East Wind, Rain

by Caroline Paul

  East Wind, Rain

  Caroline Paul

  To my father

  Who loved tales of faraway islands

  December 9, 1925–February 15, 2004

  The natives are yours and you are the new chief and they will work and serve you according to the laws and customs of Hawaii….

  —KING KAMEHAMEHA V, UPON THE SALE OF NIIHAU TO AYLMER ROBINSON’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, IN 1864

  Japan will notify her consuls of war decision in her foreign broadcasts as weather report at end. North Wind Cloudy Russia. West Wind Clear Britain. East Wind Rain United States.

  —U.S. WAR DEPARTMENT’S TRANSLATION OF JAPANESE “WINDS CODE,” INTERCEPTED NOVEMBER 19, 1941

  Higashi no kaze ame (east wind, rain).

  —TOKYO WEATHER FORECAST, DECEMBER 4, 1941

  Contents

  Epigraph

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Praise

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  When the plane finally crashed, onto the dry, rutted grass and into a fence, it did so with a hiss and a sigh. There was no outcry or fuss. No boom, or bang, or screeching rent of steel. It crashed as if it were already part of the midday sounds of that desolate island, the soughing wind across the scrub, the low snuffle of the surf. It sliced perfectly through the glancing, metallic sunlight. It skittered like scree through the red dirt. It came to rest, crooked as a tree.

  As if in deference to the quiet island, it crashed with gracious aplomb; a long, low exhalation, right into the ground.

  Two miles away Yoshio Harada sat in a small wooden chair and looked out a window. His wife had scissors in one hand; with the other she bent back an ear. Pieces of his hair fell noiselessly to the floor, wending their way down like small, winged insects. From where he sat he could see the back of the bee shed, and to the right the rise of the brown land. Above that a bleached, cloudless sky. It was only morning, but his face was slick with sweat; every now and then he blinked away its sting from his eyes. All the windows and doors had been pushed, canted, or propped open before they’d sat down, but the breeze they sought carried only heat and hardy, finger-sized flies—shiny, black-bodied athletes undaunted by anything but gale-force winds. And there was the dust. Even now he could see it, stars hovering in the slant of light by the sill, falling with his hair. In the two years they had been here, this is what he knew his wife resented the most, the way the land rose up to mock her in tiny red particles of itself, caking the corners of her eyes, coating the kitchen table and the insides of their child’s mouth. Let’s go back to Kauai, she’d plead. Or somewhere. Soon. But Yoshio had taken to the dry, harsh landscape and its leaden heat.

  Suddenly the scissors stopped. Yoshio straightened and lifted one hand to run it through his black hair. He decided against it; she hadn’t moved to look at him head-on, as she usually did, appraising her work with that stern, hard stare. He imagined how silly he looked then, with that band of newly exposed skin like a long white chalk mark around his head.

  -Irene, kachan, am I handsome enough for you yet? He wanted to look at her, but she was still behind him.

  -Shhtt, she said suddenly. Did you hear that?

  -I only hear the sound of my nap calling me.

  -I heard something.

  Yoshio, sensing that she was serious, listened. He knew all the sounds of this dry, creaking island. It was a habit of his, from back in the days when he had to be more careful than he needed to be now, to keep an ear open, so even now he would stop his horse suddenly, or straighten while checking a beehive, and listen for no apparent reason at all. The smell of her sweat drifted to his nose. He wanted to reach for her hand. He heard nothing out of the ordinary.

  -Perhaps Mr. Robinson is back early. He tried to laugh lightly. He laid his hand on his own shoulder in case she wanted to clasp it. Or church is letting out in Puuwai. All those Christians rushing for the dead pig.

  She didn’t move for his fingers even as he briefly waggled them. They bounced like lonely anenome on a white seafloor, up, down, around. Still, no touch from her own small hand. Instead the floorboard coughed as she shifted uneasily.

