Paradoxical Analysis Of Dr. Sadao Houck's 'The Enemy'

Introduction: This paper deals with the paradoxical relationship between national and patriotic values and the very laws of humanity that crop up in some particular contexts/situations such as the one exemplified in the character of Dr. Sadao Hoki in Pearl s Buck’s “The Enemy”.
Storyline: The basic storyline goes like this: During the second World War, an American prisoner of war is washed ashore in a dying state and is found at the doorstep of the Japanese doctor Sadao Hoki in whom his father had inculcated the great patriotic and nationalistic values. Moreover, as a Japanese studying in America the doctor had earlier faced racial bias. Hence Hoki’s national loyalty was beyond question. Now seeing the dying American in his doorstep, Dr Hoki found himself in a moral dilemma as regards making a choice between saving a dying man as a doctor and handing him over to the army as a patriotic since Japan was at war with America at that time. But the ethical call of his profession as well as basic duties as a human being forbids him from handing over the dying man to the state authorities. The doctor’s act of sheltering “the enemy” might not only be a breach of the rules of patriotism but also could implicate him in the guilt of treason. Despite threats of his own life and his beloved wife Hana and the kids, and the dismal abandoning of the

Various Greek philosophers including Socrates favored the idea of judging an action by the motive intended by the actor in doing so. Dr Sadao Hoki in Pearl S Buck’s story “The Enemy” saves the American because Hoki was by nature a good human being. Again Dr. Hoki is such a good and devout surgeon that he would never compromise with his professional ethics. For the surgeon, the American POW is first a suffering patient whom he must cure with his professional expertise. Only next to that, will come the question of nationality of the dying