The Enemy (Class 12 English)

TL;DR: This wartime story explores the moral complexity of compassion and the choice to help someone who is technically an enemy. It challenges simplistic no…

This wartime story explores the moral complexity of compassion and the choice to help someone who is technically an enemy. It challenges simplistic notions

The Enemy — Summary

The Enemy is set during World War II and centers on a Japanese surgeon named Dr. Sadao and his wife Hana, who live on the coast of Japan. A wounded American soldier, escaped from a nearby Japanese prison camp, arrives at their home seeking help. Despite the war and the fact that the American is technically an enemy of Japan, Dr. Sadao, moved by medical ethics and human compassion, decides to treat the wounded soldier's injuries. This decision puts Dr. Sadao and his family at risk. The Japanese authorities become aware of the American's presence and begin investigating. Dr. Sadao faces a moral dilemma: he must either deliver the American to the authorities or help him escape. Throughout the story, Dr. Sadao struggles with conflicting loyalties to his country, his profession as a doctor, and his fundamental humanity. The other Japanese characters in the story, including government officials, are more aligned with the war effort and less sympathetic to the American's plight. However, Dr. Sadao ultimately chooses compassion over patriotism, helping the American escape. The story concludes with ambiguity, as the American's ultimate fate remains unknown. The narrative suggests that personal morality and compassion transcend national boundaries and that true humanity lies in helping those in need regardless of enemy status.

Characters

• Dr. Sadao: A Japanese surgeon who must choose between his patriotic duty and his ethical obligation to help a wounded American soldier
• Hana: Dr. Sadao's wife who supports his decision to treat the American, showing compassion alongside her husband
• The American soldier: A wounded escaped prisoner who represents the shared humanity that transcends enemy status
• Japanese authorities: Government officials representing national interest and wartime concerns

Themes

• Compassion versus patriotism
• Moral duty and conscience
• War and humanity
• The universality of human value
• Conflict between loyalty and ethics
• Personal responsibility

Poetic and Literary Devices

Conflict

The story is built on an internal conflict — Sadao's duty as a surgeon against his duty as a Japanese citizen in wartime.

Irony

A Japanese doctor risks execution to save an American prisoner of war, while his own General withholds help for private reasons.

Characterisation through action

Sadao is defined by what he does with his hands — operating, extracting the bullet — rather than by what he says about loyalty.

Symbolism

The sea that washes the wounded man ashore stands for a fate that ignores national boundaries.

Contrast

Sadao's professional compassion is set against Hana's fear and the servants' superstition and desertion.

NCERT Textbook Questions — Answered

Q1. How did Dr Sadao come to be a surgeon and why was he not sent abroad with the troops?

His father sent him to America at twenty-two to study surgery and medicine, and he returned a distinguished surgeon and scientist. He was not sent abroad with the troops for two reasons: he was perfecting a discovery that would make wounds entirely clean, and the old General was in poor health and might need an operation, so Sadao was kept at home for the General's sake.

Q2. Why did Dr Sadao decide to treat the wounded American soldier?

Because he was a surgeon first. He recognised that the man would die without immediate help, and having examined the wound he could not put him back into the sea. His professional instinct — that a doctor does not let a man die when he can save him — overrode the fact that the man was an enemy and that sheltering him was a crime.

Q3. What was the General's plan and why did it fail?

The General promised to send his private assassins to kill the American quietly in his bed, sparing Sadao the risk of reporting him. It failed because the General fell ill, underwent an operation and simply forgot the promise in his own preoccupation with survival — he later admitted he had been thinking only of himself. His forgetfulness is what leaves Sadao to solve the problem himself.

Q4. How did Sadao finally get rid of the soldier?

He gave the American his own boat, food, bottled water, clothes and a flashlight, and directed him to a nearby uninhabited island, telling him to signal with the flashlight after dark if he needed more food and to board any Korean fishing boat that passed. When no signal came on the second night, Sadao knew the man had gone.

Q5. Does the story remain relevant today? Give reasons.

Yes. It asks whether professional and human duty stop at a national border, which is the same question raised whenever doctors treat enemy wounded, refugees or prisoners. Sadao is neither a rebel nor a patriot in any simple sense; he acts on the standard of his profession, and the story argues that such standards are what keep humanity intact when politics does not.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the central moral dilemma of the story?

The central dilemma is the conflict between patriotic duty to one's country and personal moral responsibility to help someone in need, regardless of enemy status. The story suggests that personal morality and compassion are ultimately more important.

Why does Dr. Sadao choose to help the American?

Dr. Sadao helps the American because of his medical ethics and fundamental belief in the value of human life. As a doctor, his primary duty is to heal the sick and injured, regardless of their nationality or political affiliation.

What does the ending suggest about the resolution?

The ambiguous ending, where the American's ultimate fate is unknown, suggests that the moral choice to help has been made, but the consequences and outcomes remain uncertain, reflecting the complexity of moral action in wartime.

More Class 12 English Chapters

• The Last Lesson
• Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood
• Deep Water
• The Rattrap
• Indigo
• Poets and Pancakes

🤖 Stuck on any of these? Ask Syllab's free AI Tutor to explain step by step →