Chapter 45: Diaries Of The Soldiers

Let's calm down! Let's calm down!

So two people got to this world before us, an American and a Japanese, about the Second World War, let's forget about the hatred in the past.

If their planes had been placed here in this tunnel so there may be other stuff that was left from the Second World War that was placed here too.

"Waah!" - Sarah was now very excited, she was taking pictures of the planes with the observation of Hatano, hoping she would keep a watch on her sister, not to let her break anything

"Hero!" - Ah! King Ralla called me, I had stood dazed a bit after hearing his story

"Ah, King Ralla! Lead me the way, I want to see the other things except for these planes."

"Yes, right away! Please follow me." - King Ralla said to me then walked to the next room

When I was going with King Ralla, I also looked back to see two of the planes, Sarah was now still taking pictures. Hatano was standing next to her, she was staring at the Mitsubishi plane, the symbol of Imperial Japan Air Force in the Second World War.

I hoped I didn't mislook, Hatano seemed to have some tears flowing out from her eyes but she kept those tears from flowing out. Maybe the way Japan surrendered to the Allies made her consider Japanese people had been enslaved by us.

I cannot answer her question, I had to admit that Japan had very few personnel and their soldiers had been limited in the military equipment in their Self Defense Forces.

Maybe Hatano was right in some points that her people were now enslaved by our military. Controlled would be more slightly, "enslaved" meant very complicated.

Japanese Constitution was very hard to be modified because General Douglas MacArthur was the one who wrote it.

Now I didn't know if Japanese Constitution had been modified a little bit or not, the Japanese government seemed to want to rewrite their Constitution.

"Sis, what's wrong?" - Sarah had noticed Hatano's behavior, seemed like she had truly cried

"Ah, nothing, Sarah! Nothing!" - Hatano seemed to want to stay away from the plane, she didn't want to remember the failure of imperial Japan

"Sis, I'm still not done taking the pictures, yet!"

"Okay, Sarah! Just keep taking pictures." - Hatano was now wiping her tears

"Sis, you are crying? Because this plane reminded you of the past, sis? Don't worry sis, the war is over." - Sarah seemed to want to comfort Hatano

"These planes are very pretty, sis! Especially the Mitsubishi, I love it the most."

"Sis, you should be proud that your people have declared war on the US, no people other than the Japanese people dare to do it." - Well! The way Sarah comforted Hatano looked a bit toxic to me somehow

"You have done taking the pics, Sarah?" - Hatano seemed to want to stay away from the plane

"Sis, you look so sad, let's go, sis! I don't want you to be like that anymore, let's smile, sis!" - Sarah held Hatano's hands and led her toward me

"You Hero." - Ah! I forgot that King Ralla called me because I just stood there to watch my subordinates

"Lead the way, King Ralla!"

Then King Ralla led us to the next room, if I had to say, I would say this tunnel looked like a museum to me, but that was the elf's museum that showed the legacy of the two soldiers that come from my world.

The other room was also dark like that first room because King Ralla didn't turn on the light, I would call the crystals glowing above crystal lights.

Then King Ralla turned on the light by pulling up the handbrake, lights were on and we saw two chests that looked to be very wide in the room. One had the flag of United States placed on it, the other one had the flag of Imperial Japan.

Those must be the belongings of the two soldiers, no, equipment would be more fit for the word, then King Ralla slowly opened the chest that had the American flag. After opening the chest, King Ralla raised his right hand to the items inside the chest, as if to cast magic.

Suddenly the items inside the chest glowed in yellow and later the yellow aura disappeared in a few seconds, King Ralla must have cast the magic called Keep, as Yura told me.

That kind of magic looked to be very convenient, not so surprising if these elves could keep those two planes that looked to be new in 500 hundred years.

"Waah!" - Another surprise, came from Sarah, she seemed to be very surprised when King Ralla cast Keep magic

"King Ralla, you can cast the magic without saying?" - Wait? Sarah saw this the first time? I saw the Assassin that I killed named Shild and Mentor Lerer did these twice

"Yes, Hero! When you master a kind of magic, you can cast it without saying."

"Waah!" - Sarah! Can you please stop?

"Heroes, these things were Yura's ancestor belongings, I would like you to see them." - King Ralla said to me then stepped a bit ar away, he seemed to want to let us see freely

Then I crouched down to see what was inside the chest, I picked up the first item, it was a US military water bottle that was used in the Second World War.

The second one was an M1911 pistol, in the right edge of the pistol's had the name "Lucia" looked to be written on it, the third item was the uniform of the soldier. An American pilot uniform, but I didn't see any pilot helmet, it must be lost.

The other belongings of the soldier were some cigarettes that remained, a compass, an area map, etc...

This pilot must be an officer or just a normal soldier, I didn't know yet, too much lack info.

