At some point the order came from the Sanuma
police to "put the American doll in the furnace and burn her." I was
asked by the school principal to "deal with this somehow since they
will come to investigate." Mr. Kato, a teacher in charge of the branch school, and I thought, "Just the idea of burning
the doll is upsetting. Isn't there some way to hide her." We two hid her in
the teachers' room. We waited for everyone to return home and for it to become dark.
We managed to move a heavy cabinet that could not be expected to be moved
by just a couple of people. Luckily there was a dark crevice between the cabinet
and
the wall where the doll could just fit. I took the glass cover off the wooden
case, took the doll out, and tenderly hugged her. The doll, with her eyes closed,
cried out "Mamma."
In the middle of night in the pitch-dark teachers' room,
it seems that voice was not the doll, but a child pleading, "Don't burn me
up! Please hide me!" I can still hear her voice. As expected, a Sanuma
policeman came to investigate.
"Did you burn the doll?"
"Yes, I put her into the stove and burnt her
just as we were told."
The policeman looked into the empty case,
searched with a sharp eye in the teachers' room, and even opened the lids on the
large kitchen pots and peeped into them.
How long it was before the policeman left! We were
greatly relieved that we were not arrested.
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