The Purple Heart (17 page)

Minami turned away as she
struggled against him. He was strong and bigger than she was. She screamed,
“Help! Someone help me!”

As she screamed, Kiddache
pulled back his head, and she saw anger in his eyes. He slapped her across the
face, sending the right side of her face against the wall. She brought her
right hand up instinctively to quell the pain on her cheek and looked at
Kiddache through the strands of hair that was splayed across the left side of
her face.

Kiddache motioned his right
index finger menacingly at her. “Look what you made me do to your pretty Jap
face. If you don’t shut up bitch, something is going to happen to your family,
maybe to that little Jap brother of yours!”

No! Not Yoshi!
Minami thought.
What kind of a man
would threaten a child?

Kiddache looked at her and she
saw malevolent determination in his eyes. He grabbed the top of her dress and roughly
tore it downwards. The fabric ripped away from the center buttons, revealing
her bra. Minami gasped in fright as Kiddache dug his face into her chest and
pressed his body even harder into hers, pushing her up against the wooden wall,
which creaked against his onslaught. His hand grabbed at her breast as he tried
to hike up the right side of Minami’s dress. But Minami persisted in her
struggle. Mustering all the strength that she had, she clenched both hands
together and brought them down onto the back of Kiddache’s neck.

Kiddache buckled for a
moment but quickly straightened up, pulling away from Minami. He reached around
the back of his neck and rubbed it a few times. With a renewed determination in
his eyes, he delivered a punch to her belly as she struggled to cover herself
up. The blow sent a dulling pain throughout Minami’s entire torso as she
blurted out all the air within her. Her knees buckled as she slid slowly down
the wall and crossed her arms over her stomach. She coughed as her body struggled
to breathe while recovering from the blow. She felt like gagging as she coughed
even more.

Kiddache stood over her
with a contemptuous look. There was even a hint of pleasure in his expression.
He shook his head disapprovingly from side to side. He then grabbed her chin
and began to lift her up.

Minami didn’t have a choice
as she struggled upwardly placing her hands along the wall to support her from
seemingly falling. So many thoughts were racing through her mind. What did she
do to deserve this? Why was this happening to her? Please don’t hurt my family.
Hiroshi, where are you?

Kiddache raised Minami to
full height, then gripped her neck and began squeezing it while pressing her up
against the wall, even harder than before. Minami grabbed his wrist and tried
to wrestle it away from her throat but couldn’t. Guttural sounds seeped from
her mouth. She could feel her eyes bulging as tears welled up along her lower
eyelid.

“Why are you misbehaving?
If you want to go, you just have to let me fuck you and when I’m finished, I’ll
let you go,” Kiddache said in a mocking tone. “Oh look what you made me do, I’m
causing tears to flow out of your slanted eyes.”

Minami’s tears were no
longer due to Kiddache’s grip around her neck. They were coming from the
hopelessness and despair that she felt inside. First her country took her
father away for no reason. Then she and her family were forcefully removed from
their home. Then they were relocated to the awful desert away from all
civilization, fenced in like prisoners. And finally, she was helpless to defend
herself as she was about to be raped by a man who called himself a U.S.
soldier. What more would she have to sacrifice of herself because her country
couldn’t get through its unfounded fear that they were not real Americans?

Kiddache held Minami in his
grip and was enjoying every moment of it. He grabbed the right side of Minami’s
dress and tore it away and downwards, revealing her chest and a partial view of
her underwear. He then looked at her, admired her, and then looked back into
her eyes.

“That’s much better,” said
Kiddache as he planted his hot mouth against Minami’s. She recoiled immediately,
but her head was already up against the wall. She wanted to break away from him,
but she couldn’t. Her eyes widened in fear when suddenly he plunged his tongue
into her mouth. She couldn’t breathe but the opportunity presented itself. She
bit down hard on his tongue as Kiddache snapped his head back pulling his bloody
tongue from Minami’s teeth.

