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00:00The Makers of Campbell's Soup presents the Campbell Playhouse, Orson Welles producer.
00:30Good evening, this is Orson Welles. Our story tonight is The Patriot by Pearl Buck. It is
00:44the Campbell Playhouse selection as the best new book for April, chosen from the publisher's
00:49large spring list. Miss Buck's enormously successful books on the Orient, starting with
00:54A Good Earth, have created a new conception of the Chinese peasant in the West and have
00:59brought her, among other tributes, that rare honor, the Nobel Prize for Literature. In her
01:04newest book, Miss Buck writes of the emergence of China as a nation. She also has a great deal
01:09to say about Japan. In The Patriot, she treats of the peoples of both countries, not only in
01:15relation to their present battle over the ownership of China, but in the gentler perspectives of their
01:20mutual arts and virtues. This evening we are fortunate in having Miss Buck here in the studio
01:26with us. She has graciously consented to speak to you before the end of this program. And also
01:31with us tonight is Anna May Wong, the beautiful Chinese-American star you've all seen on the
01:36screen. And so, ladies and gentlemen, we present The Patriot, a story of the coming alive of the
01:42new China and of the people of the Orient who are solving the bitter problems of human
01:46relationships in times of stress. My name is Ai Wan. My father is the great Shanghai banker, Wu. I'm the
02:09youngest of his two sons. But when I was going to university, I learned of the suffering and
02:13privations of my people in China and I became a revolutionist. It was En Lan, a young student
02:19who converted me and first told me of the brotherhood of young Chinese who were organizing
02:24secretly in the schools and in the mills and indeed everywhere in China, arming the poor, teaching
02:28them and preparing them for the new order of life, which was to be. Each day when school was over, we
02:34met with the others in secret in a deserted classroom. The things we have hoped for. Every day, the new
02:42government at Hankou is growing stronger. When the time comes, he will sweep down the Yangtze River. One
02:48man, a great man. He? Who is he? Who is it that will come? Who is this great man? Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek.
02:56Chiang Kai-shek. When that time comes, comrades, we must be ready. What does it mean to be ready? To be ready
03:05means preparing the people, their minds and their bodies, preparing them for the day of their
03:11liberation. My father's house was in the European quarter in Shanghai. It was a great square brick mansion built in the
03:19French style by a French architect 40 years before. Not in the least Chinese, but like a wealthy house in Paris
03:26with foreign furniture in the huge rooms and thick carpets on the floor. My son? Yes, father. Come here. You look
03:35tired, Ai-wan. I am tired, mother. You are late, Ai-wan. We had a meeting after school. What are these meetings, my son?
03:43Should the son of Wu the banker attend them? Student meetings, father. Then get yourself entangled, Ai-wan. Young
03:49students can do nothing to change those in control, but those in control can cut off your heads. Besides, none of you
03:57understand that all that is involved in running a country... Yes, father. I also at 20 had certain foolish ideas. Yes, sir. I want you to be
04:07careful. Remember, you are the son of Wu. Yes, father. Good night, my son. Good night. Where are you going, Ai-wan? To my room to study.
04:19Good night, Ai-wan. Good night, mother. I went up the wide carpeted stairs and when I got to my room, there was Peony. Peony, the servant
04:30girl, unrolling the quilts and bringing in hot tea to sit beside my bed. Peony. Peony, I want to tell you something. Yes, what is it? Peony, have
04:45you ever heard of the revolution? Of course I have. It's not a good thing. I've heard your father talk about it. He said revolutionists are like
04:54bandits. Oh, no, they're not. How do you know? Because I... Because I am one of them. Ai-wan, if your father knew, I feel as if you've put your life into my hands.
05:09Ai-wan, what is this revolution? When is it all to happen? Soon. As soon as Chiang Kai-shek comes. I don't believe it. You don't believe? Peony, I tell you it's
05:22true. Oh, don't be silly. I wish I hadn't told you. I wish you hadn't. Except that it helps me to understand something. What? It helps me to
05:34understand you and why your heart is not to be touched. Ai-wan, you are like a young priest. Now, En-Lan, the young leader of our movement, learned from me that I had confided our
05:47secret to Peony and he was very angry. He told me I had no business to speak of these matters to a woman and a slave. He said he must go to see her and that Peony must be threatened
05:57into silence. And so it was that he came to see her at my house. This is my room, En-Lan. What is this on the floor? That's a carpet. Am I to step on it? It's foolish, but so you can.
06:12If I had it, I'd sleep under it. Now, the door is shut. Here we're free. You can say anything you like and Peony will bring us tea in a little while. Is that your bed?
06:23Yes. I never saw such a bed. I never saw anything like this. All that silk. What is it for? The curtains. I can't help it. I was born into this house. I don't know anything else.
06:35I'm not blaming you, Ai-wan. I'm asking myself. If I had been born into this, would I ever have run away and joined with the revolution? I don't know. Do you like it here, En-Lan?
06:46I don't know. It's beautiful, but I don't know. What would I do here? This soft thing under my feet all the time. I like to take off my coat and spit on the floor. No, I'm glad I was born as I was. Who's that?
07:00Peony. You're home early, Ai-wan. I thought you and your friend might like these. Pork dumplings and rice cakes. Thank you, Peony. En-Lan, this is Peony.
07:11Please do not rise. I'm not one of the family. I'm only a servant. And I'm only a peasant's son. I've never been in a house like this before.
07:20So you're En-Lan. I know why you came here today. You were afraid I might tell your secret. That Ai-wan is a revolutionist. Don't worry. Who should I tell?
07:31I didn't know you, Peony. Now that I've seen you, I'm not afraid anymore. Now, why don't you two eat while the dishes are hot? Why not the three of us? Oh, I'm used to serving, not sitting down with the others.
07:45In the revolution, there's no such thing as one to be served and the other to sit. Ai-wan, I won't sit down unless we sit down together and I'm as hungry as a starved dog.
07:54Tell me, En-Lan. En-Lan, tell me more about this revolution.
08:01Nothing could stop it. Nothing could stop the marching of that triumphant figure of Chiang Kai-shek. He'd left Hong Kong and was proceeding down the river with his great army, Kyu-kyang, Aung Kyi-moo.
