D.A.V.

PUBLIC SCHOOL, NEW PANVEL

Plot No. 267, 268, Sector-10, New Panvel,
Navi Mumbai-410206 (Maharashtra).
Phone 022-27468211, 27482276, 27451793
E-mail – davnewpanvel@[Link]

Subject: ENGLISH Lesson 4: The Enemy

STD- XII
Q1. Who was Dr Sadao? Where was his house?
Ans. Dr Sadao Hoki was an eminent Japanese surgeon and scientist. He had spent eight valuable
years of his youth in America to learn all that could be learnt of surgery and medicine there. He was
perfecting a discovery which would render wounds entirely clean.
Dr Sadao’s house was built on rocks well above a narrow beach that was outlined with bent pines. It
was on a spot of the Japanese coast.

Q2. Will Dr Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?

Ans. Dr Sadao knew that they would be arrested if they sheltered a white man in their house. The
wounded man was a prisoner of war who had escaped with a bullet on his back. Since Japan was at
war with America, harbouring an enemy meant being a traitor to Japan. Dr Sadao could be arrested
if anyone complained against him and accused him of harbouring an enemy.

Q3. Will Hana help the wounded man and wash him herself?
Ans. The gardener and the cook were frightened that their master was going to heal the wound of a
white man—an enemy. They felt that after being cured he (the white man) will take revenge on the
Japanese. Yumi, the maid, was also frightened. She refused to wash the white man. Hana rebuked
the maid who had refused to wash a wounded helpless man. Then she dipped a small dean towel
into the steaming hot water and washed the white man’s face. She kept on washing him until his
upper body was quite dean. But she dared not turn him over.

Q4. What will Dr Sadao and his wife do with the man?
Ans. Dr Sadao and his wife, Hana, had told the servants that they only wanted to bring the man to
his senses so that they could turn him over as a prisoner. They knew that the best possible course
under the circumstances was to put him back into the sea. However, Dr Sadao was against handing
over a wounded man to the police. He dedded to carry him into his house. He operated upon him
and extracted the bullet from his body. He kept the white man in his house. He and his wife looked
after him and fed him till he was strong enough to walk on his legs. .

Q5. Will Dr Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?

Ans. It was the seventh day since Dr Sadao had operated upon the young white man. Early that
morning, their three servants left together. In the afternoon, a messenger came there in official
uniform. He told Dr Sadao that he had to come to the palace at once as the old General was in pain
again.
Hana, who had thought that the officer had come to arrest Dr Sadao, asked the messenger, “Is that
all?” The baffled messenger enquired if that was not enough. She tried to cover her mistake by
expressing regret and admitted that the General’s illness was enough. Dr Sadao told the General
about the white man he had operated upon. Since Dr Sadao was indispensable to the General, he
promised that Dr Sadao would not be arrested.

Q6. What will Dr Sadao do to get rid of the man?

[Link] Sadao had told the old General that he had operated upon a white man. The General
promised to send his private assassins to kill the man silently and secretly at night and remove his
body. Dr Sadao left the outer partition of white man’s room open. He waited anxiously for three
nights. The servants had left their house. His wife Hana had to cook, clean the house and serve the
wounded man. She was unaccustomed to this labour. She was anxious that they should get rid of the
man.
Dr Sadao told Tom, the white man, that he was quite well then. He offered to put his boat on the
shore that night. It would have food and extra clothing in it. Tom might be able to row to the little
island which was not far from the coast. It had not been fortified. The .water was quite deep.
Nobody lived there, as it was submerged in storm. Since it was not the season of storm, he could live
there till he saw a Korean fishing boat pass by. He gave the man his flashlight. He was to signal twice
with his flashlight at sunset in case his food ran out. In case, he was still there and all right, he was to
signal only once.
Dr Sadao gave the man Japanese clothes and covered his blond head with a black doth. In short, Dr
Sadao helped the man to escape from Japan. At the same time he also got rid of the man.