The last thing that was placed deep inside the chest was...a diary, I think!

Should I read it? Reading about others' privacy made me very annoyed. But that American soldier had now died, maybe I should read it.

Looked like Sarah, the one previously still smiling around had now stayed silent, she seemed to have that feeling too, the feeling of the soldier that cannot go back home.

Hatano, she didn't care about the chest that had the American flag. She was now looking at the chest that had a Japanese flag, sometimes she looked back at Sarah as if to check on her sister.

I flipped the pages of the diary, none of the pages were written, not a single word. Each of the pages were pictures that were sticking into it, those pictures, looked to be the soldier's parents.

Not just pictures of his parents but also pictures of his little sister. Her face looked pale, seemed like the soldier's sister was having an illness.

Maybe that's all, just the soldier's family pictures, nothing more but I kept flipping the pages to see if there were still something left in the diary.

Wait! I found something, there were words on the last pages that had been written in the book, but it looked more likely a letter, let's see about its detail:

July 4th, 1992 - Zaira Village, Kingdom of Jung

I don't know if I have miscounted the day or not, I always count days since I got to this world but I hope my calculation was right.

Dad, mom and Lucia, are the three of you alright back there? I know that I cannot go home anymore, I'm very sorry! I'm very missing the three of you, dad, mom, and my little sister.

Dad, is Lucia still okay? Is the war over? Did we win the Nazi and the Japanese Empire? If I know the answer that our United States has won then I would be very glad to know.

I know that she always coughing, she is always sick. Dad, I was having breakfast inside the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor and suddenly the Japs attacked us. Sorry! I should not call them Japs, I feel it's very insulting to my friend, Takuya.

The Japanese suddenly attacked us, dad, I managed to escape the USS Arizona but my friends were sunk with it. I was a coward at that time, my friends, Jimmy, Harry and Tent, they should have survived.

Jimmy, he still had his wife at home, and also his child waiting for him. Harry and Tent, they were just kids, when I got here and saw Tent, he was a black boy, he was always got bullied by the other crews.

Tent may have his black skin but he was American like us, he told me that his parents were waiting for him to go home because he was about to end his enlist time, but he died.

About Harry, he was very pure, looked to be very bright, he always helped the people like Tent, he should have been saved, he should have survived but he died.

After the Pearl Harbor incident, our President declared war on Japan, I very much hated them at that time. I was fighting in the middle of the Midway battle, seeing a Japanese plane flying as if to flee and also lost its unit so I got in my Douglas alone to chase it.

The chase lasted minutes but when I noticed the sky had gone dark suddenly and looked down at the ground, that time both of us had been sent to another world.

Dad, I was shooting at that Japanese guy before both of us cooperated to land our planes on flat ground to find out what happened to us.

Both of us were very hated each other when we landed, I was about to fight to the death with the Japanese when we just newly got land but then we stopped and forced ourselves to go together.

Dad, both of us later saved that entire world, we met the creatures that looked to be from a fantasy world when we landed, they have pointy ears with a long lifespan, look like the elf from the German fairy tales.

The elves spoke with us the language Tuku, at first we didn't understand but later we had to fight with creatures to save those elves, those were the orcs and the dark elves from the Demon lord's army.

After fighting against those Demons and saving the world, both of us have been worshipped by the elves people, dad, I later chose to stay in the village named Zaira for the rest of my life.

The Japanese guy Takuya, he decided to go away, not stay with me, he said to me some Japanese words before going away. I didn't know a Japanese word but he has later given to me his sword as a gift.

I later knew that Takuya guy has become a King of an empire that he created, I was very glad to hear that, but.

Dad, I think our Americans and Japanese are not so different, we are all human after all, I and Takuya may differ in our race, our eyes but when I was with him.

He always showed me the pictures of his family, he said words to me with sad expressions, looked to be very missing his daughter back home.

I wrote this line a week later, Takuya sent me a letter written in the Tuku language of the elves, I already knew the language of the elves two years after coming from this world.

He expressed to me that while sitting on his throne, he kept remembering his daughter. His wife has died a very long time before he enlisted and his daughter has to live with his grandparents because his parents died a long time ago.

He named his Kingdom's name after his daughter, he said to me he very much missed his homeland, me too, dad! I cannot go back to you anymore, dad, I'm very sorry, I'm very regretted!

Dad, love you so long!

Mom, how are you? Still waiting for me to go home?

I know that mom, you are still waiting for me to go home and marry some girl, I'm sorry, mom, I cannot do it before but I have done it in this other world.

I have married an elf woman, she is very beautiful, that's your daughter-in-law, mom! She seems to be a prophet or something, she can see the future.

I was very shocked at first when I knew that elves are vegetarians, I was appointed to be their Monarch after the war against the demons, I have tried to recreate the United States in the elves' countries but seemed like that idea just only half done, mom.