08:17The cities on its banks felt 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 wind over the country and sea, and then there was the intense, waiting stillness.
08:35But I never could be quite sure how Peony felt. One day I asked her outright. She'd come into the garden where everything was breaking into bud. I'd gone to look at a hawthorn flowering. Are you a real revolutionist, Peony?
08:53I don't know. I shall wait and see how it is.
08:57No, but what do you believe, Peony? You must believe in right or wrong.
09:03I'm not a priest like you. You believe in Chiang Kai-shek as though he were God. I know he's only a man.
09:10No, I don't. I don't believe in any gods, but I believe in the revolution.
09:16The revolution is only what people do. If they do well, then I am one of them.
09:23I knew she was wrong. It was wrong to measure one's belief by what people did. The thing was right or wrong in itself, but I could not forget what she had said.
09:32And that night before I slept, I locked my door, and from a secret place in my desk, I drew out a picture I'd cut from a magazine, a picture of the young Chiang Kai-shek.
09:40I sat looking at it. It was a face at once bold and kind, harsh and dreaming. I don't worship him, I thought, but I believe in him.
09:53I want! I want! Get up! Get into your clothes!
09:58What is it, Father? What's the matter? It's still dark.
10:00Stupid, foolish boy. Wicked, deceitful boy.
10:02What is it, Father?
10:03It is a paper with hundreds of names on it. Do you know what this is?
10:07It's a list.
10:09Your name is on the list. At any moment, soldiers will be here to seize you. Chiang Kai-shek has come.
10:14Chiang Kai-shek? But, Father, that means you said Chiang Kai-shek is here.
10:19He's here in the city. He came straight to Shanghai.
10:22Father, you don't know what that means.
10:24I saw him yesterday. He met with us, with all the bankers. We told him Shanghai must not be disturbed, our businesses, if he wants money, that is, to go on with his government.
10:31Will you dress yourself, I want? Or do you want to be killed?
10:34Father, Chiang Kai-shek, he never agreed.
10:38Of course he agreed. The man is no fool. Everything is arranged. First, he will purge the city of revolutionists.
10:43Then, he's betrayed us. Chiang Kai-shek has betrayed us, all of us who believed him.
10:50Come on, let's go to the others. I must tell them.
10:52I won't!
10:53You are going nowhere except to the docks to a ship for Japan. The car is waiting, ready.
10:58No, I won't go. Father, I can't go. I must warn the others.
11:01You are going at once.
11:03I gave my personal word that if they erased your name from the list, you would leave the country today.
11:08Father, you don't understand. You're making me into a traitor.
11:10You are already a traitor. The government has condemned all revolutionists to death. They have thousands of names.
11:16I won. I won. What's the matter? Peony! Peony, come here! The young master is sick! Peony!
11:29She's gone, young master.
11:30We've looked for her everywhere.
11:31Gone? Gone where? Peony! Peony! Peony!
11:40Peony!
11:51I lay on deck. The ship was moving slowly among small, green islands.
11:57To the east, I could see flights of Japanese fishing vessels, their sails white against the blue sky.
12:03That was the only way to endure my complete helplessness, not to think, not to remember.
12:08If only I could have warned En Lan. He was perhaps dead already, shot against a wall, and Peony... Peony was gone.
12:16I closed my eyes. Let nights drift over me and days pass me by.
12:25The fourth day, we landed at Nagasaki.
12:27Wui Wan! Wui Wan! Are you Wui Wan?
12:31Yes, if you please. I am that humble one.
12:32We have been expecting you. I am Mr. Muraki's son. My name is Bunji. My father invites you to our house.
12:38We drove out through the narrow streets.
12:41And up a hill away from the town, we stopped before a thatched roof gate, brick wall, tiny red varnished footbridge, over a stream, garden, everything in this garden perfect.
12:54Not a leaf on the grass, not a rock out of place in the stream, tinkling, and little artificial waterfalls.
13:02This is where we live. My father's garden is quite famous in Japan. And there is my father now.
13:08He is retired. He is growing old. All day he is in his garden.
13:13Father!
13:16Bunji, you are here?
13:18Father, this is our guest.
13:20In this house, Ai Wan, the son of my old friend Wu is welcome beyond any other.
13:25It is very kind of you to accept me, sir. I do not deserve it.
13:27Your father is my friend, and all we have is yours.
13:30You are too good, Mr. Muraki.
13:32And you are lucky, Ai Wan. The cherry trees are about to bloom. You have come at just the good moment.
13:37In six days, all Japan will be in blossom.
13:42Here is your room. See, Ai Wan, it opens on the garden.
13:45And when you are ready to sleep, clap your hands, and a maid servant will spread your quilts on the mat.
13:52And no one will come here except the gardeners. It is quite your own.
13:57When Bunji had gone, I sat down and looked about me.
14:00The house was still. I felt wrapped about in peace. Life here was planned.
14:06There were lightness and clarity and absolute cleanliness, and in spite of fragility,
14:10a feeling of long-settled stability and a sense that life had been lived here precisely like this, unchanged for generations.
14:19For the midday meal, we sat upon silvery mats about a low table facing the garden, Mr. and Mrs. Muraki, Bunji, and I.
14:25The air was cool and fresh.
14:28A rosy young girl came in with a tray of bowls. No one spoke to her.
14:32She set a bowl in front of each of us and went away.
14:36That was my sister. She is shy, and she will not eat with us today because you are a stranger, but she will get over it.
14:44Shall I speak to your sister as is your custom?
14:50My mother says, wait until afterwards. She will come in again. Her name is Tama.
14:57My mother says she is sorry she cannot speak in your language.
15:00She asks if you have enjoyed our poor food.
15:02I like everything. Everything here.
15:04I want.
15:06Yes, Mr. Muraki.
15:07Your father has written me that he wishes you to learn our business.
15:11In the morning, you will have a place beside Bunji in the office.
15:15Bunji will help you. In the afternoon, you may study or play.
15:19If you are not happy, you will tell me.
15:21But I'm sure I shall be happy, sir.
15:23I like all my house to be happy.