READING WITH INSIGHT

[Link] are moments in life when we have to make hard choices between our roles as private
individuals and as citizens with a sense of national loyalty? Discuss with reference to the story you
have just read.
Ans. Dr Sadao Hoki faces a dilemma when he finds the body of an unconscious wounded white man
lying on the lonely coast with dangerous rocks near his house. His first reaction was that the person
was perhaps a fisherman who had been washed from his boat. He ran quickly down the steps. His
wife, Hana came behind him. When they came near, Sadao found that the man was wounded and
lay motionless. His face was in the sand. As they saw his face, they found that he was a white man
with long yellow hair and a rough yellow beard.
Being an expert surgeon, Dr Sadao saw that the man had a gun-wound on the right side of his lower
back. He at once packed the wound with sea moss to stanch the fearful bleeding. Since Japan was at
war with America, the white man was an enemy. Dr Sadao muttered, “What shall we do with this
man?” He answered the question himself, “The best thing that we could do would be to put him
back in the sea.” His wife approved of his decision.
Then Sadao made another observation. If they sheltered a white man in their house they would be
arrested and if they turned him over as a prisoner, he would certainly die. Hana still insisted on
putting him back into the sea. From his battered cap, Dr Sadao concluded that he was a sailor from
an American warship. The man was a prisoner of war. He had escaped and that was why he was
wounded in the back..
Hana asked if they were able to put him back into the sea. Sadao then said that if the man was
whole he could turn the man over to the police without difficulty. He cared nothing for the man. He
was their enemy. All Americans were their ‘enemy’. But since he was wounded… Hana understood
his dilemma and realised that in the conflict between his sense of national loyalty and his duty as a
doctor, it was the latter which proved dominant. Since Sadao too could not throw him back to the
sea, the only course left for them was to carry him to their house. Sadao enquired about the reaction
of the servants.
Hana said that they would, tell the servants that they intended to give the man to the police. She
told Sadao that they must do so. They had to think of the children and the doctor’s position. It would
endanger all of them if they did not give that man over as a prisoner of war.
Sadao agreed and promised that he would not think of doing anything else.

Q2. Dr Sadao was compelled by his duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana,
his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?
Ans. Dr Sadao and his wife, Hana, together lifted the wounded man and carried him to an empty
bedroom in their house. The man was very dirty. Sadao suggested that he had better be washed. He
offered to do so if she would fetch water. Hana was against it. She suggested that the maid, Yumi,
could wash the man. They would have to tell the servants. Dr Sadao examined the man again and
remarked that the man would die unless he was operated upon at once. He left the room to bring
his surgical instruments.
The servants did not approve of their master’s decision to heal the wound of a white man. Even
Yumi refused to wash the white man. There was so fierce a look of resistance upon Yumi’s round dull
face that Hana felt unreasonably afraid. Then she said with dignity that they only wanted to bring
him to his senses so that they would turn him over as a prisoner. However, Yumi refused to have
anything to do with him. Hana asked Yumi gently to return to her work.
The open defiance from the domestic staff hurt Hana’s feelings. She had told the servants to do what
their master commanded them. She was convinced of her own superiority. She now became
sympathetic to her husband and helped him in his efforts to heal the wounded man. Though the
sight of the white man was repulsive to her, she washed his face and his upper body. She prepared
herself to give him the anaesthetic according to her husband’s instructions. She had never seen an
operation. She choked and her face turned pale like sulphur. She felt like vomiting and left for a
while. She returned after retching and administered anaesthetic to the man. Thus she co-operated
with her husband fully to save the wounded man.

Q3. How would you explain the reluctance of the soldier to leave the shelter of the doctor’s home
even when he knew he couldn’t stay there without risk to the doctor and himself?
Ans. On the third day after the operation, the young man asked Dr Sadao what he was going to do
with him and if he was going to hand him over. Dr Sadao said that he did not know himself what he
would do with the mem. He ought to hand him over to the police as he was a prisoner of war.
The young man saw that Dr Sadao and his wife Hana were different from other Japanese. They spoke
English well, looked after him and served him food. Seven days after the operation of the man, Dr
Sadao was called to the palace to see the General. Hana thought that the police had come to arrest
Dr Sadao. Dr Sadao confided in the General and he (General) promised to send his personal assassins
to kill the man and remove his body. Dr Sadao waited for three nights. Nothing happened. Then he
made a plan to let the prisoner escape. He told Tom, the young American, about it. The young man
stared at him and asked if he had to leave. It seemed he was reluctant to leave. Dr Sadao told him
that he should understand everything clearly. It was not hidden that he was there and this situation
was full of risk for himself as well as for the doctor and his family. Thus it is quite clear that the
reluctance of the soldier was caused by the single motive of self-preservation. He knew from the
treatment he had received from the couple that they would save him.

