Dramatic Monologue on Historical Conflict

It’s Japan, that’s what.

— You Japanese devils, aren’t you?

Officer, you tell me,

with conduct like this,

can you still claim to be civilized?

If I call you a beast in human clothing,

I’d be insulting the beasts’ nature.

You—you beastly—

— beast! You!

You cowardly beasts, you Japanese devils.

You’ve killed thousands without batting an eye,

yet you can’t even bear a few words from an old man—

— words?

What you’ve done today

shows you no longer regard the people of China as human.

You can speak my language,

so I thought you were a learned, reasonable man.

You should know that China

once had the prosperous Han and Tang dynasties.

During the Tang dynasty,

how did the people of China treat you?

When did we ever fail in courtesy?

Your clothes, tea, and books—which of them

doesn’t bear the mark of Chinese customs?

We were friendly neighboring nations.

But today, you

relying on Western laws and weapons,

have treated a benevolent, friendly nation

like cattle to be slaughtered.

What you’ve done

has not only destroyed a thousand years of friendship,

but also broken the hearts of the Chinese people.

There are hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

Can you kill them all?

Japan is but a tiny island nation,

yet you’ve forged with your neighbors

such deep hatred.

How will your descendants

make friends with the rest of the world?

Who will ever believe—

—you again?

Young man, remember your great-grandfather’s words.

Today, my entire clan

faces the calamity of extermination.

We’ll simply die together as a family.

But your actions will leave your descendants

with a crime that can never be washed away—

—for all eternity.

One day, China will prosper.

When that day comes,

our Chinese nature of repaying hatred with virtue

may mean we won’t seek revenge on Japan.

But remember this:

if your descendants still don’t change

these deeds, worse than those of beasts, Heaven

will destroy you—

—you bunch of animals!

—Bah! Old man!

Old man! Old man! Old man!

Old man! Ah!