15:25Now, if you will forgive us, we will leave.
15:28Now, if you will forgive us, Wu Iwan, my wife and I, at this hour, every day, our gardener is waiting for us.
15:36There are things to decide.
15:38Those irises, they must be trimmed.
15:41Now you will see. Tama will come in.
15:43I know my sister. How shall you behave to her, Iwan? Like a modern young man?
15:48What will she like?
15:49Oh, no, I won't tell you. You shall judge for yourself.
15:52Here she comes.
15:53Bunji, please.
15:54This is my sister Tama.
15:56And this Tama is Wu Iwan, our guest, who has come to live with us.
16:00We shake hands, yes, Wu Iwan?
16:02Yes.
16:03Bunji told me you are a modern young man, yes?
16:06I also like to be new, but my father does not wish it.
16:09Please sit down.
16:11What were you saying, Bunji, when I came in?
16:14It seemed to me you two had a secret between you.
16:16You see how she is, Iwan?
16:18You must understand, she is two girls, Tama is.
16:21Before our parents, she was very proper and so shy.
16:23Bunji, you must not...
16:24And the other Tama is a modern girl, bold and brazen,
16:27and liking to talk to young men at that university to which she goes.
16:31I'm not, I do not. Don't believe him, Iwan.
16:34I shall believe only what you tell me yourself.
16:37No one else.
16:38You see, I feel myself very lucky to have come to your home.
16:42I can't tell you how unhappy I was. I thought nothing, nothing would be any good.
16:48Just this morning I thought that.
16:49Just this morning I thought that.
16:50Now just being in this house made me feel suddenly happier.
16:53We are all happier for your company, Iwan.
16:56Tama, is it not so?
16:58Oh, you see?
17:00Yes, me too.
17:08So through two winters I stayed on in Japan.
17:12In the spring of the second year, I noticed a change in the house.
17:14Tama, Bunji's sister, was at home more often now.
17:16All day she was about the house in her soft Japanese dress.
17:19Tama has finished at the university.
17:21She is at home now, preparing for marriage.
17:23For marriage, Bunji?
17:25Is Tama going to be married?
17:26Oh, nothing is decided.
17:28Then Tama is to be married.
17:29Of course, but not for some time.
17:31Is she...
17:33Bunji, is she engaged?
17:34Oh, that is not my affair.
17:35I'll tell you this though, Iwan.
17:37My father wants her to marry General Seki.
17:39General Seki?
17:41I've seen him, he's an old man as fat as a bullfrog.
17:43General Seki is my father's friend.
17:45A great patriot and a samurai.
17:47He wants a healthy young wife who will give him sons.
17:50And my father says it will help the country.
17:52Old Seki's blood and Tama's health.
17:54I don't think young girls should marry old fat men.
17:56How could she love him?
17:57Oh, don't think about such things.
17:59It does no good.
18:00Love isn't important.
18:01I'm not thinking of love.
18:05I'm thinking of Tama.
18:09And that day for the first time, I thought...
18:13What if they were the same thing?
18:15Love and Tama.
18:17For two years I've been living in the same house with her.
18:20And in all that time, we'd never once spoken to each other alone.
18:23Always when we were together, there was someone else present.
18:25A maidservant or a gardener or Mrs. Moriki herself.
18:29And then, one summer's day at the office,
18:31Bunji looked up suddenly from his desk and laughed.
18:33I want to climb a mountain.
18:34A mountain?
18:35When?
18:36Tomorrow.
18:37Why not?
18:38We've not had a holiday since New Year.
18:39If you say so.
18:40And we will take Tama with us, shall we?
18:41She used to go with me always before you came.
18:43Will you come?
18:44I don't know I won.
18:45It depends on whether she thinks it worthwhile.
18:47That is, worthwhile to stand the storm after me.
18:50You mean...
18:51My father.
18:52Oh.
18:53Well, I'll ask her anyway.
18:55She can do as she likes.
18:56Besides, it may rain in the night and then we will none of us go.
19:00Why do you laugh?
19:01Oh, for nothing.
19:04I don't like General Seki either.
19:06That's why.
19:07It was clear moonlight that night when I saw her early in the morning.
19:11I felt that all the time I'd known it would be fine and that she'd come.
19:16She was wearing a cotton dress flowered in blue and white like a peasant girl's.
19:20We started soon after dawn, like any two brothers and a sister.
19:24Hey, Bunji!
19:26Bunji!
19:27I'll meet you at the stream where it is deep.
19:29We'll meet you there.
19:31I'll meet you at the stream where it is deep.
19:33We'll meet you there.
19:38Tama.
19:40Tama.
19:41Have you ever seen such a day?
19:43There's not been such a day since I came to Japan.
19:46There are not many such days, even in Japan.
19:49Nor, I think, in the whole world.
19:52It's beyond anything I've ever known.
19:56Tama.
19:58I want to tell you, I've been...
19:59I've been trying to tell you.
20:00Yes?
20:01You mustn't marry an old man.
20:03Tama, don't. I beg you.
20:05Do you not think I shall marry whom I please?
20:09Look, there's Bunji, far up on the rocks already.
20:13How slow we are.
20:14Bunji!
20:16Bunji!
20:25We were all day in the mountains.
20:26We swam, we ran in the hills.
20:28We were very hungry.
20:29We ate, we laughed.
20:31And finally, we started down again towards home.
20:35It was getting dark.
20:38Tama.
20:39Yes, I won.
20:40Have you liked this day?
20:42Yes.
20:43It's been the best day of my life.
20:46And you?
20:48I don't know what this day has been in my life.
20:51But it has not been like any other day.
20:55It rained in the night.
20:58I heard the drops pattering on the roof in the darkness and I thought,
21:02she hears it too.
21:04When I woke,
21:06the tiny garden of my room was green and dripping with freshness.
21:10And I thought,
21:12she sees it too.
21:16When I came home from the office the next day, Mr. Muraki was waiting for me.
21:21I won.
21:23I won.
21:24Yes, Mr. Muraki.
21:27I've had a letter today from your father, I won.
21:30He's pleased with your progress.
21:32I told him you were doing well.