Q4. What explains the attitude of the General in the matter of the enemy soldier? Was it human
consideration, lack of national loyalty, dereliction of duty or simply self-absorption?
Ans. During his meeting with the General, Dr Sadao told him about the man he had operated on
successfully. He explained that he cared nothing for the man. The General appreciated his skill and
efficiency and promised that he would not be arrested.
The General thought it quite unfortunate that the man had been washed up to Dr Sadao’s doorstep
and thought it best if he could be quietly killed. He promised to send his private assassins to do so
and remove his dead body. He suggested that Dr Sadao should leave the outer partition of the white
man’s room to the garden open at night.
It is evident that the General had no human consideration in this matter. For him an enemy was an
enemy and must be wiped out. He wanted the man to be eliminated silently to save the doctor from
being arrested. It was neither lack of national loyalty nor dereliction of duty that guided and inspired
his decision. It was simply his sense of self-absorption. He “wanted to keep Dr Sadao safe only for his
own sake. He had no faith in the other Germany trained doctors. He might have to be operated upon
anytime when he had another attack and he had full faith in the skill and loyalty of Dr Sadao only.
This fact is further corroborated by the General’s remarks to Dr Sadao, one week after the
emergency operation upon the General. Dr Sadao informed him that the man had escaped. The
General asked whether he had not promised Sadao that he would kill the
man for him. Dr Sadao replied that he had done nothing. The General admitted that he had
forgotten his promise as he had been suffering a great deal and he thought of nothing but himself.
He revealed the whole truth. He admitted that it was careless of him to have forgotten his promise.
But added that it was not lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty on his part.

Q5. While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during wartime,
what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?
Ans. It is the consciousness of the demands of one’s calling that make a sensitive soul respond to the
call of his duty as a professional doctor to attend to the wounded human being regardless of his
being an enemy.
In the story ‘The Enemy’ Dr Sadao Hoki finds a prisoner of war washed ashore and in a dying state
thrown to his doorstep. As a patriot, it is his duty to hand him over to the police. If he does not want
to be entangled, the next best thing is to put him back to the sea.
However, the surgeon in him instinctively inspires him to operate upon the dying man and save him
from the jaws of death. First, he packs the wound with sea-moss to stanch the fearful bleeding. Then
he brings him home with the help of his wife. In spite of stiff opposition and open defiance of the
servants, he operates upon the man and harbours him till he is able to leave. He knows fully well the
risk of sheltering a white man—a prisoner of war—in his house. But his sentimentality for the
suffering and wounded person help him rise above narrow national prejudices and extend his help
and services even to an enemy.

Q6. Do you think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the
circumstances?
Ans. Yes, I think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the
circumstances. Initially, the doctor as well as his wife thought that the best as well as kindest thing
would be to put him back into the sea. But neither of them was able to put him back into the sea.
Sadao explained that if the man was whole he could turn him over to the police without difficulty,
but since he was wounded, the doctor could not throw him back to the sea. He could not kill the
man whom he had saved from the jaws of death.
The General promised to send his private assassins to kill the man and remove his dead body. Sadao
waited for three nights for their arrival, but they never came as the General being preoccupied with
his own suffering, forgot everything else.
Meanwhile the fear of Hana, the doctor’s wife, that he would be arrested on the charge of
harbouring an enemy kept on mounting. Dr Sadao made up his mind to get rid of the man as it was
not only inconvenient but also dangerous for them to have him there any longer. He, therefore,
quietly devised the plan of letting the prisoner escape by using his own boat and Japanese clothes.
As soon as the enemy left, the servants returned and life became normal once again. Dr Sadao
informed the General that “the man” had escaped. The General admitted that he had forgotten his
promise as he thought of nothing but himself as he was suffering a great deal. He confessed that it
was careless of him but it was not his lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty. In short, the doctor’s
strategy to let the prisoner escape was the best possible solution to the problem under the
prevailing circumstances.