25

The engine on Yuki’s Zero failed to start on December 7th. He missed the big raid, failed to die for the glory of the emperor and, as a consequence, lived an exceeding long life.

Yuki wasn’t a coward. He was prepared to die even though he didn’t know what the war was about. He had courage but no enthusiasm. His superiors recognized this and didn’t have him shot. Yuki was willing to go but the plane wasn’t. The young pilot was neither lionized nor disgraced. He was just forgotten.

Decades passed and Yuki asked questions, read books and looked for the answers: what was the war about? He discovered that Japan’s partner in the war wanted to kill all the Jews. Yuki had never met a Jew and was unable to imagine what could make them so horrible that they should be killed. He wanted to know.

So that’s what led him to pick up a bunch of Jewish holy books, learn Hebrew, and study. For decades. He went from tora to Torah.

Studying was hard even without the language barrier. But with good genes (his father had lived to 102), Yuki had time. He poured through Torah, Talmud, Mishnah and Gemara.

Yuki was an odd sight, walking around Tokyo, wearing a yarmulke, tallit shawl, and fringed tzizit. Perhaps most startling of all was the beard. He was the only ethnic Japanese man attending Beth David Synagogue. In a city with only a few thousand Jews, Yuki was one of the most learned. He was a bit of a pest to the rabbi and others, but his sincerity made him irresistible. Yuki mined for knowledge.

At 100, Yuki decided he learned as much as he ever would. He still didn’t understand the war or why Japan was allied with Hitler while also shielding Jews from the Holocaust. He took a different path that day, walking to the museum instead of the synagogue.

At dawn, he climbed into the cockpit and started the engine. Yuki and the Zero were finally in the air.