Teddy Maki's main joy in life is to mislead American tourists - a small pleasure and so very un-Japanese But his quiet subversiveness hides a deeper conflict for he too was once a naive and trusting American he and his friend Jimmy Yamamot, both jazz musicians, were stranded in Tokyo when Pearl Harbour brought the USA into the war Drafted into the Japanese army they try to dissassociate themselves from the brutal savagery but their innocence is soon shattered