  -Wild pig, maybe, he continued. He could feel her fingers stiff against his neck, and he knew that her back had straightened and that her mouth was set hard in a line. They’re getting as big as the men here, and not nearly as nice. Mr. Kaleohano said one tried to take his cigarette recently.

  When she didn’t laugh he said, Sweet, and half turned and reached for her wrist, but she stepped away. He dropped his arm on his lap and clasped his palms together, squeezing tighter than he meant to.

  -When we’re done, he said, I’ll check the fences.

  She didn’t answer, so he repeated himself and noted she glanced at him distractedly, as if she’d just remembered he was there.

  -Yes, okay, she said.

  -Are we done, by the way? Do I look like Mr. Clark Gable?

  She laid the scissors down on the kitchen table and flapped at the errant hair on his shoulders. He could see each black sliver rise like a moon into the air to meet the invisible, inevitable silt before fluttering silently to the floor. She listened one more time, her cupped hand poised at his neck.

  Finally she shrugged.

  -Perhaps it was a pig, she said. But she glanced out the window and frowned.

  The plane lay still. It was hard to believe that its final seconds had been so wondrous. In another circumstance such a nebula of sparks could have birthed a galaxy. But that was then; once they burned themselves out, there was only utter quiet, as if the place the plane had carved through time and space and dirt was a momentary void in the world. Above, a mynah bird circled clumsily and stared, incredulous to find a plane where her favorite fence post should be. On this driest Hawaiian island, there were no lush trees or balloon-size leaves to cover the wreckage; the vertebrae and fibulae and phalanges of metal lay exposed to the sky, as if angry grave robbers had recently looted. There was the propeller, twisted and grotesque like some huge and evil flower. Farther away, a tire, thrown beyond the kiawe tree. The pilot was slumped and unmoving, with one of his arms thrust forward, as if to ward off the earth he had met so abruptly. He leaned sideways in his still intact cockpit, the canopy shattered around him. His body shimmered from the glass shards, as if he had brought a starry night sky with him as he fell to earth. His eyes were closed, he did not look dangerous. The mynah bird wheeled away anyway, unnerved.

  Somewhere in the ocean a pod of dolphins slowed their rush away from shore. They’d picked up the cluck of the dying engine well before, had even heard the faint whistle of air where the bullets had rent neat holes in the sheathing. The crash had spooked them, but now there was only silence.

  -I feel new, like a present unwrapped. Yoshio wiped the sweat from his brow. Then he opened his arms and gestured for his wife to come close to him.

  She bent her head to one side, assessing the haircut. Then she flapped her arms away from her sides as if to cool her armpits.

  -This heat, she said, and tur
ned away.

  Their young daughter, who had been playing with shells on the floor nearby, began to cry suddenly. Yoshio turned and saw that a piece of his black hair had settled near her foot and scared her. He dropped to his knees slowly, low, soothing noises in his throat. He picked up a shell and pushed it against his nose; he could count on this to make her laugh. When she finally did laugh, he got to his feet and stretched. He had some chores to do in the honey shed, and then a nap. It was just another hot, dry day on the island of Niihau.

  Howard Kaleohano stood by the plane. He had seen it make first contact with his backyard, and finally come to its crooked stop, tangled in his fence. It lay like a huge manta ray in the dirt. On this smallest Hawaiian island, privately held, visitors were not allowed, except by invitation, and with the strictest of instructions and a good disinfecting. His first thought, after the initial shock, was whether Mr. Robinson, the owner of Niihau, would be angry.

  It was December 7, 1941.

  2

  Sixteen miles away, on the lush island of Kauai, Aylmer Robinson had fallen asleep in his library. A half-empty glass of milk rested on the floor by his crossed ankles, a Bible was open on his lap. Every so often his head jerked to one side and his breathing seemed to stop, but he continued to sleep. A servant tiptoed in and put a pillow behind his head. Upstairs someone swept a wooden floor. Somewhere a door clicked shut.

