The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Was war just a power game for an elite few? Did the loss of human lives really matter to them, or was it just a way to keep score? In reading their own staff-authored speeches over and over again, had they deluded themselves, believing that any action they took was in the cause of freedom and thereby righteous?

Certainly, I believed that our democratic system of government was the best thing going. I was a flag-waver from way back. I was proud of my country. It was the moral weakness of our leaders that concerned me. They were prone to the same frailties of arrogance, greed, and sanctimony as those of any other country. The primitive concept of 'might makes right' still reigned supreme. Hadn't thousands of years of history taught us anything?

I peered down the alleyways and into the darkest corners. That Donovan song, ‘Try and Catch the Wind’, kept playing over-and-over in my head. The odor of dried fish filled the air. I breathed in deeply and smiled. I felt that God, evil, and even death were all very near, but I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t want to miss a single moment.

Hank looked upwards for a second or two and said, “Hmm—well, in the Japanese way, if we don’t know for sure, we always tell the person the worst possible result. That way, when they find out the actual case, they can only have the good feeling.

Empty words are like droplets of rain pattering upon the ground. It is difficult to find a single feature that distinguishes one from another.