Title: The Japanese Doll
Author: Iona Yeager
Email:Wtr4Hire@aol.com
Rated: G
Disclaimer: Diagnosis Murder belongs to Viacom and CBS. The
author is not making any profit from this story.
Treatment: The four leads play double roles in this World War II
tale of love, loyalty, and tragedy.
In flashback: 1942: Amanda's Great-grandmother Yolanda scolds her
eldest daughter, Registered Nurse Elise Gregory for her
friendship with the Takehashi family, the yellow menace down the
street, who are responsible for her elder brother's danger in the
Pacific. Yolanda is more scandalized when Elise's date shows up:
Doctor Philip Ford (Steve)
This is California 1940s. Ethnic diversity and dating are not
only a no-no, its downright hazardous to one's health. Doctor
Ford takes Elise to a USO where she performs for troops. She also
encounters Doctor Ford Senior (Mark). He is not pleased with his
son's escort. A fight ensues when Mariko Takehashi and her newly
recruited fiance Joseph Dance (Jesse) enter the hall.
The Two couples leave the hall, declaring enteral friendship.
Flash forward to the present. Amanda's Great Aunt Tomika dies
leaving Amanda the ancestral house. Steve, Mark, Jesse volunteers
to help Amanda close the house. They are charmed by the pictures
and old books, and artwork. In the shed a mildly offensive odor
leads to the discovery of a compartment in a wall. They find the
remnants of a secret dwelling. Cups and saucers, books, a diary,
a beautiful Japanese Doll. A chest has a place of honor in the
closet. Candles and other Buddhist relics adorn the shrine like
closet. With trepidation Amanda watches as Steve and Jesse open
the chest and the skeleton is revealed.
At the hospital, Amanda identifies the skeleton as the remains of
a young Asian woman, cause of death undetermined. Steve, sadly
informs Amanda that there is no statue of limitations on murder,
and there has to be an investigation. Amanda contacts her
Grandmother, a teaching nurse in Africa. "I should have
burned that shed," she tells Amanda, but hangs up without
helping.
Amanda's mother is shocked and silent, so Amanda is forced to
clear her Grandmother's and Great-grandmother's name on her own.
She finds, with the doll, Mariko Takehashi's diary.
Mariko Takehashi speaks fondly of how her fiancee won over her
father.
Mariko admits that she and her fiance have anticipated their vows
(he's due to leave for Europe soon) and she is expecting. She
says too, that she knows that Doctor Ford and her best friend,
Elise have secretly married. She tells of Doctor Ford's fury at
his son's choice of friends. The Government announces that as
Japanese, the Takehashi family must give up there home and leave
for a detainment camp. Joseph quickly marries Mariko, but this
she still is ordered to leave with the rest of her family. Elise,
without her mother's permission offers refuge for the Takehashi
family, but the older family surrenders, leaving Elise behind
because of the unborn child.
Yolanda is reluctant at first, but she admits that before the
war, the Takehashi family were good friends. When Doctor Ford
alerts the government to Elise's sympathies Yolanda and Elise
transform a room in the tool shed, (used in slavery days by
underground railroad), into living quarters.
Amanda ask her mother about Doctor Ford. She thought her
grandfather was her grandmother's only husband. Her mother refers
her to her Grandmother, who has disappeared from the teaching
hospital. Mark knows about the elder Doctor Ford. A handsome man,
he says, but not the most pleasant one. Mark met him after the
war when he was a resident. Mark thinks the man must be a hundred
years old, but offers to find him.
Amanda discovers that not long after Mariko went into hiding, her
husband was shipped overseas and reported MIA.
In flashbacks, Mariko becomes despondent despite Elise and Doctor
Ford's urging.
Yolanda tells Mariko stories of her family, but Mariko's health
fails and the diary ends.
Steve finds Amanda and tells her that her grandmother may be in
the United States and in danger of being arrested. Mark finds
Doctor Ford's younger sister at a rest home and takes Amanda and
Steve to see him. She is moved by Amanda's and Steve's
resemblance to her brother and Amanda's grandmother. She gives
Amanda letters from, she says, Amanda's grandfather.
Amanda questions her mother about Doctor Ford again. Mrs. Bentley
explains that Doctor Ford Junior was killed in at the end of the
war. Amanda's elder uncle, not her mother was Doctor Ford's son.
Grandmother Elise met Amanda's grandfather while serving as Mash
Nurse in Korea.
Doctor Ford's letters fill in the blanks:
Elise wants to take Mariko to the hospital.
"What Hospital will take her?" Doctor Ford asks. Even
people of color have a hard time finding a decent hospital to
accept them. A fugitive Japanese woman wouldn't have a chance.
Mariko delivers the baby early, and despite the skill of both
Doctor Fords and Elise, Mariko dies, leaving custody of the child
to Doctor Ford and Elise. Doctor Ford Senior explains that
harboring Mariko would be considered treason. Elise and her
mother could spend the rest of their lives in prison. The have a
burial in the shed and seals it. Doctor Ford cannot accept Elise
as a daughter in law, so his son decides not to tell him that
they are having a baby until he returns. He is killed and Doctor
Ford refuses to see Elise. Towards the end of his life, he
greatly regretted his actions but he could not find Elise or her
son. Elise gives Mariko's baby to Mariko's elder sister. The
family leaves the United States.
"I should have burned the shed, but she was so dear to
me," Amanda's grandmother returns. She introduces Amanda to
a handsome, gray haired version of Jesse, Joseph Dance. Dance
confinement in a Japanese POW deep in South East Asia camp were a
mystery until long after W.W.II was over. He returned in the
early sixties to find Elise married and out of state, his best
friend dead, and his fiance's parents missing. Elise's sister was
a nurse in England during the war and knew nothing of the secret
of the house, or even her sister's secret marriage. Thinking
Joseph a deranged hippy she sends him away, never telling her
sister about the meeting.
Jesse comes in at that moment and says he thinks he found the
Takehashi family on the Internet. They live in the Hawaii.
Because the detainment of the Japanese is considered a wrongful
action by the USA, Elise and her mother are exonerated of any
wrong doing. Though a little hostile towards Mark, Elise is quite
taken with Steve.
In the last act, Jesse produces Little Elise, Mariko's adult
daughter and she is at last reunited with her father. The two
families bury Mariko.
In the old USO hall, Mark plays the piano and Steve dances with
Elise.
Flashback to Doctor Ford and Elise dancing.
The End
