David Peace - Occupied City

20. I say, I was taking a big risk telling you the things I did, showing you the documents I did. A big risk for nothing! Nothing in your newspaper, nothing about the China connection, nothing about the GHQ connection, nothing about Parker and Hornet. So it looks like I took a big risk just for nothing your mother’s new husband, your never-my-new father WE’VE SEEN YOU BEFORE Not nothing, says the journalist now, you took a risk, I know, but I paid you he likes Americans, he entertains Americans WE’VE SEEN YOU PISSING I say, Not enough, not enough for all the risks I’ve taken. And now I don’t know why I bothered, why I took all those risks, you weren’t even listening to me, you didn’t even write the story with your father’s money, in your father’s house PISSING IN THE STREET I wrote the story, says the journalist, I gave it to my editor and he read it and he said he liked it, said he liked it very much on the floors he walked, in the chairs he sat PISSING DOWN A WALL I ask, so where is it, this story of yours, this story your editor liked so very much, he liked so very much he didn’t publish, so very much they didn’t print, where is it then in the room he lay, in the room they lay PISSING LIKE A DOG I don’t know, says the journalist your father and your mother IF YOU CAN’T CONTROL YOUR BLADDER I stand up and I say, Well, you better find out. Or there’ll be no more help, no more stories from me Americans lie, everybody lies WHAT CHANCE YOUR MIND

21. You are distracted, Detective, says the doctor, you are distracted and you are delirious you have not been listening, Detective IN THE FAMILY ALBUMS, IN THE HISTORY BOOKS I ask, What is to be done. What should I do you have not been following instructions THE EMPEROR SAYS, I STAND BY MY PEOPLE You are delirious and you are possessed, possessed and preoccupied, possessed by memories and preoccupied with visions you have not been following orders I AM EVER READY TO SHARE IN THEIR JOYS AND SORROWS What is to be done. What should I do you have been making connections, Detective COURAGEOUS PINE, ENDURING THE SNOW Memories of things that never happened, visions of things that never will connections where there are no connections to be made THE TIES BETWEEN ME AND MY PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN FORMED BY MUTUAL TRUST AND AFFECTION What is to be done. What should I do you have been making links, Detective THEY DO NOT DEPEND UPON MERE LEGENDS OR MYTHS I’m sorry to say, says the doctor now, but in a word, Detective, you are mad links where there are no links to be made THAT IS PILING UP, COLOUR UNCHANGING What is to be done. What should I do you have been imagining things, Detective NOR ARE THEY PREDICATED ON THE FALSE CONCEPTION THAT THE EMPEROR IS AMANIFEST DEITY I will tell you, says the good doctor, and I will help you, if you will let me hearing things, seeing things THAT THE JAPANESE ARE SUPERIOR TO OTHER RACES AND DESTINED TO RULE THE WORLD I ask, What is to be done. What should I do things that are simply not there LET THE PEOPLE BE LIKE THIS, SAYS THE EMPEROR Eat more corn, says the doctor, American corn and take these pills, these American pills you are suspended from duty, Detective, you are off the case IN THE HISTORY BOOKS, IN THE FAMILY ALBUMS

Act IV

22. In the Occupied City in the Occupied City IN THE OCCUPIED CITY Time passes time passes TIME PASSES Seconds pass minutes pass HOURS PASS Days pass weeks pass MONTHS PASS But the city is still a wound the city still a wound STILL A WOUND My father still dead, my mother still remarried in these half-remembered memories of this half-forgotten detective MY FAMILY CURSED, MY HOUSE CURSED My wife still unfaithful, my case still unsolved they will find you guilty and they will hang you THE GROUND BENEATH STILL HOLLOW GROUND Sharpening pencils, writing reports until your bladder empties and your neck breaks UNDER MY CHAIR, UNDER MY DESK Passing time, backward and forward, forward and backward, time passing in the family albums, in the history books SOMETHING IS MOVING, MOVING BEHIND ME, MOVING BENEATH ME The city still occupied, the city still wounded we are all whores FROM A MUSIC BOX The clock strikes again and the telephone rings in the ruins of the city, in the eyes of the dead WHAT IS THAT TUNE, THAT FAMILIAR, SCRATCHED TUNE In the Occupied City, in the Wounded City through the looking-glass A LIGHT GLOWING ABOVE THE CITY, A FIRE RAGING ACROSS THE TOWN