21:33Yes, sir.
21:34Your father writes me that there is great improvement in China.
21:37Order is quite restored.
21:40Order will always prevail.
21:42That is what the young must learn.
21:44Not desire,
21:46not willfulness,
21:47not impetuous wishes for anything.
21:50Mr. Muraki.
21:51I have decided to send you to Yokohama
21:54to help in our offices there.
21:56I have arranged that you will live there in the hostel where the other young clerks live.
22:01Yes, sir.
22:03Since I always do at once what I have decided upon at length,
22:07you will leave tomorrow.
22:09So,
22:10that is all.
22:12Good night, sir.
22:13Good night.
22:22Tama.
22:25Tama.
22:27Tama.
22:31Tama.
22:33Who is it?
22:35Tama.
22:36I won.
22:37Yes.
22:38I won't come in, Tama.
22:39I'll stay here.
22:40But come to the edge of the garden close to me so we can talk a little.
22:42Please.
22:44I'm going away tomorrow.
22:45I'm afraid someone will see you.
22:47Wait, I'll blow out the candle.
22:51I won if anyone hears or something terrible would happen to me.
22:53Tama.
22:55General Seiki, you wouldn't,
22:56you would never marry him, would you?
22:58Never.
23:00Tama.
23:01I had to see you.
23:02I'm being sent to Yokohama tomorrow.
23:04Tomorrow, Tama.
23:05I don't know when I'll come back.
23:07Please.
23:09Help me. What should we do?
23:10Help you, I won.
23:12I don't understand.
23:13Tama, don't speak to me like that.
23:14Like a,
23:15like a stranger.
23:16Didn't we have a good time on the hills?
23:18That was only yesterday.
23:19Yes.
23:21Yes, we did.
23:23Tama.
23:26Don't marry anybody.
23:28I don't want to marry anybody.
23:32Look, Tama, that mist.
23:34It's like a curtain.
23:36To hide us.
23:38A good spirit sent it.
23:40I told you I believed in spirits.
23:42And fate.
23:45We can't hurry fate.
23:47We can't avoid it.
23:48Do you believe
23:50Tama, in two people
23:52born to marry?
23:54Yes.
23:56Now you must go.
23:58I will write to you as soon as you tell me where.
24:01And we will meet again.
24:03If it is our fate.
24:05It is our fate.
24:18THE PATRIOTS
24:26You are listening to the Campbell Playhouse selection
24:28of the best new book for April,
24:30The Patriots by Pearl S. Buck.
24:40That year in Yokohama was the longest of my life.
24:44There were no quiet gardens there.
24:47No screen-shadowed houses
24:49and in the office I was surrounded by strangers now.
24:52I wrote to Tama and one night
24:54when I came home to my room there was a letter from her awaiting me.
24:57Wait, she said. We must wait.
24:59I know how to delay when I do not like.
25:02I have delayed this many times
25:04and I will again and again
25:06until it will be made clear to us what our fate is.
25:09And later as the months went by
25:12other letters came.
25:13They were short but they carried always the same steady words.
25:17I will delay.
25:19It will be made clear to us what our fate is.
25:23And then finally it came.
25:26Her last letter.
25:27I won.
25:29I won. I said to you I wanted to marry no one
25:32but my father has told me there is going to be war with China.
25:35Bunji has been called headquarters and so everything has changed.
25:39In war Japanese men fight and Japanese women bear sons.
25:41I must marry the general.
25:43Even my mother says that if there is a war
25:45it is my duty to fight for our country.
25:47I see my duty.
25:49It is my fate.
25:51Tama.
25:57So now I went to an old professional matchmaker
26:00for a fee the man agreed to go to Mr. Muraki
26:03and put forth my request for Tama's hand
26:05according to custom.
26:07On the 18th day of the next month he returned.
26:09Where have you been?
26:11Did not hear from you.
26:13I have been at my business.
26:15At my business.
26:17There has been a good deal of it.
26:19There was the old shooter the general.
26:21He had to be arranged
26:23but the young woman managed that very well.
26:25How?
26:27By saying she would kill herself.
26:29Yes and she went at once to it.
26:31I saw her.
26:33She said it and then she took a knife
26:35and drew it across her wrist before our eyes
26:37across one wrist.
26:39Her mother wept and fainted
26:41and her father bared her weight
26:43and she stood the blood rushing out of her arm
26:45and soaking into the mat.
26:47Finally her mother came to herself
26:49and moaning something about her
26:51having no children left.
26:53I thought you said there was a son.
26:55One, the youngest, who has gone to China in the army.
26:57Oh so.
26:59Well then the father said wait we will talk it over.
27:01So I waited and by arranging another young girl
27:03for the old shooter which I did
27:05it all went together one thing and another
27:07and well I have arranged things
27:09and they will be set soon as the custom is
27:11and the thing is as good as done.
27:13And her wrist?
27:15Oh it was bad, it was bad
27:17and yet I think she knew that only shedding her own blood
27:19would make them yield.
27:21The old man had been stubborn until then
27:23but when she did that
27:25he saw that she was more stubborn than he.
27:27Well now that it is as good as done
27:30I will advise you
27:32hasten to make her way yours
27:35before she knows it.
27:37For when a woman is stubborn
27:40the ocean itself is not so sure as her own will.
27:49My son
27:51it is with happiness that I learn of your betrothal
27:53to the daughter of my good friend Muraki.
27:56I am happy for you.
27:59There are no better trained women in the world
28:01than the Japanese.
28:03You will have a good family life.
28:06When a little more time has passed
28:08bring her to China to see.
28:10But not yet.
28:12The people here
28:14have a hatred against the Japanese
28:16because of the recent troubles.
28:18The Manchurian situation
28:20will be adjusted reasonably in the end.
28:22Nevertheless wait a little while
28:25before bringing a Japanese wife home to China.
28:30Tama
28:32Tama my little wife
28:35what are you thinking about?
28:37Oh I'm thinking of our house.
28:39I'm thinking of how I shall arrange everything.
28:41I wish we'd never go down from this mountain.
28:43It's been so safe and so quiet.
28:45We've been alone together here
28:47as though there were no one else in the world.
