Wounded Lion

"How's your ear?" demanded Prime Minister Yuko ("Shishi" or "The Lion") Hamaguchi last week of his war minister, General Ugaki.

The general was astounded. He had called at what he feared would be the death bed of his chief. Day before a young fanatic, one Tameo Sagoya, had put a bullet into the Prime Minister's abdomen, pierced the small intestine. In the cir cumstances it was remarkable that even Japan's dauntless old Lion should remember General Ugaki's tympanitis, roar at him feebly, "How's your ear?"

Hovering near Death, the Prime Minister received three blood transfusions, the first from his younger son Iwane, the second and third from his secretary Yadanji Nakajima. When the Lion was asked if his elder cub Kazuhiko should be summoned from his banking job in Manhattan, he replied: "No, Kazuhiko has work to do!"

Said Cuo Kazuhiko : "My father is well liked by the people of Japan. I have never heard of any threats against him. I can't understand why anyone should attempt to take his life."

Jailed, the young would-be assassin successfully defied police efforts to worm a reason out of him. As a matter of course Chief of Police Tsurikichi Maruyama of Tokyo resigned in shame. Had not the bullet been fired in broad daylight in the principal railway station of Tokyo as the Lion was about to board a train?

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