Minami gasped for breath
and instinctively tried to pull her jacket together just when she saw the fist.
Her heart jumped as her mind braced for the force that would strike her. She
cowered to the right, closed her eyes, and brought her hands up to shield
herself from the impact. Then she heard it: The thud of a fist hitting upon
skin. Minami stayed in her protective position, her body trembling in fear but
there was no impact. Slowly, she opened her eyes and turned her head. She saw
Kiddache, but he wasn’t looking at her. She dropped her hands slowly and turned
to see his fist in someone else’s hand. It was Hiroshi.

Hiroshi looked down at
Minami, who had begun to straighten up while he held Kiddache’s clenched fist
in mid-throw. Minami turned and her eyes met his own. He saw such fear in those
eyes, a fear he had never wanted to see in Minami ever again. Hiroshi looked downward
and saw her torn dress, and his temper erupted as tendrils of fire coursed down
every strand of muscle in his body.

Minami felt an overwhelming
sense of relief as she stared into Hiroshi’s stern eyes. His eyes stared back
at her and then slowly blinked. His head turned slowly and mechanically toward
Kiddache.

Kiddache’s face was wrought
with frustration as he struggled to break free of Hiroshi’s powerful grip on
his wrist. He saw Hiroshi staring at him with stone cold eyes. Kiddache threw a
left-handed punch toward Hiroshi’s head. Hiroshi lowered his grip and leaned
back allowing the punch to go past him. Then he snapped back and grabbed
Kiddache’s other wrist with his free hand as he took a firm step forward,
placing his right foot between Kiddache’s feet and pushing him onto his back.

Hiroshi stood between
Kiddache and Minami. He didn’t turn to look back at her. As long as he kept
himself between Kiddache and Minami, she would be safe.

Kiddache got up onto his
knees and with low a laugh said, “Your lady and I were having a good time until
you showed up. Maybe if you let me finish fucking her, then you can have her
next.”

Hiroshi then delivered a kick
to the underside of Kiddache’s chin sending him reeling backwards. Kiddache
landed flat on his back as his body slammed onto the ground with a dull thud
sending up puffs of dust. Kiddache got up immediately and wiped the blood from
his bloodied mouth.

“I guess you’re not going
to make this easy, Jap,” said Kiddache.

“Go fuck yourself!” replied
Hiroshi.

Kiddache then charged at
Hiroshi’s mid-section. Hiroshi caught Kiddache under his arms, planted his left
foot back for leverage and halted the failed charge. Kiddache struggled, dug his
boots deeper into the ground until Hiroshi effortlessly shifted his weight to
his front foot, pivoted left and swung his back leg around. The momentum of
Kiddache’s charge spun him around in a full circle, and Hiroshi threw Kiddache
face down onto the ground.

Kiddache picked himself up
and spun around to face a strong-willed Hiroshi, who was standing in front of
him.

“That’s some of that Jap
martial arts crap,” stated Kiddache with indignation.

“Yes and you’ll be eating a
whole lot of it,” Hiroshi answered.

Kiddache lunged at Hiroshi
and threw a right hook at his head. But Hiroshi stepped back and blocked it
with his left hand. Kiddache then launched another punch with his left arm,
which Hiroshi also easily blocked. Hiroshi brought his left hand under and over
onto Kiddache’s left forearm and parried it as his other fist connected with Kiddache’s
nose. Kiddache staggered backwards as he brought his right hand to his bleeding
nose, and his mouth opened in shock as Hiroshi’s foot spun through the air and slammed
into his cheek. Kiddache spun a couple of times in mid-air before landing face first
on the ground yet again.

Minami was awestruck as she
clutched her jacket over her torn dress. She was so relieved to see Hiroshi and
even more pleased when Hiroshi started to fight back. But she wasn’t prepared
for his ability to fight so skillfully. She was expecting a brawl, but for
Hiroshi, it was flawless combat execution. She watched in astonishment as
Hiroshi anticipated each of Kiddache’s moves and threw him around like a helpless
rag doll. She was astounded at Hiroshi’s spinning kick that sent Kiddache to
the ground. She wasn’t even worried about herself anymore–she knew she was well
protected. She just wanted to see more of Hiroshi kicking Kiddache’s sorry ass.