I found that I have corrupted after having power in my hands so I appointed another elf to replace me, they protested against me because of that idea but then had to follow my order.

I saw that the elves people have no greed at all, or very less, at least they can make my dream come true in the meantime.

Miss you, mom! I love you!

Lucia, are you alright? Do you feel better? I'm sorry, as a brother but cannot go home to see my cute little sister, I hope your illness has gone away.

I have a child, you know? Lucia, when I got to this world, I married an elf and had a child, I named her name after yours.

She is very cute, she just has blonde-haired, not brown as yours but still cute, every time I look at her, I will remember you.

Lucia, I know that you may now pass away, or have aged, is your husband good with you? How many children did you have? Are they cute? I want to meet them but I cannot, I'm very sorry, my dear little sister.

Mom, dad and my little sister Lucia, I love you! So long!

Frank Jonathan

Frank Jonathan, must be the name of that American soldier, the poor guy, who died in other world without having a chance to see back his family.

Then I saw that I must return these belongings to their previous owner, even if that soldier died, I cannot take those away. I respected all veterans who fought in any war, even if they stood on the hostile side.

Must return it, I immediately returned all of that soldier's belongings into that American flag chest.

After seeing what I did, King Ralla stepped closer to the chest and cast the Keep magic on the items inside the chest then closely closed it, kept it remained to there.

"You Hero, you seem a bit emotion?" - Of course, King Ralla! I was having some tears to see a late veteran here, he cannot go back to his home was the thing that made me emotion

Sarah seemed to have some tears now, but not Hatano, she didn't show any sympathy to that soldier, Hatano hated us very much?

Hatano even glared her killer eyes at me while Sarah didn't notice because she was standing behind Sarah.

"Heroes, follow me, I will open the next chest." - King Ralla told us to follow him to the Japanese Empire flag chest

I hated Imperial Japan, I have to say so, their army massacred the Chinese people in Manchuria. They even had a military unit called 731, a war crime unit that performed the sick experiments on the human body.

But I think that not every soldier was cruel, some of them were cruel before going to enlist but most of the things that caused those soldiers to become the war machines were caused the most by their governments.

Shizuka Hatano was a case like this, she may be a patriot but with the ultranationalist way, who caused this to her? Did she join any war before this?

By the way about Hatano's little sister, Sarah by the way she reacted when she didn't bring weapons while going outside must be proof to sure that Sarah had never gone to war.

But about Hatano, who caused this to her? Her late father, or mother?

"King Ralla, open the chest quick!" - Hatano said loud to King Ralla, forcing him to open the Japanese flag chest

Then King Ralla opened the chest then cast the Keep magic on the items in it, inside were the belongings of the Japanese soldier.

Sarah was now very excited, she wanted to touch those things but Hatano had told her to keep her calm.

The girls were now searching the belongings inside the chest, I must help them, we found a Japanese pilot uniform.

Also didn't have the helmet, Hatano and Sarah were now touching the weapons, pulling them outside.

"This is a Nambu Shiki 14." - Hatano said to me while holding a Japanese pistol

Wait! I saw there was a rifle, that Japanese pilot had a rifle, he must have brought it in his plane, but what about the American soldier's rifle? He must have lost it or didn't bring it with him, maybe.

"Ah! This is a Shiki 38 rifle, it looks so long, sis!" - Sarah seemed very excited when touching the rifle, she even aimed it around to see if she was cool

Shiki 38 rifle, the main weapon of the Imperial Japanese infantry soldier, the rifle's length was quite long and it had a quite long history, the rifle had been manufactured in the Russo-Japanese War.

Imperial Japan didn't change their tactics, their weapons and war doctrines while fighting with our US soldiers.

They could have fought against us longer if they removed the suicidal attack Banzai charge, removed their obsolete weapons like this rifle.

But I noticed that there was a thing that looked to be a Katana with brown color, it was now inside the chest and Hatano was now staring at it.

"Oh! A Katana of the Second World War, Japanese soldiers were very cool when they charged at the guns while raising the swords, sis!" - Sarah had noticed the Katana, she was now slowly drawing the scabbard out of the sword, enjoying its shining and sharp

"But I feel a bit sorry to them when they got shot before they could kill their enemy with their swords." - How did Sarah change her emotions so fast like that? She was now very sad to think about those Japanese soldiers

"This is a Gunto, the Japanese sword that was used by Japanese officers in the war." - Hatano said to us then slowly snatched the sword out of Sarah's hands, she seemed didn't want to make Sarah hurt

I didn't know about this sword, Kaori never taught me about this thing, she was quite knowledgeable about the Second World War, or I didn't search about this thing in the Internet or read books about it.

"Sis! I want to hold the sword longer!" - Sarah was now begging Hatano to give her the sword

Hatano was now crying but she kept her tears from flowing out, Sarah and King Ralla didn't notice this but Hatano kept glaring her eyes at me few times while holding the sword, as if wanted to kill me.

