“It was the day before the Japanese surrender,” he said. “Nobody was expecting it to happen so suddenly, or at least nobody in this region. The rumors were that things weren’t going so well for the Japanese, but you always got the feeling they’d fight to the death. You couldn’t picture them with their hands in the air. Garu, the boatman, was our telegraph. He’d come in with supplies or returnees and he’d sit on the dock and tell us the news from Thakhek. Around that time the gossip was all Japanese. A lot of senior officers had arrived under the leadership of General Shosen. There was obviously something brewing. There were several thousand troops stationed there and twenty or so Zeros parked beside the landing strip. They’d been refitted with additional fuel tanks and canisters of high explosives to make a bigger mess when they flew into American battleships. The generals had ordered a lot of booze and food so there was some type of celebration that night. Nobody in town knew what they were celebrating but it was ironic timing. The next day, probably all bloated and hung over, they’d go to the radio and hear the emperor’s speech and bang goes the lot of them.”

“So Hiro left on August fourteenth?” said Siri.

“That’s right.”

“And again with no warning?” Siri asked.

“Well, he was in his uniform again. I was having an afternoon siesta but I was awoken by the creak of footsteps on the bamboo slats. I was drowsy. Hiro lay down behind me and held me tight, like a mother protecting her child. I could feel his heartbeat thumping against my back. His uniform smelled of mothballs and the material was unsuitable for the tropics so we were both sweating. But the warmth surrounded me like a womb and I fell asleep again. When I woke up, he and our only motorboat were gone.”

“And that was the last you heard of him,” said Daeng.

“Yes,” said Satsai.

Daeng and Siri could feel the same loss they knew still weighed heavily on the teacher’s heart.

“Any idea where he went?” asked Siri.

“No.”

“And he left the diary with you?” asked Daeng.

“Yes, he did. I can’t tell you how many times I read through it. I even studied Japanese so I could understand the early entries. I was shocked, Doctor. I have to tell you. It was no wonder he lost his mind after all the atrocities he witnessed in China. No man with a heart and a conscience could have come through those years unscathed.”

“So you don’t think he endorsed the atrocities?”