The Pearl Harbor Murders

Tarzan?'

The half smirk disappeared from O. B.'s face and his response was surprisingly serious-in fact, Hully would never forget what his father quietly, humbly said next.

'Frankly, Admiral, I suppose it came out of my daily life consisting of such drab, dull business matters. I think I just wanted to get as far away from commerce as possible-so my mind roamed in scenes and situations I never knew.' He gestured to the tropical trees around them. 'I've never been to Africa, you know-but I find I can write better about places I've never seen than those I have.'

'Excuse me, Mr. Burroughs,' said the young Japanese man seated on O. B.'s other side, 'but I wonder if you are aware of how very popular you are in my country?'

This was Tadashi Morimura, who had introduced himself earlier-a diplomat in his late twenties, vice consul of the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu. Like Kimmel, Morimura wore a white suit and a tie; he was a boyish, slender man, his longish black hair brushed back on a smooth, high forehead.

'Well, I've had good foreign sales for years, though this European war is playing havoc with 'em.'

'My cousin is named Edgar,' Morimura said, with a shy smile. 'Sir, I know many boys who have been named for you.'

O. B. seemed genuinely touched. 'That's the first I've heard of that. But I don't see why a boy in your country wouldn't respond to what kids here do-kids including General Short, of course.'

'You mean the constant urge for escape,' Kimmel said thoughtfully, even a little pompously. 'To trade the confines of city streets for the freedom of the wilderness …'

'I think it's more,' O. B. said. 'I think on some primal level, we all would like to throw off the restrictions of man-made laws, the inhibitions that society has placed on us. Every boy, of any age, would like to be Tarzan… I know I would.'

'As would I,' Morimura said, raising his cup of wine.

Despite the pleasantness of the evening, the great food, the wonderful conversation, Hully couldn't help but be struck by the surreal incongruity of this social gathering: the commanders of the Army and Navy sharing poi with a Japanese diplomat, when everyone seemed to agree war between their two countries was both inevitable and imminent.

But Morimura seemed a pleasant sort, harmless, well-spoken, typically polite.

As the dining wound down, the entertainment increased, the evening alive with flaming torches and swinging swords, and various renditions of the hula from seductive, lyrical swaying to the frenetic hip-twitching version tourists craved. Wandering troubadours with ukuleles and steel guitars sang traditional Hawaiian standards, but also Tin Pan Alley island fare like 'Sweet Leilani' and 'Blue Hawaii.'

By around ten, the luau proper was over and the guests were milling around the grounds, lounging throughout the lodge, in the rock-garden courtyard, and in the enclosed rear lanai, with its wicker furnishings and soothing view onto a tropical garden. The music, however, had shifted to the big-band music of Pearl and the Harbor Lights on the dance floor adjacent to the dining room.

Hully and his father split up-he noticed O. B. talking to Colonel Fielder at one point, out on the lawn, and to that German playboy Otto Kuhn, in the rock garden-and the younger Burroughs sat at a table with Ensign Bill Fielder and Seaman Dan Pressman, smoking cigarettes, drinking oke (except for Hully, who had switched from wine to coffee), listening to Pearl and the band do 'Oh, Look at Me Now.'

The only concession to Hawaiian-style music made by Pearl and the Harbor Lights was the inclusion of two guitars, one of them steel, and of course the boys in the band did wear blue aloha shirts with a yellow-and-red floral pattern. Bathed in pale pink stage lighting, Pearl-standing at her center-stage microphone, which she occasionally touched, in a sensually caressing fashion-wore a clinging blue gown, with a daring dEcolletage that showed off her medium-size but firm, high breasts to fine advantage.

'I'm going to tell the old man tonight,' Bill was saying. He was a handsome Naval officer in his early twenties with dark hair and a cleft chin-despite his crisply military haircut, he looked more like a kid than a sailor, in his green aloha shirt and white slacks.

'I can see what you see in Pearl,' Hully said, and he certainly could, his eyes returning to the ethereal, erotic vision she made on stage under the pink lighting in the low-cut blue gown. 'But you've only been going with her for a month…. Can't you wait-'

'What, till war breaks out, and I'm at sea, fighting her relatives?' Bill's dark eyes were sharp, but his speech was slightly slurred-too much oke. 'There's not going to be a better time to break this to Dad-certainly after we're at war with Japan, it's not gonna be any easier.'

'Bill,' his friend Dan said, a blue-eyed blond sailor

from California, 'she's a nice girl, and I mean you'd have to be blind not to see she's a living doll… but you gotta admit-she's been around.'

“Take that back!' Bill said, stiffening.

'Okay, okay,' Dan said, patting the air with his palms. 'I didn't mean she was … fast or anything. Just that she's dated a few guys…. Maybe you should wait a couple months, get to know each other better.'

'Dan's right,' Hully said. 'Wait a little bit-get past the physical attraction and know each other as people … just to make sure….'

'I am sure-Pearl's the girl for me. She's sweet and she's nice and she'll give everything up for me, her singing, everything… just to be my wife and have my babies.'

'Maybe you ought to think about that, too,' Dan said.

Bill glared at him. 'What?'

'What it'll put your kids through-you know, the racial thing.'

'Pearl's half white. Our kids'11 be all American. Dan, I won't hear this kind of talk.'

'Okay, buddy … I'm just trying to help. You've helped me before, plenty of times-I'm just trying to be your friend.'

Bill sighed and nodded.

The band was starting to play 'I'll Remember April,' and one of the guitar players began to sing the lilting ballad. Bill shot out of his chair as if from a cannon, muttering, 'This is one of Pearl's free songs,' and headed for the bandstand.

Then he was out there dancing with her, holding her close, gazing into her eyes like a lovesick puppy, and she was gazing back, a beautiful woman who seemed equally in love. It was romantic, and frightening.

'His father is going to kick Bill's ass,' Dan said.

'I know,' Hully said, and nodded toward the entry-way to the lobby.

Colonel Fielder-slim, casually attired in red aloha shirt and white slacks, his dark hair widow's-peaked, with a narrow face and hawkish eyes and hawkish nose-stood just inside the doorway, staring out at the dance floor, obviously viewing his son dancing with the nisei singer-and just as obviously unhappy.

Shaking his head in apparent disgust, Fielder exited.

'It's gonna be ugly,' Dan said.

'Pearl asked me to set up a meeting between her and the colonel-she wants to plead her case.'

“If she thinks batting her lashes at that hardnose is going to do the trick, she's dreamin'.'

Out on the dance floor, something 'ugly' was already transpiring. A soldier-a handsome brown-haired kid in a green sportshirt and tan slacks, not very tall but with wide shoulders and an athletic carriage-was tapping Bill on the shoulder-hard-as if to cut in.

'Oh hell,' Hully said, shaking his head.

'Who is that guy?' Dan asked.

'Jack Stanton-he's a corporal over at Hickam… used to date Pearl.'

'Ouch.'

'Fact, that's who she threw over for Bill.'

'Double ouch.'

Out on the dance floor, Pearl was desperately trying to keep the peace as the sailor and the soldier began shoving each other.

'You take Bill,' Hully said, getting up, 'I got the dogface.'

The crowd was forming a circle around what was clearly about to erupt into a fight, with reactions that