  Suddenly there was a loud shout; Robinson rose awkwardly from his chair, fumbling, still half in his dream about riding a horse. His milk glass went sideways and shattered; one hand shot reflexively to his graying hair and sent the pillow skimming across the stone floor. There was another shout and Robinson turned to the open window. Through it he could see the foreman running toward the lanai, yelling a blue streak, waving his arms. Robinson knew immediately by the brilliant red of his cheeks that Mr. Shanagan hadn’t gone to church as expected, but to the local saloon. Still, all this hysterical ranting, this was something different. Robinson threw open the window, his pique of righteous fury kept in check only by his strict Calvinist training, and opened his mouth to speak sternly to his man, since it was Sunday after all, a day of humble contemplation and rest in service of the Lord, not drunken tantrums. But Shanagan kept running toward him, oblivious to the fact that he hadn’t cleaned up for his employer as he usually did (cramming mints into his mouth and pushing his red hair flat with his hands), and oddly undaunted by the sight of his boss leaning out the bay window with the harshest look he had. Shanagan ran with his arms forward and his chest heaving, a man drowning in an invisible sea.

  -Pearl Harbor! he yelled. The Japs have gone and bombed Pearl Harbor!

  It was Sunday, a day that Robinson devoted exclusively to the Lord. Usually he didn’t pick up a phone, read a book other than the Bible, or get into a car. Listening to the radio was a special sin. But today he knew that the good Lord would forgive him as he knelt next to the Philco and turned it on. A sneak attack, he heard through the rush of blood from his face, the real McCoy. The words thundered on, unimaginable, impossible. Nineteen battleships destroyed…thousands of our boys dead, that’s what they’re saying…the cries of the wounded…Awaiting word…

  When Robinson finally pushed away from the radio and rose stiffly to his feet, he called for his horse. His house staff and his ranch hands and all the sugar workers were to be rounded up and informed of what had happened, with orders to wait for his return from town. Shanagan, cold water dripping from his face and a cup of coffee in his hands, stood at the kitchen sink, panting. By the kitchen door the old cook Kaanapapa shifted from one foot to the other, his arms stiff against his sides. They turned to stare at Robinson as he entered.

  -And Niihau? said Shanagan. Will you be setting off t’a there?

  Aylmer looked at him dazedly.

  -I’m not so worried about Niihau, he finally said. That’s the safest place to be right now. The devil’s on Oahu and coming this way. It’s this island I’m worried about.

  Kaanapapa and Shanagan nodded. The island of Niihau, owned by the Robinson family for almost a century, was an isolated land spit of dust and scrub. On a clear day it could be seen from the shores of Kauai, but otherwise it was a secret place. Even these two men had never been there, though it was just a half-day boat ride across the channel. They knew only a few things: that Niihau was another working ranch, the arid land just suitable to graze cattle and sheep; that almost all its inhabitants were native Hawaiians; that there were no modern conveniences like electricity or telephones or automobiles; that it seemed a sacred place for their boss, purposefully kept away from the world. It was the “mystery island,” a secluded place that Robinson talked about often but rarely brought anyone to visit. Yes, Niihau was not a place to worry about now. No one there would have any idea of what had happened today at Pearl Harbor.

  -Lead the families of Makeweli Ranch in prayer, Kaanapapa. Robinson pushed a hat slowly onto his thinning hair. I’m needed in town more than on Niihau.

  -Anything I can do, sir? asked Shanagan.

  -Clean up, replied Robinson, eyeing his foreman with rebuke. And pray.

  He turned, his thin frame slouched in the manner of a man too tall for the doorways around him, and walked toward the large hall. His two employees watched his familiar gait, how each foot hung in the air just a moment longer than necessary, how his narrow chin stuck forward, how the mud on the cuffs of his pants clung unnoticed, how the sprigs of hair in his ears went untrimmed. Most days they thought of how sad it was he had never taken a wife, had never had children. But today they only noticed how he looked so much older than his fifty-two years. He disappeared around the corner and Shanagan coughed and put his cup down with a clatter.

