Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary

It's Sunday and Hearn and other officers are relaxing on the beach, just a short distance from where the soldiers are patrolling. The other officers are talking about women, and parties back in Washington. Their shallow, sordid stories repel Hearn, who thinks he is becoming a prude.

Lieutenant Dove asks the Japanese translator, Lieutenant Wakara, the meaning of a Japanese word. Dove tells Conn that he does not know what he would do without Wakara, but a while before Wakara had heard Conn saying that Wakara was not much help. Dove mentions a diary that they had taken from the corpse of a dead Japanese major, and tells Wakara that the Japs are weird. Wakara feels uncomfortable being with the officers; he does not think the soldiers would protect him in an attack. He declines to go swimming with Dove and...