BUT MOANING As you know, Inspector K. has already interviewed him, says Detective Inspector H., and I need you in Tokyo in the possibility of a utopia THROUGH THE DOORS, INTO THE STREET, THE SNOW AND THE MUD As you know, we have traced sixty of Dr Matsui’s name-cards, says Detective Inspector H., and so I need you here to record and collate all the information we are gathering in the field about these sixty name-cards and the ones we are still to find do you hope, do you believe NOT SPEAKING, BUT MOANING I say, What about the Matsui name-card we already have. The name-card used at the Ebara branch of the Yasuda Bank. The man who said he was Dr Matsui. The man who said the same thing in Sendai in an end to petrification, in an end to paralysis IT WAS THE DRINK, IT WAS MEDICINE, A DOCTOR, DYSENTRY The answer is still no, says Detective Inspector H. again, I need you here and besides, what about your wife, you want to leave her alone in Tokyo while you chase name-cards in Tōhoku with all your heart NOT SPEAKING, BUT MOANING
18. I turn the dark corner, I stand outside the door, the door to our room, and I hear her voice I want to love you like I used to love you I SMELL THE HOSPITAL, I SMELL THE LABORATORY A long, long time ago, she says, there was a poor little girl who had no father or mother I want to love you like I loved you before THE WHITE COATS AND THE WHITE MASKS Everything was dead and there was no one left in the whole of Japan I want to love you without suspicion THE RUBBER GLOVES AND THE RUBBER SHOES And since there was no one left in the whole of Japan, the little girl decided to go up to heaven to where the moon shone down without jealousy THEIR MEDICINES AND THEIR DRUGS But when the little girl got to the moon, it was just a lump of rotten wood I want to love you without the fear of losing you THEIR PILLS AND THEIR INJECTIONS So then the little girl went to the sun, but when she got there it was just a withered-up sunflower the fear of hurting you I SUBMIT TO THEIR EXAMINATIONS And when she got to the stars, they were just little white lice stuck on a piece of dirty old black cloth like I used to love you I SUBMIT TO THEIR TESTS So the little girl went back to Japan, but Japan was just an overturned pot of nothing like I loved you before I SUBMIT TO THEIR EXPERIMENTS The little girl was completely alone now, and so she sat down and cried but most of all, I want you to love me I SUBMIT TO THEIR TRIALS She’s sitting there still, all alone, still crying I want you to love me IN ROWS, IN CAGES, A DOG
19. I turn another dark corner, I climb another set of stairs, I walk along another corridor, I knock on another door have you ever seen nature inside-out, have you ever seen nature upside-down, have you ever seen double-nature I AM NOT DISTRACTED I told you they would lie to you, didn’t I, says Comrade X., and here is the proof of my words when the sun stands high and still at noon, as though the whole world is on fire, how it makes you hold your breath, as though the world was dead I AM NOT DELIRIOUS Comrade X. hands me a document, a document in English, a document stamped ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ then those frightful voices come, they speak to me, when nature is out I AM NOT POSSESSED As you can see from this, says Comrade X., the Americans have lied to you; a First Lieutenant Paul E. J. Parker, medical officer, was assigned to the Tokyo area between June 1946 and June 1947 to assist in various health-control activities the world so dark that you have to feel your way around it with your hands I AM NOT PREOCCUPIED Comrade X. says, This is undoubtedly the ‘Lieutenant Parker’ who was assigned to a typhus control team in Ōji Ward in March 1947 you think it is coming apart, like a spider’s web, dissolving and disintegrating in your fingers I HAVE NO MEMORIES And as you can further see from this, says Comrade X., while there is