28:50Tama
28:51Yes
28:53Let me see your wrist.
28:55Do Japanese girls often cut their wrists
28:58to get their own way?
29:00It was what my father understood best.
29:03When I did that
29:05he meant what I said
29:07that I would marry you.
29:09And even if there had been a war
29:11you would have married me.
29:13I know you would.
29:15No I wouldn't Aiwan.
29:17If there had been a war
29:19I would have married General Seki.
29:22Don't you know I said I would?
29:25He's a very great general.
29:27The Emperor trusts him.
29:29But Tama you must love only me.
29:31I do love only you.
29:33I shall always love you.
29:35Why do you say if there had been a war?
29:37That would have had nothing to do
29:39with my loving you.
29:41Aiwan don't you see
29:43as a Japanese if it's my duty
29:45No Tama
29:48I am your duty.
29:51I
29:53I
29:55You have no other.
30:00The days ran after each other so quickly
30:02that before I could lay hold of one
30:03to treasure it another had come.
30:05Day followed day
30:07months slipped into months
30:09and we wanted no change.
30:11It was autumn so quickly
30:13that I could not believe it.
30:15One morning when we arose
30:17we saw that there had been
30:19frost in the night.
30:21And when I got home the next evening
30:23I found Tama sitting on the bamboo bench
30:25outside our room
30:27looking out over the sea.
30:29You don't mind do you Aiwan
30:31if I don't get up?
30:33I don't mind.
30:35I wish I knew your parents Aiwan.
30:37I wish I knew what your family is
30:39and how your home looks over there.
30:41Why do you want to know them?
30:44Because I'm about to become one of them.
30:47One of your family.
30:50Until now Aiwan
30:52I've belonged only to you.
30:54I've been a part of you.
30:57But now I'm going to have a child.
31:00To us that means
31:01that I shall belong altogether
31:03to your family
31:05and no more to my own.
31:07It was a boy
31:09and in the spring of the next year
31:11our second son was born.
31:13And after that things went on as before
31:15only not quite as before.
31:17Something was happening
31:19across the sea in China
31:21which could not quite be shut out.
31:23It was not a war.
31:25The papers made that clear.
31:27It was not to be called a war.
31:29It was in the emperor's name
31:31and the paper printed it.
31:33Special editions, the boy screaming in the streets
31:35great black letters gasly dry up on the headlines
31:37300 Japanese killed
31:39men, women and children
31:41300 Japanese murdered
31:43300 peaceful Japanese
31:45in a little town near Peking
31:47murdered by Chinese soldiers.
31:49Aiwan, why did they do that?
31:51There must be a reason.
31:53The Japanese must have done something
31:55something terrible to make them so angry.
31:57Tama.
31:59Yes, Aiwan.
32:01I don't know why.
32:03Don't be a Japanese woman.
32:05But I am a Japanese woman.
32:07You've already made up your mind, haven't you?
32:09You believe that my people could simply massacre like savages
32:11without any reason.
32:13If you think that, you have no understanding of me.
32:15We've suffered for years
32:17while you Japanese have been stealing our land and trade.
32:19We've laid ourselves back for years.
32:21Yes, and who killed Japanese in Nanking
32:23on March 27th of 1927?
32:25And who killed Japanese in Shanghai in 1932?
32:27It's true.
32:29We've all read it in our Japanese papers.
32:31You've held this all these years against me?
32:34No.
32:36Against your people.
32:38But I am my people.
32:40To you.
32:43And am I to you
32:45one of these Japanese who should be killed?
32:47Tama.
32:49Oh, Tama, what have we done?
32:52What have we said?
32:54All this killing and hatred
32:56has nothing to do with us.
33:01Tama.
33:03Tama.
33:05Tama.
33:10At the Meraki dock,
33:12we unloaded the latest shipments from China.
33:14Now there could be no doubt about it.
33:16It was loot being shipped to the Merakis.
33:18The merchandise, for the most part,
33:20hadn't even been packed, piled into the holes
33:22just as they'd found it in China.
33:24Things that only a few weeks before
33:26had been in people's homes.
33:28On that day, for the first time,
33:29in the hold of the ship, there was another cargo.
33:31After the freight had been landed
33:33and the unloading crew had left,
33:35I saw many small boxes begin to be brought off.
33:37Each had a name written in letters on its top.
33:39As each was brought out on shore,
33:41a name was called.
33:43And each time, a little group of people
33:45came forward and received the box.
33:47All of these persons were in deepest mourning.
33:49There was no sound of loud weeping.
33:51They'd been taught to smile
33:53when those they loved died in battle.
33:55But down their faces, their tears streamed.
33:57I moved back, half ashamed,
33:59and began standing alone,
34:01a box wrapped in his arms
34:03as though it were his child.
34:05And looking inadvertently into his eyes,
34:07I saw there such patient sorrow
34:09that I could not but stammer something
34:11about my wonder that there was such patience
34:13and no sign of hatred.
34:15And to this the old man answered gently,
34:17Why should we hate you?
34:19You had nothing to do with this.
34:23And besides, our people are taught to suffer
34:26gladly for our country.
34:27The tears burst from his eyes as he said this.
34:30But he only clutched the box more firmly.
34:33Yes, I rejoice.
34:35I rejoice.
34:37My only son.
34:40And this old man,
34:42uttering these words, brought light to me.
34:45The dusk, the silence in which I had been living,
34:47broken, was gone.
34:49I was at that moment recalled to my old self.
34:51Yes, to that old self which had been in the days
34:53when I dreamed of my country
34:55and lived to make of what I dreamed.
34:57How these people loved their country,
34:59the love of country which I saw shining
35:01in this old man's face.
35:03It was the most beautiful love in the world.
35:05How small and selfish was the love
35:07of one creature for another.
35:09This was a love infinitely larger,
35:11a love unto which I wanted to throw my whole self.
35:14Had I not known such love?
35:17I won, you are like a priest, Peony had said to me.
35:20I longed suddenly to lose myself
35:22and all my doubts in great sacrifice.
35:24I'd never been so happy, I now thought,
35:25as I had been in those old days with Anlan.