  -God help us all, he said.

  3

  Howard Kaleohano ran toward the smoking plane. He could just make out a man draped over himself, unmoving. There was no time to think that he had never seen anything like this in his life; for all the angry young horses he had shoed and skittish lambs wrestled for their wool under a vigilant sun, nothing had adequately prepared him for a plane dropping out of the heavens. Even the suddenness of the birth of his child was preceded by hours of keening and tumult; though the child had dropped suddenly into his heart, he had not dropped so unexpectedly into the world.

  He’d seen planes before, of course. On Kauai, where he had grown up, the airbase had rumbled nearby and as a boy he had done the predictable boy things—pressed his nose against the fence and stared at the magnificent flying machines, the nimble, stumpy army vehicles, the jerky steps of men whose lives he could barely imagine. But he had been on Niihau for almost ten years now. Robinson didn’t allow fancy machines here. Things fell from the sky, yes, but they were God’s things: dust, rain, birds killed by other birds. Not planes. Maybe somewhere else, thought Howard, but not here, not on Niihau.

  As he pulled himself onto the wing to get to the pilot, Howard was already formulating the words he would tell his boss, for everything on the island that was out of the ordinary was passed through him to solve or explain. The time ten lambs died suddenly and mysteriously. The day the church was missing two Bibles. The storm that may or may not have loosened the boat dock. Treading carefully, arms out to the side like an acrobat, Howard made his way to the cockpit. There he hesitated. He glanced at the pilot, still unmoving, and then studied the long, almost female lines of the plane. Despite its torn and twisted body, the plane looked powerful, though Howard did not know just how powerful, or that he stared at a Zero, the best fighter plane ever made. Instead, he thought of Robinson’s own long face, the tapered jaw moving slowly from side to side, the wiry eyebrows dropping ever so slightly together like a slow-forming cloud, the occasional nod as he took in the problem that Howard presented and transformed it into something easily remedied, condensing a wild rainstorm into a cistern brimming with form and order.

  Howard knew something was wrong. It was not just the wet sparkle of blood that ran from the pilot’s forehead. There wa
s the large red sun emblazoned on the plane’s side. The thin muzzle of a machine gun glinted in the sunlight. Military insignias were stitched onto the pilot’s jacket. Howard could smell smoke, maybe gunpowder. There was no question; this was a fighter plane.

  But Howard had little understanding of the great European war that had been raging on a far-off continent for two years. Nor had he heard about how high tensions were between the United States and Japan. Yes, it was in all the newspapers and, on the other islands and on the mainland, heavy in people’s minds. It would not have taken much for any of them to figure out what a downed Japanese military plane might mean. But on Niihau, the islanders were cut off from the world. The Robinsons banned newspapers and telephones and radios on the island. They discouraged literacy and the English language—both were considered conduits of evil ideas and thoughts. People rarely left the island, and those who did had to ask permission to return, which was rarely granted. Church was the centerpiece of life on Niihau. Since a posting on Niihau was considered too harsh and isolated, a minister came from Kauai every month or so, handsomely rewarded by Mr. Robinson for his time and his seasickness during the crossing. Nevertheless, every Sunday was full of song and a long sermon intoned from the Hawaiian Bible by Howard, the only man who could read effectively. On all other days of the week work stopped intermittently and the villagers got to their knees; under the Robinsons’ insistence the Niihauans prayed five times a day.

  There had been a time, years ago, when the island had been less isolated, more open to the outside world. The governor of Hawaii had even visited, and the children had been given new shoes for the event. But gradually the Robinsons decided that the modern world carried too much wickedness for the innocent Niihauans. Niihau became a world unto itself. The shiny shoes were put on kitchen shelves or forgotten entirely.