"Ah, sis! Thank you!" - Hatano returned the sword to Sarah, she was now stepping closer to me, what did she want to say?

Then Hatano stepped toward me while keeping her hatred eyes, she slowly stepped toward me but I didn't scare, even if she wanted to kill me, she wouldn't do that in front of Sarah.

"You are lucky, if Sarah isn't here, I would have killed you, John Rigen! All Americans must die, they must retreat their soldiers out of my homeland."

"Get out of Okinawa immediately, you people have stolen our land for so long, return it and I will reconsider making you my enemy, or friend." - Hatano whispered to me, she later returned to her normal face, as if nothing happened

But I didn't see any of that Japanese diary inside the chest, he didn't write it? How could he?

"King Ralla, I didn't see this person's diary."

"Hero, the diary of that Hero has been buried with him, he didn't want anyone to see it." - King Ralla replied to me, if that was the soldier's wish, I would not try to find it

Maybe I should tell King Ralla that we would go with him to see the American soldier's grave. At least I must see him before going, I wanted to show some respect to him.

"Sarah, return all of the belongings inside the chest, we will look for the US soldier's grave."

"Eh!" - Sarah yelled a word, seemed very disappointed but later she did what I ordered her, she returned the belongings of the Japanese soldier carefully with Hatano

Then King Ralla activated the Keep magic on the items and slowly closed the chest, he told us to follow him down the tunnel to see the American soldier's grave.

After going for a few tunnels, quite long then we got into a dark room, King Ralla turned on the crystal lights, in front of us were now two graves that were placed each other.

The first grave on the right had an American flagstick in front of it as the grave's cross, the other one on the left had a Japanese Imperial flag that stick as the grave's pillar.

The American grave had the military helmet placed on top of the cross. On the other side, the Japanese grave also had the military helmet placed on top of its grave's pillar.

"Heroes, King Takuya had expressed his last wish before he died, he wanted to be buried with Yura's ancestor, we had sent our emissaries to Ashura Kingdom to carry his body here to do bury." - King Ralla explained to me

Why my feeling was so heavy right now? In front of me were now two graves of two soldiers who were the enemy of each other. Which grave should I mourn first? Maybe I would head to the American grave to do the salute before heading to the Japanese grave.

Then I slowly stepped to the American grave, Sarah and Hatano also going with me, when I got in front of the grave, I stood straight and did a military salute to the soldier grave.

"Semper Fi!"

After doing the salute, I turned around and saw Sarah, she was now doing the military salute to that late veteran too but the way she did it was quite... hard?

"Semper! Sempe.........The United States is prouds of you, soldier! You have done well your duty!" - The way Sarah said was quite hard and too much thinking but I would forgive her

About Hatano, looked like she also did that military salute to the soldier but she didn't say any word.

Wait! Did she truly do it? She looked to be pretending, seemed like she did the military salute because her sister was standing next to her, she didn't want to do it for real.

She didn't show respect to that American soldier but if I placed myself as a Japanese like her, what should I do at that moment?

But at least Hatano didn't say any words mean to insult that late soldier so maybe she had a bit of sympathy for him.

After doing the military salute to the American soldier's grave, I stepped toward the Japanese grave but Hatano slowly shoved me away and stepped there. Sarah was also going with Hatano, she saw her little also going with her, she opened a smile and then raised her hand do to the salute.

If Hatano didn't want me to do the salute to that Japanese soldier, I would accept her demand.

"Tenno Heika Banzai!" (Long live Imperial Japan/ the Emperor!") - Seemed like the way Hatano showed her love for her homeland was quite extremist

But I forgive Hatano, I didn't have the right to violate the others' choices, Hatano's choice was her choice, I would welcome her as always, just hoping that she would forgive about the past and look forward to the future.

"Uwaah! Uwaah!" - Hatano after doing the salute to the Japanese soldier's grave, she cried non-stop, Sarah had to hold her to comfort her

"Ah, don't cry, don't cry! The war has gone away a long time ago, don't cry! We must look forward to the future, sis!" - I didn't know the way Sarah comforted Hatano effective or not but

The war had ended, we should keep those memories in our mind, wars and tears should be remembered in the history lessons but not use them to hate each other but to avoid making the faults that we made.

There is no enemy forever, all wars are civil wars, we are killing each other, killing our brothers.

I could feel what Hatano was thinking right now though not much, she hated me, but war didn't make anything better, just worse.

Maybe Hatano needed time to reconsider this, somedays our US would withdraw our soldiers out of Okinawa, but not this time.

But how would we survive in this world? That was the answer three of us were now wanted.

Though the soldiers that came here in the Second World War didn't get here by the sword mountain but they cannot find their way back to their world.