54 pages • 1 hour read
The Garden of Evening Mists
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Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of graphic violence, sexual violence, illness or death, including death by suicide.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Kamikaze”
A week after her last conversation with Tatsuji, Yun Ling stops writing, disturbed by memories. She brings tea to Tatsuji, who shows her a damaged woodblock print by Aritomo. The image prompts Tatsuji to reveal his past as a kamikaze pilot.
In a flashback, Tatsuji recounts his wartime experience. A plane malfunction forced him to turn back from a mission, leading to a reunion with his former lover, Colonel Teruzen. Tatsuji told Teruzen that his father had died by ritual suicide after Japan’s surrender announcement. Teruzen later followed Tatsuji to a Malayan airfield and begged him to desert, but Tatsuji refused.
After a fellow pilot flew to his death, Tatsuji prepared for his own mission, but bad weather caused delays. On the morning it was to proceed, the atomic bomb was dropped. Just before takeoff, Teruzen knocked Tatsuji unconscious, took his place, and flew the plane to his death. In the present, Tatsuji tells Yun Ling that he plans to return to that beach to build the house he and Teruzen dreamed of.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Attack”
The narrative flashes back to the Malayan Emergency. Communists ambush Yun Ling at her bungalow. Their leader, Wong Mei Hwa, stabs Yun Ling as revenge for the deportation of her sister.
