Shuriken

A play by Vincent O'Sullivan

Vincent O'Sullivan, John Thomson, Phillip Mann

• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780864737793
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

The Japanese Military Field Code was explicit: 'Japanese forces do not surrender to the enemy under any circumstances.' How then would the eight hundred or so prisoners who found themselves in the first Japanese prisoner-of-war camp anywhere in the world behave? They had been brought from the Soloman Islands to Featherstone in 1942. Six months later an incident occurred in which forty-nine prisoners and one New Zealand guard were killed. Vincent O'Sullivan explores the implications of this event in a play which immediately rises above mere documentation to consider what happens when people of two cultures are brought together in such extreme circumstances, and when even the best intentions of those who try to offer sympathy and understanding fail in the face of ignorance and prejudice.

Shuriken

Prologue

The play begins with a clip from wartime films. It shows various scenes of the Emperor and of Japanese aggression. The commentary is timed to precise images, concluding with a freeze-frame close-up of a Japanese pilot’s face.

COMMENTARY: Since the invasion of China in 1937, the might of Japan has been on the march, and the Rising Sun has spread its sinister rays over almost a fifth of the globe.

It is an empire based on the ruthless exploitation of those countries under its control. It is a philosophy of fear and destruction. It is a belief that one nation is pre-eminent among the races of the earth, that every Japanese, through effort and through destiny, is to shape the future of the world.

That this man, Hirohito, is God.

‘We, by the grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on a throne unbroken for ages eternal, enjoin upon you his loyal and brave subjects that we hereby declare war on the United States of America and the British Empire, to ensure the stability of East Asia, and to contribute to world peace. This was the far-sighted policy formulated by our great illustrious imperial grandsire, that the source of evil will be speedily eradicated and an enduring peace immutably established, preserving thereby and for all time the glory of our Empire.’

But already the tide has begun to turn. The Battle of Midway. The Battle of the Coral Sea. Their recent heavy losses in the Solomons and at Guadalcanal. Already the Imperial dream has begun to fade, as Japanese losses mount, and for the first time in history Japanese prisoners are taken by the West. The Allies have begun to strike back.

If this man has a future, it is in our hands.

Act One

As the film concludes, the crouching figure of a Japanese prisoner rises in front of the screen. He is picked out by a spot, and goes through various movements and breathing exercises, suggestive of power and aggression. As the screen is raised other prisoners are revealed. Their formal movements coincide exactly with those of the first prisoner. When their movements conclude, the lights come up. The ‘Invercargill March’ strikes up, and the New Zealand soldiers march on to a brightly-lit stage. On the higher level above the stage stand the CAMP COMMANDANT and ADJUTANT.

The ADJUTANT calls ‘Attention’, then ‘Stand Easy’.

CAMP COMMANDANT, as though delivering a public lecture: January, 1943. Nice weather. Fairly agreeable conditions. Pretty nasty job. First time any of our chaps have ever run a show like this, realise th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• First Performance
• Author’s Note
• Characters
• Photographs of the Original Downstage Production
• Shuriken
• By the Same Author
• Copyright