I wrote back and told her not to worry because Chappy was good at starving and the war would soon be over now the Yanks had joined. Well, that’s what everyone was saying – that the war wouldn’t last long now the Americans were in it.

The ship I was on had formerly been a cruise liner but had now been fitted out as a troop carrier. Some months later we arrived in Wellington to embark American troops who had been training in New Zealand and were headed for Pacific assignments.

Oriwia was there to tell me off, waiting in a nearby milkbar where she knew I always went for a milkshake. Don’t ask me how she knew we were to be in Wellington as it was supposed to be all top secret. It was my words ‘silly fool’ and ‘good at starving’ which had got her temper up. I did regret my carelessness because really I was sorry that Chappy had done what he did, and sorry for the distress it had caused his wife and family. I should’ve said he was tough, he was a survivor, because that’s what I meant. I couldn’t comprehend Chappy’s actions at the time, but certain realisations came later. Oriwia had a gift for Ela. I can’t remember what it was, some sort of cake I suppose.

Once back in Hawai‘i I thought more about what could be on Chappy’s mind. I believed his daughters would not come to any harm in our small town, but I became aware of what was happening on the US mainland, where many thousands of Japanese were interned in relocation camps all over the country – Arizona, Arkansas, Wyoming, Utah, California – all those places you hear about in songs. The majority, though they were already American citizens, were suspected of espionage and plotting sabotage. It was thought that the United States was harbouring an enemy within, an enemy that included not only those Japanese born in Japan, but second- and third-generation Japanese born in America. All, it was believed, would turn against their adopted country in the end. It included whole families. It included orphaned children with any small trace of Japanese blood. All this, told to me by my wife’s Japanese brother-in-law Ishy, made me think Chappy’s fears were not so silly after all. It was happening there in Hawai‘i, too, where there were four or five internment camps.

‘Why haven’t you been carted off to prison then?’ I asked Ishy.