35:27No, not even with Tama
35:29and with all her ministering to me.
35:31I am one who is happiest when I minister.
35:33This is my nature, only I hadn't known it.
35:35It had taken the suffering of other people
35:37to show it to me.
35:39And in my own country, how many suffered now?
35:41I turned, and the old man went away.
35:44But I did not need him anymore.
35:46He'd done his work.
35:48Fate, that strange fate in which Tama always believed.
35:51I'd used him for the necessary moment
35:53and then had dismissed him.
35:55Without thinking of him again,
35:57I went back to the goods and the customs house.
35:59But all the time, while I listened to the demands
36:01of the customs officers,
36:03while I watched clerks open the crates
36:05and while I checked one paper after another,
36:07my mind and my heart were asking,
36:09how shall I tell Tama?
36:15And at first, on my way home,
36:17I thought I'd simply go without telling her.
36:19I'd write her all down in a letter.
36:21I'd almost persuaded myself to this
36:23when I stepped into her house.
36:25Usually she was there waiting for me
36:27in the garden or at the door.
36:29But tonight she was delayed.
36:31I was already inside taking off my shoes
36:33when she came running out of the kitchen,
36:35pushing her hair back as she came.
36:37Oh, I'm so late.
36:39Well, I was making something you like
36:41and it took me such a long time.
36:43Tama.
36:45I must go home.
36:47I am needed there.
36:49I said it very quietly,
36:51thought it would not startle her,
36:52but she grew stiff and still under my arms.
36:54The blood fled from her face.
36:57She did not say,
36:59let me go too.
37:01She knew now that I meant I must go alone.
37:04Yes, I was.
37:06I've been miserable all these days.
37:08I haven't known what to do.
37:10I knew what you were thinking.
37:12But you didn't tell me.
37:14I thought you didn't know.
37:16I was so afraid you might think
37:18it your duty to leave us.
37:20I didn't know what I ought to do
37:22and how sweet and right it is
37:24to die for one's country.
37:26Of course you must go if your country needs you.
37:29As a Japanese, I understand that.
37:32You know I am the same to you.
37:35Oh, yes, I know.
37:37This has nothing to do with us.
37:42We'll have to plan.
37:44Do you need a new bag
37:46or is the one we have good enough?
37:48I shall take very little.
37:50I'll be wearing a uniform in a few days.
37:52The children had better do.
37:54We can always return to my own father's house.
37:57He is so fond of the children.
37:59Yes, that's probably the best thing.
38:02You'll help the children to remember me.
38:06Shall I be an undutiful wife
38:08because misfortune has caught us?
38:10Am I to blame you?
38:13You are not forsaking me.
38:17I shall tell them,
38:19honor your brave father
38:20who fights for his country.
38:24Aiwan,
38:26may we spend a little money
38:28and have a big picture of you?
38:30I'll put it where the children will see it every day.
38:32We'll buy flowers.
38:34We'll do it tomorrow.
38:36There's a boat in four days.
38:38That'll give us time for everything.
38:40Let's tell your father.
38:42No, let's tell no one.
38:44I want those four days
38:46as though you weren't going.
38:48After you have gone,
38:50but they might seem ungrateful of me, Tama.
38:52No, no, I'll tell him.
38:54Let me have my way.
38:56He will understand.
38:58One thing he will always understand
39:00is what you do now.
39:02Any Japanese would understand it.
39:07Then it was the last day.
39:10I felt her as I had felt her
39:12all those last days as close to me
39:14as my own body.
39:16I knew continually
39:18what she thought and what she wanted.
39:20And how near she was at every moment to weeping.
39:22But I knew that she had set for herself
39:24the goal of not weeping
39:26until I had gone.
39:28She would smile at me while I was there
39:30until I could see her face no more.
39:32We'd gone through the hours so close together
39:34and yet we had not touched more
39:36than each the other's hand.
39:39And so it came to the last moment of all.
39:41In the harbor the ship's funnels
39:43were beginning to smoke
39:45as the engines were being fired.
39:47The ship was to sail at noon.
39:48We'd gone together hand in hand
39:50to the garden where our little boys played.
39:52They were making a dam of small stones
39:54across the narrow brook
39:56and they did not look up
39:58but I could hear their voices.
40:00And then for one moment I felt
40:02that I could not do what I had planned.
40:05You must go now.
40:07I shall send for you and the children.
40:09As soon as I can do it you shall all come.
40:11When shall we be wanted?
40:13Her words, her voice,
40:15her quiet fatal eyes
40:16recalled me and swept me
40:18out of this moment again
40:20into the vaster hour
40:22where our individual lives were now lost.
40:24I seized her in my arms
40:26and pressed my cheek against hers.
40:28I looked at her once
40:30and in her face I saw
40:32eternity between us.
40:38I stepped upon the ship's deck
40:40and at the same moment
40:42the gangplank began to move upward.
40:44I stood on the deck.
40:46We were moving steadily away from the dock.
40:48In a few moments we'd be leaving the harbor.
40:50I searched the slope of the hill nearest the sea.
40:52Yes, there it was.
40:54Our little house in the square of green
40:56softer than the surrounding green.
40:58That was the garden.
41:00And now I could see the spot of color
41:02that was Tama.
41:04I could not see her face
41:06and yet I could feel her eyes straining to see me.
41:08A tiny spot of bright orange
41:10moved across the green to stand beside it.
41:12That was my son.
41:14And then suddenly
41:16if I could have done it
41:18I would have leapt into the sea
41:20and rushed back to her.
41:22Hello.
41:24Hello.
41:26Hello.
41:28I'm in a laundry business in Seattle.
41:30I guess I'm your cabin mate.
41:32I'm Cantonese.
41:34The name's Lim, Jackie Lim.
41:36Born in USA though, three generations
41:38though my old granddad went back to Canton
41:40when he was 60.
41:42I can't speak my own language
41:44but I figure I can fight without talking.
41:47My ship steamed up the river
41:49I could see smoke rising
41:51from the city of Shanghai
41:53and buildings with great gaps in their walls.
41:55I went to our old house.
41:57My father looked old and tired.
41:59Ai Wan.
