When We Were Orphans

The whole back of the house is in ruins as if a bomb has gone in through the roof. There are bodies of two women and a boy, and an injured dog. Akira suddenly starts to giggle uncontrollably while Banks rushes to comfort the girl who is sitting next to the animal. He goes in search of his parents, but the house is empty. A group of four Japanese soldiers enters the house, almost shooting Banks before they realize he is a foreigner. They seem to take Akira prisoner, and the young captain asks Banks to come with them.

They take Banks to a room in their headquarters where they take care of his wounds and allow him to rest. A Colonel Hasegawa introduces himself, telling Banks he is to escort him to the British Consulate. Banks inquires about Akira, only to learn that the Japanese soldier was a Chinese informant, and Banks realizes he is, after all, not certain the man was Akira. The Colonel tells Banks that “the entire globe will before long be engaged in war” (278).

In the consulate, Banks insists on seeing MacDonald, but no one seems to know where to find him. Banks comes across Sir Cecil, who confirms Sarah has gone, telling Banks he suspected him of having run away with her and apologizes. Grayson appears, and it transpires that Grayson is the agent, and MacDonald has been in charge of protocol. He informs Banks that he can meet the Yellow Snake, and they take him to a large house where he encounters Uncle Philip.

Uncle Philip has changed much in the intervening years, but Banks expected him to be the Yellow Snake, so he recognizes him easily. Philip admits he has turned traitor to the communists, claiming he was “tricked” into betraying one of his men, and he calls himself a coward. He informs Banks that his father has been dead for many years Instead of Banks’s belief that he died for taking a stand against his company, Banks's father actually ran off with a mistress. He died in Singapore of typhoid two years after that. His mother learned the truth because his father wrote to her.

Philip explains that the local warlords assisted the big Western companies in importing opium to China. Philip tried to negotiate with the warlords to stop the shipping, but he kept this a secret from Christopher’s mother, and the day she found out was when Wang Ku visited their house. For insulting him, Wang Ku chose to take her as his concubine. Philip claims he took Christopher away that day to protect him, but he continued to work with Wang Ku, which helped end the opium trade, only to have it reinstated by the Chinese government. He tells Banks he saw his mother once again, seven years after her abduction, in Hunan, when he was Wang Ku’s guest. He reveals that his mother became Wang’s concubine in return for Christopher’s safety and financial security—Banks’s real benefactor was not an old aunt but Wang Ku. Wang broke her will by torturing her.

Philip urges Banks to kill him for his sins. He confesses, “a part of me wanted her to become his slave” (295), because Phillip desired her in vain. Banks leaves him, determined to find his mother.

Now elderly, Banks arrives to Hong Kong with Jennifer. He has heard that much of the poverty and opium abuse has receded with the communists ruling China. On his third day, he goes to Rosedale Manor, a formerly splendid residence that has grown “shabby.” Sister Belinda explains how a woman known as Diana Roberts came to them through a charity organization dealing with foreigners “stranded in communist China” (301). Prior to that, she lived in an institution for the mentally ill in Chunking. The sister leads Banks to the garden, where he finds his mother playing cards on the grass. She does not recognize him and communicates in an odd, disconnected manner, and then she begins to sing. Banks uses his old nickname, Puffin, which makes the woman grow still. She recalls her son as a child, saying “Oh, he’s such a worry to me. You’ve no idea” (305).

Banks later tells Jennifer that he is certain his mother did not recognize him, but that her love for him remains genuine. He decides to leave her in Rosedale Manor, because she seems settled and calm there.

Five years later, back in England, Banks worries about Jennifer, who has tried to commit suicide. She is 31, single, and seems resigned to a life of loneliness. Banks apologizes for not having been more involved in her life when she was younger, but Jennifer replies that she would have been lost without him and promises to invest herself more in living her life.

In London, Banks ponders the possibility of leaving the city to go and live with Jennifer in the countryside, but he enjoys his life in the capital. People still recognize him as a great detective from time to time, and a woman tells him she knew Sarah in Singapore and that Sarah used to talk of him often. She married a French count; they seemed to be happy, and he seemed devastated by her death after the war.

Banks has received a letter from Sarah in 1947 from Malaya. In it, she tells him she bears no ill will for his abandoning her in Shanghai, and that she has since found happiness, which she hopes for him as well. Banks does not fully accept that she was so happy, as he believes they were both orphans in search of a meaning to life that has left them forever restless.