The Enemy — Class 12 English

Written by Pearl S. Buck and set during the Second World War, this story explores the conflict between a person's professional duty and national loyalty, and the triumph of humanity over prejudice. Dr Sadao Hoki, a skilled Japanese surgeon trained in America, lives with his wife Hana in a house on the Japanese coast. One foggy night they find a wounded man washed ashore — an escaped American prisoner of war with a gunshot wound. They are torn between handing him over to the army as patriots and saving him as compassionate human beings; despite their professed hatred of the enemy and the danger of being arrested for sheltering him, Sadao's instincts as a doctor prevail. With Hana's help and against the open defiance of their superstitious servants — who eventually leave — Sadao operates on the young man, named Tom, and nurses him back to health. Sadao reports the matter to the General, who, valuing Sadao's surgical skill for his own ailment, promises to have the prisoner quietly killed by private assassins. But the assassins never come, for the General, absorbed in his own illness, forgets his promise. Unable to bear the strain any longer, Sadao helps Tom escape to a nearby island and arranges for him to flee by a passing Korean fishing boat. In the end Sadao reflects on the white faces he has known and wonders why he could not bring himself to kill his enemy. The story shows how a doctor's humanity and conscience rise above the narrow prejudices of war.