Hiroshi still had his back
to Minami. He watched Kiddache attempt to get up and he began to walk over in
deliberate steps when a bright white light flashed in his eyes. A low demanding
voice yelled, “What’s going on over there!”

Hiroshi took a step back
and covered his eyes with his forearm. Minami also shielded her eyes away from
the light that came from the left. It was a spotlight from a jeep. The jeep
hummed gingerly toward them and then stopped. A man got out of the passenger
side along with two others from the jeep. It was the general.

“I said what’s going over
here?” demanded the general as he stepped in front of the jeep. The spotlight
then focused on Kiddache, who was on all fours with blood dripping from his
mouth and nose. The general looked tall and authoritative in his black
calf-high military boots with his brown pants tucked into them. His brown shirt
was decorated with medals and citations and his face was stern and serious. A
butt of a cigar was in his mouth.

Kiddache was the first to
speak. “Sir, I’m so glad you came. I found this man assaulting this woman and
when I came to intervene Sir, he suckered punched me…”

Minami vehemently
interjected and stepped forward, “That’s an outright lie! You attacked me!”

“She’s lying sir, she’s
just trying to protect him because they’re both Japs…”

Minami rushed toward
Kiddache, but Hiroshi caught her around the waist and held her back. But he
couldn’t hold back her words, “You lying son of a bitch! You tried to rape me!
Look!”

Minami stepped out of
Hiroshi’s arms and pulled her jacket open to display her torn dress.

“Miss, you can cover
yourself up,” the general said.

Minami in frustration
covered herself up once more with her jacket.

“Don’t believe her, Sir, I
was only trying to help…” Kiddache said.

Minami lunged forward again
before being caught by Hiroshi, “You liar! Hiroshi saved me, you sorry excuse
for a man!”

The general watched the
exchange back and forth and looked at the pitiful Kiddache, who stood up
holding his nose. It was still bleeding profusely and drips of blood oozed
copiously from his mouth. There was also a bruise on the left side of his face
the size of Idaho.

Finally the general yelled
out, “Enough! Silence, the both of you!”

His voice shook the very
ground that everyone stood on. Everyone fell silent. He turned away from
Kiddache and looked at Minami and Hiroshi. The general took a couple of steps
toward them. “Aren’t you the one that hit that home run?” asked the general.

Hiroshi looked at the general
straight in the eyes as he held Minami, “Yes Sir, that was me.”

“Fine hit son, fine hit.
Seems like you and this private have some disagreement going on between the two
of you.”

“That was just the game, Sir.
This is personal,” replied Hiroshi.

The general took a puff
from his cigar and let the smoke escape from the side of his mouth. “Personal,
you say?” he asked.

Hiroshi looked down at
Minami who was leaning her face into his chest. Hiroshi let out a short sigh
and then looked the general in the eyes, “Yes Sir. Personal.”

“I see,” said the general.
“You know son, sometimes in baseball, we all have to take one for the team.”

There was a pause before
Hiroshi responded, “Yes Sir.”

The general stared at
Hiroshi for a moment and turned in Kiddache’s direction. “Private, climb into
the back seat of the jeep. We’ll drop you off at the infirmary before you bleed
to death. And for Christ’s sake, don’t bleed all over my jeep!” He then turned
to Minami and in a softer tone, “Miss, you go on home now.”

Minami shook her head in
disapproval but Hiroshi nudged her head upward and looked down into her eyes.
He brushed away the strands of hair that was splayed across her face and smiled
down at her and without words, he simply indicated to her to go home. Minami
understood and pulled her jacket snugly across herself, crossed her arms and
reluctantly pulled away from Hiroshi. She kept her gaze on Hiroshi, turned and
briskly walked back toward her barrack.

She was about fifty feet
away when she heard what sounded like a sack of potatoes dropping to the
ground. She turned around to see Hiroshi falling to his knees as a soldier held
his arms back. A large soldier who was standing directly in the headlights had
just delivered a punch to Hiroshi’s mid-section as the general stood watch.