The Enemy (Notes)

The Enemy (Notes)
1. How did the servants express their displeasure?
Answer: The servants did not like the idea of helping an enemy. Yumi refused to wash the white man. They stopped working; but became watchful as long as a white man was harboured there. Later they left the house as a protest against their master’s decision to house the enemy.
2.What did Dr Sadao do to send off the man?
Answer: As soon as it was dark Dr Sadao dragged the stout boat down to the shore. He put food, bottled water and two quilts. He medically examined the man. Then gave him his own little flashlight to signal for food, gave him Japanese clothes, covered his blond head and let him go.
3.What message does ‘The Enemy’ give?
Answer: ‘The Enemy’ gives the message that humanism transcends all man made prejudices and barriers. Here Dr Sadao upholds the ethics of medical profession in treating an enemy. The story is a great lesson of peace, love, sympathy, fellow feeling and humanism.

4. There are moments in life when we have to make hard choices between our roles as private individuals and as citizens with a sense of national loyalty. Discuss with reference to the story you have just read.

Answer: Dr Sadao was caught between his duty as a doctor and loyalty towards his nation. Nonetheless, Sadao emerges a champion in this regard. As an ethical and sincere doctor, he saved the life of the soldier and as a responsible citizen, he also informed the General about the presence of the soldier. Next, when the General’s men did not arrive to kill the enemy, Sadao was again caught in a conflict as to how to get rid of the white man. His innate virtues of compassion and benevolence forbade him from killing the man. Thus, he decided to let the prisoner escape by sending him off to an unguarded island.

5. Dr Sadao was compelled by duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana, his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?

Answer: Dr Sadao and Hana knew that their decision to save the enemy soldier would be questioned by everyone. However, they firmly followed their sense of duty. For Dr Sadao this sense of duty came from the profession he was in; but for Hana, the duty was purely humanitarian. From bearing the unrest in her domestic staff to being forced to do all the chores of house-hold herself, she does all with grace and dignity. Hana’s loving, considerate and sympathetic nature shines out. She washed and fed the soldier although it was not her job. Her care helped recuperate the soldier fast. It is also apparent from the story that she respected her husband, and as a sense of duty towards him, did the needful.

6. How would you explain the reluctance of the soldier to leave the shelter of the doctor’s home even when he knew he couldn’t stay there without risk to the doctor and himself?

Answer: When the American war prisoner came to consciousness and realized that his life had been saved by a Japanese family, he feared that he would be soon handed over to the army. Then he noticed the amount of concern and care given to him by Sadao and his wife Hana. He understood that he was in safe hands. He also knew that although he was a threat to the doctor’s family, his own life might be saved there.

7. What explains the attitude of the General in the matter of the enemy soldier? Was it human consideration, lack of national loyalty, dereliction of duty or simply self absorption?

Answer: The General was totally governed by self absorption. He was a patient of Dr. Sadao, who was a skilled surgeon and did not trust anyone except him when it came to his health. For this reason only Sadao had not been allowed to go with the troops. He had personal assassins whom he promised to use for killing the injured soldier. But ironically, he ‘forgot’ his promise to help the doctor. Human consideration was not his agenda.

8. While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during war time, what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?

Answer: It is obvious that the countries at war are enemies and hatred is a part of this enmity. However the success of humanity comes when we rise above this enmity and show our love towards the civilization as a whole. Dr Sadao did the same. He did whatever he could to save the life of a man whom he knew was a war prisoner.

9.Do you think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances?

Answer: The doctor tried his best to save the injured soldier as a part of his duty. It cannot be said that he betrayed his country as he told the truth to the General. However when he noticed that the soldier was to be killed not for the benefit of the country but only to save the doctor’s life, he decided to help him flee. In such a situation, the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one.