“Draft dodging. Hatred of the military. Fear of war,” Uryu said coldly,
quickly, slicing his speech into three. I was caught off guard.
“I was a high school student, but I didn’t want to go on to university, so I
became a woman.” “Ah. And you succeeded” . . .”
“Succeeded” I suppose you could say I succeeded. I made it through the
war without becoming a soldier.”
“Ah.”
“These days, people talk about having been spies for the United States—
reminiscences of that sort show up in magazines, even—and all the people
who were prisoners then are walking about free, so I don’t imagine that
draft dodgers from back then will be brought up on charges—but I certainly
made sacrifices in my flight, I certainly suffered. . . .”
“But you were able to live as a woman.”
“I transformed myself into an actress touring the countryside. During the
war people transformed themselves into all sorts of things—everyone’s fate
had gone crazy and so of course there were men who turned into women,
either by themselves or with another man. There were probably a few
besides myself.”
“When you say that you became an actress, I take it you were in a
company with other members. They didn’t see through the disguise?”
“I wonder. . . .The head of the company certainly knew. I became
friendly with the leader so that I could keep the rest from finding out, and
the two of us were constantly together. The most difficult part was
changing into costumes. I had to expose my chest then, of course. ... I kept
it wrapped up in gauze all the time, but even so. . . . I’m sure there were
people who suspected, people who felt intuitively that something about me
was a bit peculiar, but of course it never occurred to anyone that I had
become a woman to evade the draft.” Uryu smiled girlishly. “Even if there
