Fishing for Stars (45 page)

‘Anna is not an hysterical woman!’ I interjected, misreading her emphasis.

‘Of course not! I above anyone know this. But it was necessary for
him
to know also. To know that
Anna-san
is not just a woman, but also a person he must respect as he would any brave and courageous warrior. Respect her as he does you. He knows you have been a great warrior and have many medals for courage. Now he knows that she is also such a one, but her medals are the scars she wears on her heart.’ She sighed. ‘I regret,
Duncan-san
, that like most Japanese men he has difficulty apologising.’ She paused and sighed a second time. ‘But he is
oyabun,
he finds it impossible to admit he was wrong.’

‘So he sent you?’

‘Yes and no. He suggested I should come to take care of Anna.’ She smiled. ‘He is softening the ground. I am glad he asked me, but it was not my request. I did not ask his permission to come or volunteer.’

‘Before, when you realised who she was, didn’t you wish to be reacquainted with Anna?’

‘It would have been a great privilege, but it was a long time ago. Those were bad times. My hope was that she had put them behind her. I did not wish to open old wounds.’

‘But if Anna had come with me to visit
Fuchida-san
, would she not have recognised you?’

‘That would not be possible,
Duncan-san
. No woman, other than myself, has ever been in the penthouse of
Oyabun Fuchida-san.
’

I was not at all certain that in her present state, or any other for that matter, Anna should be reacquainted with
Korin-san
. ‘But now you have changed your mind and wish to help her?’

Korin-san
looked dismayed. ‘I would
always
wish to help
Anna-san
! She is the finest woman I have ever known. She has the courage of a lioness. But, as I said, I am associated with bad rice, times she would not wish to remember. I thought it better to stay away.’ She paused. ‘That is why I have come to see you.’

‘Me?’

‘Yes,
Duncan-san
!
You
must decide what is best. If you wish me to go then I shall do so.’

I spread my hands and sighed. ‘
Korin-san
, I don’t know. I
really
don’t know. Until Anna wakes up I cannot possibly decide.’

‘Of course! I understand,
Duncan-san
. I have taken too much of your time as it is. You must go to her.’

‘No, it is all right, I have left a note. If she wakes up she will call reception and they will inform me,’ I said. ‘Now it is my turn to ask about you. I am curious,
Korin-san
. Your knowing Anna is an amazing coincidence. How did you come to work for
Oyabun
Fuchida-san
? Anna has spoken about you. I know that you were a retired geisha brought to Tjilatjap to train the comfort women. But what happened to you after the war?’

Korin-san
sighed. ‘When the Americans dropped the second bomb and the armistice was declared I was instructed by the
kempeitai
to poison the six other
okami-san
at the Nest of the Swallows and then to take my own life. I was told that the Americans would immediately hand us over to the Dutch who, because we had enslaved their daughters and wives as concubines, would take their terrible revenge and torture us and we would die slow and agonising deaths. They insisted that poisoning was much the better way for us, the more respectable and honourable way to die. But the fifth
okami-san
and I, who had cared for
Anna-san
, “preparing” her for the
kempeitai
colonel, Takahashi, were witness to her extraordinary courage and tenacity and she gained honour in our eyes. As a result we decided to disobey our instructions. We were consequently captured by the British and repatriated to Japan where we were prosecuted for war crimes. The others received prison sentences of five years and I, as the senior
okami-san,
received seven years.’

‘You spent
seven
years in prison?’

‘No. The Americans needed comfort women for their soldiers during their occupation and asked the Honourable Yoshio Kodama, who was reorganising the
yakuza
into a single force, to establish clean and safe places for their forces to visit. He had access through the American Army Intelligence, G2, to the records of war criminals and, discovering my past, negotiated my freedom and asked me to organise six comfort-women establishments near the US military bases, then more during the Korean War, until we eventually controlled the military brothels throughout Japan.

‘He installed the honourable Dr Honda, who was also imprisoned for work he did as a junior army doctor at Harbin in Manchuria, where they used prisoners of war as guinea pigs in the army’s germ-warfare program. He had only a minor part, but as most of the senior staff, the real experts, went to America to continue their research, the young, inexperienced doctors were put on trial to satisfy the War Crimes Tribunal. There was much venereal disease around and the Americans were very strict.

‘To help me organise the comfort houses
Kodama-san
sent twenty of his young
wakagashira
to learn the business.
Fuchida-san
was one of these but at the time he was also studying at the university. They were all heroin addicts and were not always reliable, with the single exception of
Fuchida-san
, who was hungry to learn, with a terrible energy and ambition and strict principles. He soon learned the concubine business and also how to control the
kuroi kiri
[black mist], doing the awkward and dirty jobs for the government that gives us our real power. With his own determination and strength I would eventually help him to give up the white powder, to get clean.

‘The brothels proved very profitable. Then when the Americans left we expanded, until today most of them and the sex, gambling, nightclub, and
pachinko
 – pinball parlour – businesses in Tokyo and in all the big cities are owned by
yakuza
or are under
yakuza
control. It is how
Fuchida-san
first came to prominence. He has a tremendous flair for organisation and eventually gained sufficient power to become the
oyabun
for the Tokyo region.
When I retired he took me in as his
mama-san
.’

