of the
new road to Burma. It ishere, General, the new road to
Burma. I went out with thosewords in my ears. That was only
(48:52):
a short while ago. Now I'veheard it's almost finished. Thousands of men
and women at work at it.A strange way to fight at war for
reps, to make a great roadwestward while the enemy bombs the east.
But it's our way. What ifthe real country my sons will know is
(49:14):
this new inner China looking not seawardbut across the mountains of Asia. Who
knows? This concludes the Campbell Playhousepresentation of their best New book for April,
(49:43):
Peerless Bucks, The Patriot, DarringOrson Wells with Anime Won and now
here is Orson Welles and especially reallyinteresting to do the Patriot this week is
Miss Buck, Miss Wang and myselfhave something in common in that we've all
(50:05):
lived in China. Miss Buck,whose father was a missionary, has lived
there most of her life. MissWang, as you all know, is
Chinese, although she was born inthis country. She's achieved an international film
and stage reputation. And as formyself, I visited China just long enough
to be able to say Huang Yushong frosted yellow willows or uh Anna mee
wog, how do you? Howdo you do? Miss Wang? I'm
(50:27):
delighted to meet you. Uh toaim delowed to meet you, Miss Buck.
As the Chinese, I naturally havebeen intensely interested in your books on
China. Thank you, Mitt Bangand mister Wells. I would like to
express to you the I cannot playhouse and to you my grateful appreciation for
the selection of The Patriarch as thebest new book for April. I'm honored.
It's who you were honored. It'sbeen a privilege to dramatize The Patriot
(50:50):
and now Missus Buck. There area number of things, and I'm sure
our listeners would like to know aboutthe new personal problems the situation the East
is creating. I should think thepredicament of Chinese and Japanese who intermarriage would
be especially difficult. Is it anunusual situation? No, the story I
told in The Patriot is a verycommon one. While I was writing this
book, I was also corresponding witha Japanese woman. She told me that
(51:12):
the Japanese wives, like Tarma,remained loyal to their Chinese husbands and send
them off to war with the feelingthat this is duty. But then Japanese
are trained to a high sense ofduty. Missus, what do you think
it's possible to feel sympathy for Chineseand Japanese and at the same time to
understand them both. When one hashad experience of many wars, one comes
to see that the patan is alwaysthe same. No matter who is the
(51:36):
aggressor and who is attacked, bothare victims and both lose in the end.
You intimate in your story the Chinais looking westward. What does that
mean? No one quite knows yet, except that it will certainly mean a
China different from the one before thewar. The territory which Japan holds is
along the Eastern Sea coast. Roughlyit compares to our own original seton Karnis.
(51:58):
It was a stronghold, a modernin that small strip of territory where
China's great modern cities tensin Shanghai,man King, Hankow, and Cantan.
There were China's modern men and women, her modern schools and industry. But
beyond Hanko is another China, ahuge medieval country where people live and think
as they have for many centuries.Modern life is not penetrated there. But
(52:22):
now a tremendous westward trek has begun. Japan has taken the Sea coast provinces
and peasants, merchants, students,teachers, everybody who can move is going
west. Their own Chinese ancient civilizationflourishes in its purest forms. In a
sense, they are returning to theirancestors. And Young China meets Old China
(52:44):
for the first time face to face. Each of course, will affect the
other profounder. But how who cansay? One's imagination quickens all unknowingly.
Perhaps China is hastening the unification ofa continent. Thank you, miss Bok
for the clarity with which you've explainedthe difficult situation in the Orient, and
thank you miss Wang being with ustonight. In Tonight's Campbell Playoff's production of
(53:13):
The Patriots, the role of Iwanwas played by Orson Wells. Miss Annimee
Wang was Peony. The part ofTamil was played by Margaret Curtis and that
of Who by Ray Collins. MaroonMcCormick was in Land, and Elliott Reed
was Bongjie. The parts of theBroker and chun Kaischek were played by Everett
Sloan. Edgar Barrier played Muraki,and Howard Tichman was Jack Limb. Music
(53:37):
for the Campbell Playhouse is arranged andconducted by Bernard Hermann. And now,
mister Wells, will you tell usplease about next week's story. Well,
next week we'll offer one of themost famous comedies, madern nanas Noah Coward's
witty essay on the ironies and absurditiesmodern love, Private Lives. I to
(54:00):
announce that Miss Gertrude Lawrence will bewith us in Aparte, created so brilliantly
in London and in New York.So until next week until Private Lives,
my sponsors, the makers of CampbellSoups, and all of us in the
Campbell Playhouse remain obediently yours. Themakers of Campbell Soups join Orson Wells in
(54:32):
inviting you to be with us ofthe Campbell Playhouse again next Friday evening,
when that great star, Miss GertrudeLawrance, will appear with him in Noel
Coward's gayest comedy Private Lives. Meanwhile, if you have enjoyed tonight's Campbell Playhouse
presentation, won't you tell your groceryshow tomorrow when you order Campbell's Tomato Juice.
(54:53):
This is Ernest Chapel saying thank youand good night. This is the
Columbia Broadcasting System.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.