Toward Night's End (33 page)

She looked at him in surprise. “Why? Why you say? Matthew do no different than many young men do in war, yes?”

No, Mrs. Kobata, he did much more, Johnstone thought. But you will never know that. And it hardly seems right that no one would ever know of his heroic actions, even his own mother. He felt her waiting for an answer, so he replied, “You know, if it had been me, I might well have been bitter. Bitter at what the government did, putting everyone I loved in a camp. But Matthew wasn’t like that.” He smiled at a memory, adding, “Commander Merrick took a personal interest in Matthew. Remember? The man who went with me to the Manzanar camp?” She nodded. “He periodically checked in with Matthew’s superiors. To see how Matthew was doing. Every time, the report was the same – Matthew was a fine Navy man.”

She smiled again, pleased. They walked past the other headstones, each one a remembrance of someone who had lived on the small island and had been greatly loved.

NOTE FROM AUTHOR

This work is complete fiction. Though Manzanar was one of the U.S. internment camps that operated during World War II, all events and characters appearing in this work are fictitious, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

M.H. Sargent would love to hear your comments on this book. You can write to the author at
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