The General

The old General is Sadao's patient and, in effect, the voice of the state. He is powerful but self-absorbed, obsessed with his own failing health and with keeping Sadao's surgical skill available to himself. When told of the hidden American, he coolly offers to send private assassins to dispose of the man quietly. His failure to keep that promise is not mercy but sheer forgetfulness — he is too preoccupied with himself to remember, later confessing, "I thought of nothing but myself. In short, I forgot my promise to you." The General thus represents authority that is both ruthless …