Christopher Golde

      Chapter fifty seven
        The Reflection 5

Date:           1st December 1941                                  Location:     Tokyo Japan

 

 

              Tojo Hideki stood by his desk and watched as the four businessmen were escorted into his chambers. All four stood before him and then bowed deeply. He stood resolute till they had finished and then bowed himself, but not as deep as his visitors had.

He knew how powerful these men were in some parts of Japan, but he also knew they were Burakumin and his heritage would not allow him to give them honour. However, he knew he must listen.

The four men wore black suits, white shirts and black ties that were almost identical and as they had entered the room they had removed bowler hats to expose bald heads. The tallest of the four men who stood in the middle stepped forward and again bowed but not as deeply this time.

              “Hideki San,” he began, “my name is Koiso Fujimo and I represent the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu. We have heard that your government is to soon commence war against America and we would like to know if this is true.”

Tojo Hideki was not a man that felt he needed to explain himself to any other man, but especially he did not like to have to be called in to answer to the likes of these four. He considered the question and walked around the table. He was now put in a position deciding how much he could endure; his traditional hatred weighed against how much he may need their support. He knew their power and he knew they may be needed if this war he was about to begin did extend longer than he wished.

He decided quickly.

              “Yes it is true,” he answered directly to the tall bald man.

The tall bald man turned slowly to look at his companions. The shortest and roundest of the men nodded and the tall bald man turned back to Tojo Hideki.

              “You have our support,” he said, “but there is one condition.”

Toju Hideki’s round-rimmed spectacles sat high on the bridge of his nose and his pointed well-groomed moustache sat silently over his tight lips. If they had looked hard enough they would have seen one bead of sweat form on his high forehead but other than that they would not have known how much he dreaded the next words of their conditions.

              “And what would that be?”

The meeting of these two unlikely allies would not go for much longer. All it took was for Koiso Fujimo to outline a plan of succession that would see his family entrench itself into the ruling class of Japan and eventually divest itself of the ruling industrial giants, to establish a dynasty in its own right. A dynasty that would rule with fanaticism and fear.

 

 
Date:               12th January 2002                                Location:         Tokyo Japan 

 

 

              Ieko Fujimo slammed his fist on the table and swore aloud in Japanese. In his clenched fist was a piece of paper he had just read. The girl who had delivered the piece of paper scampered from the room terrified, her head bowed as low as she could get it and in her flight backwards she had bumped solidly into the edge of the open door to the room. Even though the pain from the bump shot sharply from her tailbone through into her rectum and up her spine, she did not pause and finding the door opening, she left in full flight, still facing away from her lord and master.

How could they have found his captor, surely he must have a traitor in their midst he thought. He would order an interrogation of everyone involved. At least Akura had escaped. He should have listened to Akura and killed her. Then again it had been Akura that had asked for one more month.

He slammed his fist down again and looked up at the pictures of his forefathers on his wall. Whenever he failed he felt as if he had let them down.

              ‘They have entrusted the dynasty to me.’ he thought, ‘I must not let them down.’

His Uncle had adopted him and brought him up as a young boy when his father had died suddenly from a motor accident and he had taught him the ways of his ancestors. He knew where they had risen from and how. They had used intimidation and fear to rise through the ranks from the most hated clan in Japan to the most feared.

He looked up at the picture of Koiso Fujimo, his Grand Father, and remembered how he had carried the family at great risk through the Great War and into the position the family now held in post-industrial Japan.

It was imperative for him to succeed, and he would stop at nothing to fulfil his Grand Fathers dreams.

 

           Ieko Fujimo