42:01Yes, father.
42:03You say that you have come home
42:05to fight for your country.
42:07Yes.
42:09There are other services than fighting, Ai Wan.
42:11Yesterday I spoke with the generalissimo
42:13Chiang Kai-shek.
42:14I told him my son was returning
42:16to fight for China.
42:18He wishes to use you.
42:20Chiang Kai-shek?
42:22Ten years ago he would have had me shot,
42:24me and my friends.
42:26Tell me, father.
42:28Did any escape?
42:30Yes, some escaped.
42:32They got away into the interior.
42:34Now they have a great army there.
42:36It is to them he wishes to send you.
42:38When I told him that the son of Wu
42:40was ready to fight for China
42:42he gave me these orders for you.
42:44Today everyone takes orders
42:46from Chiang Kai-shek.
42:48Gladly.
42:50He is a great man.
42:52The only man who will save us now
42:54from the Japanese.
42:56I believe what you tell me, father.
42:58He has arranged everything.
43:00There is a plane waiting for you
43:02at the airport outside the city.
43:04Well, Ai Wan.
43:06Yes, father.
43:08I'm going.
43:15Ten years have passed between us.
43:17Ten years of time and everything else.
43:19But I recognized him at once.
43:21It was En Lan.
43:23En Lan, now the leader
43:25of the great army of the North.
43:27And that night, after I had given him
43:29the Generalissimo's message,
43:31En Lan told me what had happened,
43:33told me how that morning, ten years before,
43:35the morning Chiang Kai-shek came to Shanghai,
43:37he and Peony, Peony, our little slave girl,
43:39had gone to the place of meeting,
43:41how they had waited for me
43:42and how, when I had not come,
43:44they had fled together into the interior.
43:46They had been married now for ten years.
43:49That night, when I was alone with Peony
43:51for a while, sitting before the fire,
43:53she told me of her life with En Lan.
43:55The long, hard years
43:57of wandering without a home.
43:59And I had two children.
44:01I was very ill with the loss.
44:03Now I shan't have any more.
44:05Peony.
44:07Oh, why should I not tell you?
44:09You are my brother.
44:10The first, my son,
44:12I lost by a fever.
44:14Our life is not a good life
44:16for a small child.
44:18We have been driven so much.
44:20He was five.
44:22I kept him as long as that.
44:24And then, suddenly,
44:26he died in a day.
44:28We buried him on the hillside
44:30in Qiangxi.
44:32It is so far south from here.
44:34I think I shall never see
44:36his grave again.
44:38And then, on the long march north,
44:40I met a little girl.
44:42I hoped the long march would be ended
44:44before she was born.
44:46But no.
44:48We kept climbing over those high mountains
44:50and down the rocky roads
44:52and over the desert.
44:54The child was born.
44:56So small and thin.
44:58And a girl.
45:00We were still marching.
45:02So what could we do with her?
45:04I gave her to a good farmer's wife
45:06and left some money for her
45:08and told her I would come back.
45:10Three years ago.
45:12Sometimes I can't be sure
45:14if I remember the place
45:16or how the woman looked.
45:18Did En Lan let this happen?
45:20You know him.
45:22He thinks only of the cause.
45:24Are you sorry you followed him that day?
45:26No, of course I'm not sorry.
45:28Without him,
45:30what would I have been?
45:34I followed the Eighth Route Army
45:36for three months after it joined forces
45:38with the Nationalist government.
45:40My home was occupied by Japanese troops.
45:42The heavenly city of Suchao was no longer ours.
45:44And then one day a plane came for me.
45:46Chiang Kai-shek had ordered my return
45:48to Hankau, far in the interior.
45:52Wu Ai-wan?
45:54I'm that person.
45:56General, it's always ready for you.
45:58I come.
46:00Wu Ai-wan?
46:02Yes, General Chiang.
46:04Ai-wan, you did your work well in the north.
46:06Ai-wan, is there anything you wish from me?
46:08A few days leave to go with my father.
46:11We will visit our ancestral lands together,
46:13which we have never seen.
46:15And then?
46:17To return to my place in the army, General.
46:19Ai-wan,
46:21I had planned to use you again,
46:23but you are married to a Japanese.
46:25Yes, General Isumo.
46:27I am.
46:29How do I know that you are not a spy?
46:32There is no way for me to tell you.
46:34I have here letters written to you
46:36by your Japanese wife.
46:38There was a long silence.
46:40I stood there looking at the General Isumo
46:42and he reading my letters from Tama.
46:44They were simple letters, full of small things,
46:46such as how a certain tree had grown in the garden
46:48and how the chrysanthemums he'd planted together
46:50had bloomed again,
46:52and how a storm from the sea
46:54had torn the paper in the lattice to the west
46:56and she and our oldest child had mended it,
46:58and how big the boys grew,
47:00and how she told them their father was a hero
47:02and that he fought for his country,
47:04which was theirs too.
47:06They were indeed nothing but the letters
47:08which any wife would write to the husband
47:10whom she loved
47:12and who was at the front in any war.
47:14Jiro is beginning school.
47:17I bought him a brown cloth school bag
47:19for his books,
47:21a little uniform,
47:23and a cap such as the other children wear.
47:26But at home I teach him too.
47:29I put flowers before your picture every day
47:32and every day I explain to them
47:34how brave you are
47:36and how beautiful a country China is
47:38and how we belong to China.
47:41Do I not belong to you
47:43and they to us?
47:45Iwan?
47:47Yes, Generalissimo?
47:49Will you give up your Japanese wife?
47:51At your command?
47:54No.
47:56I left my wife and children to come back and fight.
47:58I am fighting.
48:00When peace comes I shall bring them here.
48:02My sons are Chinese
48:04and she, their mother, is loyal to me.
48:06It is a long time before peace comes.
48:08I know that.
48:10This city will be in ruins.
48:12This city and many other places.
48:15When peace comes
48:17there may be no cities left.
48:19There will be the land.
48:21Yes.
48:23There will be the land.
48:25Wu Iwan,
48:27you may go with your father.
48:29Thank you, General.
48:31And after a week's time
48:33you will return to your place in the army.