23. In the final days of the war, as our Red Army swept over the former Japanese colony of Manchuria, many Japanese soldiers surrendered and were taken prisoner you’ve not been eating your corn, your American corn, have you, Detective ALL MEN HAVE SECRETS Among these prisoners, were men who had served in Detachment 100 and in Detachment 731 of the Japanese Kwantung Army; Detachment 100 and Detachment 731 were bacteriological detachments, both involved in the prosecution of and research into bacteriological and chemical warfare you’ve not been taking your pills, your American pills, have you, Detective ALL MEN TELL LIES In Khabarovsk, in the Primorye Military Area, my comrades from the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR have been interrogating these former members of Detachment 100 and Detachment 731 in preparation for their indictment as war criminals on charges of waging bacteriological warfare on China and the Soviet Union, and of conducting bacteriological experiments on Chinese and Soviet prisoners you’ve been putting your ear to the ground again, haven’t you, Detective SOMEWHERE TO SOMEONE Of course, we know that not all the criminals responsible for these atrocities are in our custody. We know that these secret bacteriological units of the Japanese army, which were commissioned to prepare for and conduct bacteriological warfare, were formed by the personal command of Emperor Hirohito himself hearing the sound of scratching from under the ground ALL MEN ARE GUILTY, ARE GUILTY OF SOMETHING We also know the names of the criminals in the Japanese General Staff and Ministry of War who backed and directed the clandestine work of these secret bacteriological units, who lavishly financed, equipped and staffed them, who sanctioned the research and development of internationally proscribed types of bacteriological warfare, and who planned for the day when they would authorize the launching of bacteriological attacks tunes from the music boxes SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE Yes, we know the names of the contemptible, morally corrupt servitors of Japanese imperialism, generals of the former Japanese army — the bacteriological scientists Ishii, Kitano and Wakamatsu — who were ready to place their special knowledge at the service of the ruling clique of Japan for the purpose of preparing to conduct criminal bacteriological warfare in the whispering CRIMES NEVER STAY SECRET, SECRETS NEVER STAY SECRET And we know the names of those wicked misanthropes, the former members of Detachment 100 and Detachment 731, physicians and engineers of the Japanese army — Ōta, Murakami, Ikari, Tanaka, Yoshimura and many others — who mercilessly and in cold blood murdered defenceless people and bred many millions of plague-infected parasites and hundreds of kilograms of lethal microbes for the extermination of mankind and you’ve been putting your head in the clouds, haven’t you, Detective MEN ALWAYS TALK, TALK TO SOMEONE We know who they are and we know where they are, outside our borders and outside our jurisdiction, because these miscreants enjoy the protection of those reactionary forces in the imperialist camp who are themselves dreaming of the time when they will be able to hurl upon mankind load upon load of TNT, atomic bombs and lethal bacteria trying to read the patterns in the air again IN CONFIDENCE, IN BETRAYAL But you, Comrade Detective, you can help us, help mankind smoke from the Americans’ ovens ALL MEN HAVE SECRETS For this is a list of the names of men given to my comrades in Khabarovsk by the former members of Detachment 100 and Detachment 731 who are now our prisoners, the names of men who were once their colleagues in Detachment 100 and Detachment 731, men who are now back here, living and working freely in Japan, and I believe among these names, among the names of these men, is the name of the one man, the one man you are looking for, Detective in the fog ALL MEN ARE GUILTY Catch this one man, Detective, and expose this one man for the mass-poisonings at the Teikoku Bank, and you will expose all those men for all their crimes, all those Japanese men and all the American men who protect them in the nut-house, Detective, that’s where you’ll be ALL MEN, ALWAYS