Читать книгу Ishiro Honda - Steve Ryfle - Страница 10

I

DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

1911–45

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

— George Santayana

Ishiro Honda is running.

Chinese resistance fighters are approaching fast. An ambush. His ears fill with the cacophony of gunfire and the screams of flying bombs. All around him, fellow Japanese soldiers dive for cover.

He is no longer a young man, but his body remains fit from years of marching, walking, hiking, climbing over the hills and through the valleys of China’s interior. And he is not ready to die. He has endured too much, made too many sacrifices not to return home. So he runs.

Then it happens. Right in front of him a mortar hits the earth, scattering soil. And in that instant, he knows: within milliseconds, thousands of iron fragments will tear him to shreds.

Time freezes. An eternity. Then, as if a miracle, no explosion comes.

Cheating death, he runs on.