48:34Here are your letters.
48:36Orderly.
48:38Sir?
48:40That map of the new road to Burma.
48:42It is here, General.
48:44The new road to Burma.
48:48I went out with those words in my ears.
48:52That was only a short while ago.
48:54Now I've heard it's almost finished.
48:56Thousands of men and women at work in it.
49:00It's a strange way to fight a war, perhaps.
49:02To make a great road westward
49:04while the enemy bombs the east.
49:07But it's our way.
49:09What if the real country my sons will know
49:13is this new inner China
49:16looking not seaward
49:18but across the mountains of Asia?
49:21Who knows?
49:33THE END
49:38This concludes the Campbell Playhouse presentation
49:41of their best new book for April,
49:43Perlette Buck's The Patriot,
49:45starring Orson Welles with Anna May Wong.
49:48And now here is Orson Welles.
49:59It's been especially interesting to do The Patriot this week
50:02because Miss Buck, Miss Wong, and myself
50:04have something in common in that we've all lived in China.
50:07Miss Buck, whose father was a missionary,
50:09has lived there most of her life.
50:11Miss Wong, as you all know, is Chinese.
50:13Although she was born in this country,
50:15she's achieved an international film and stage reputation.
50:17And as for myself, I visited China
50:19just long enough to be able to say
50:21Huang Yu Sheng, Frosted Yellow Willows,
50:23or Anna May Wong.
50:26How do you do, Miss Wong?
50:28I'm delighted to meet you.
50:30I too am delighted to meet you, Miss Buck.
50:32I naturally have been intensely interested
50:34in your books on China.
50:36Thank you, Miss Wong.
50:38And Mr. Welles, I would like to express to you
50:40the Campbell Playhouse and to you
50:42my grateful appreciation for the selection of The Patriot
50:44as the best new book for April.
50:46I'm honored.
50:48We were honored.
50:50It's been a privilege to dramatize The Patriot.
50:52And now, Miss Buck, there are a number of things
50:54I and I'm sure our listeners would like to know
50:56about the new personal problems
50:58the situation in the East is creating.
51:00I think the predicament of Chinese and Japanese
51:02is an unusual situation.
51:04No, the story I told in The Patriot
51:06is a very common one.
51:08While I was writing this book,
51:10I was also corresponding with a Japanese woman.
51:12She told me that the Japanese wives,
51:14like Chama, remain loyal to their Chinese husbands
51:17and send them off to war
51:19with the feeling that this is duty.
51:21But then, Japanese are trained
51:23to a high sense of duty.
51:25Miss Buck, do you think it's possible
51:27to feel sympathy for Chinese and Japanese
51:29and at the same time to understand them both?
51:30When one has had experience of many wars,
51:32one comes to see that the pattern
51:34is always the same.
51:36No matter who is the aggressor and who is attacked,
51:38both are victims and both lose in the end.
51:41You intimate in your story
51:43that China is looking westward.
51:45What does that mean?
51:47No one quite knows yet,
51:49except that it will certainly mean a China
51:51different from the one before the war.
51:53The territory which Japan holds
51:55is along the eastern seacoast.
51:57Roughly, it compares to our own
51:58and it was the stronghold of modern China.
52:00In that small strip of territory
52:02were China's great modern cities,
52:04Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking,
52:06Hankou, and Canton.
52:08Here were China's modern men and women,
52:10her modern schools and industry.
52:12But beyond Hankou is another China,
52:14a huge medieval country
52:16where people live and think
52:18as they have for many centuries.
52:20Modern life has not penetrated there.
52:22But now a tremendous westward trek has begun.
52:25Japan has taken the seacoast,
52:26provinces, and peasants, merchants,
52:28students, teachers,
52:30everybody who can move is going west.
52:35Their own ancient civilization
52:37flourishes in its purest form.
52:39In a sense, they are returning
52:41to their ancestors,
52:43and young China meets old China
52:45for the first time face to face.
52:47Each, of course, will affect the other profoundly,
52:49but how? Who can say?
52:51One's imagination quickens.
52:53All unknowingly, perhaps,
52:54China is hastening the unification of a continent.
52:57Thank you, Miss Buck,
52:59for the clarity with which you've explained
53:01the difficult situation in the Orient,
53:03and thank you, Miss Wong,
53:05for being with us tonight.
53:11In tonight's Campbell Playhouse production
53:13of The Patriots,
53:15the role of Ai Wan was played by Orson Welles.
53:18Miss Anna May Wong was peony.
53:20The part of Tama was played by Margaret Curtis,
53:22and that of Wu by Ray Collins.
53:24Myron McCormick was inland,
53:26and Elliot Reid was Bungie.
53:28The parts of The Broker and Chiang Kai-shek
53:30were played by Everett Sloan.
53:32Edgar Barrier played Muraki,
53:34and Howard Teichman was Jack Lim.
53:36Music for the Campbell Playhouse
53:38is arranged and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
53:40And now, Mr. Welles,
53:42would you tell us, please, about next week's story?
53:44Well,
53:46next week we'll offer
53:48one of the most famous comedies
53:50of modern manners,
53:52Noel Coward's witty essay
53:54on the absurdities and absurdities
53:56of modern love,
53:58Private Lives.
54:00We're delighted to announce
54:02that Miss Gertrude Lawrence
54:04will be with us in the part she created
54:06so brilliantly in London and in New York.
54:08So until next week,
54:10until Private Lives,
54:12my sponsors, the makers of Campbell Soups
54:14and all of us from the Campbell Playhouse
54:16remain obediently yours.
54:25The makers of Campbell Soups
54:27join Orson Welles
54:29in inviting you to be with us
54:31at the Campbell Playhouse again
54:33next Friday evening
54:35when that great star,
54:37Miss Gertrude Lawrence,
54:39will appear with him
54:41in Noel Coward's gayest comedy,
54:43Private Lives.
54:45Meanwhile, if you have enjoyed
54:47tonight's Campbell Playhouse presentation,
54:49won't you tell your grocer so tomorrow
54:51when you order Campbell's tomato juice?
54:53This is Ernest Chappell saying
54:55thank you and good night.
55:00This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.