I had not interrupted while she told her amazing story. ‘And now you act
only
as his
mama-san
?’

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘I have become a feeble old woman who answers the telephone and serves green tea.’

I laughed. ‘I don’t think so.’

She smiled, her powdered face a study in wrinkles. ‘Every man, even the Emperor, needs a mother. Perhaps also I am still a bit useful to him. My memory is good and that is why I must listen to the phone calls. Sometimes the lesser
oyabun
will argue that they didn’t say something or that something else was intended, then
Fuchida-san
will call me in and I will tell them in their exact words and inflections what they said. It is part of my geisha training and it has not forsaken me.’

But I had the feeling that Miss Sparkle was much, much more than a human tape recorder and dispenser of green tea, although, because of the outwardly off-hand and dismissive treatment by men of women in Japan, I would probably never know the true extent of her influence. I decided to confide in her.

‘
Korin-san
, I have a problem.’

‘With Anna?’

‘Yes. She wishes still to have the original assignation with
Konoe-san
.’

Miss Sparkle showed no surprise. ‘She is strong. She cannot be defeated.’

‘Stubborn!’

‘It is her way.’

‘She must not. It will harm her further. We must go home.’

‘You have told her this?’

‘Yes.’

Miss Sparkle cackled. ‘She is a woman who takes her own advice; not many women do.’

‘Always,’ I returned. ‘But this time it is
wrong
!’ I insisted with some emphasis.

‘Does she listen to you?’

‘Sometimes, but not often; in most matters she is better than me.’

‘That is a difficult thing for a man to admit.’

‘But it is nevertheless true.’

‘And she is successful?’

‘Enormously. But there is much more to come.’

‘Business?’

‘Yes. She is very good. Already a millionaire . . . I think.’

‘So, why does she wish to confront
Konoe-san
?’

‘I don’t know, some sort of revenge maybe? Close the books? I don’t really know or care, except I do know that it will damage her – has already damaged her, and that’s all I care about.’

‘
Duncan-san
, I was a geisha and I think as an old woman I can now say I was a good one. My job was always to anticipate the wishes of a man, to think like him, to know him intimately, instinctively. When Anna was incarcerated in the Nest of the Swallows, my instructions were to prepare her for Colonel Takahashi. I told her what every geisha knows – that if she pleases a man beyond anything he may have anticipated, she acquires power. It is the soft power of a woman. When he is satiated, when every pore of his body is fulfilled, satisfied, when he believes he is the only one, the true satyr, the person of absolute primary importance to a woman’s craving for satisfaction, his arrogance weakens him and he becomes vulnerable to her power, her influence. I carefully and assiduously trained Anna in how she might do this with Colonel Takahashi. I taught her the
soft
power of a determined and patient woman. She listened, she appeared to obey my every instruction, she became skilled in the ways of pleasuring a man, and then when she faced
Takahashi-san
she used all I had taught her to disarm him so that he trusted her and foolishly believed he controlled her, whereupon she killed him before he could take her virginity.
Duncan-san
,
Anna-san
has the hard power every woman wishes she possessed, but doesn’t.’ Miss Sparkle now looked directly at me. ‘Tell me. Is she still a virgin?’

I coloured furiously, my face burning with shame. She had pinned me as surely as if I had been a butterfly on the wall in
Fuchida-san
’s collection, where, by the way, I would probably find myself next to a brown spotted butterfly called ‘Satyr’. ‘Yes,’ I admitted.

‘
Hai!
And you think the confrontation with
Konoe-san
will further damage her?’ she said doubtfully. ‘She has never submitted to the one disadvantage every woman suffers, that we are the mortar, the receptacle, not the pestle, and not only physically, but also for the male ego. We try therefore to make it our strength, an enticement, a spider web, to trap the male. If we are patient and skilful and gifted with beauty, often the soft power is successful. But to be beautiful and desirable in every way, then to refuse to be the receptacle, to refute
soft
power in preference for
hard
power, that is what Anna has done.’

There wasn’t any point in trying to pretend to this wise and world-weary old geisha. ‘
Konoe-san
is different. As you know he never used her as a man does a woman, so soft or hard power was not the issue. He simply captured her mind and took possession of her soul. I love her as much as a man can love a woman, but I believe he controls her still.’

‘And what then do you believe you bring to her?’

I shrugged. ‘Who may know a woman’s mind? Certainly not me. I know she loves me and perhaps I am the stable force in her dangerous life. Dependability may be seen as a virtue, so may consistency, though neither is exciting or compelling. I think my world and the life I lead in the islands is without the complications or the malice that exist in the competitive business environment in which she operates. Perhaps she comes to me to rest her mind and to renew her spirit.’

‘That is well spoken,
Duncan-san
. Then
you
are the soft power. That is unusual in a man, but greatly to be cherished. It is also the only way with someone like
Anna-san
.’

I laughed. ‘In business, as in choosing clothes, she asks my opinion only so that she can do the opposite.’

‘Have you not thought,
Duncan-san
, that perhaps you possess the greater qualities of tolerance and goodwill?’

‘Hmm, I don’t know about that. With Anna there is always the pain of not possessing her completely. But it is manageable, I have learned to compromise.’