Releasing years of pent up anger seems to deflate the group. The morning has faded and the tropical sun is beating down on the group through the palm fronds. It's time to go. Lee wipes the sweat from his brow. He has maintained a `no-Chinese' rule for 55 years and his face sags with the effort.
"Holding on to hatred takes too much energy," says Yeh, the soldier who fought in China. He takes back what he said earlier about aiming more carefully at the oncoming Nationalist troops. He admits he was so scared at the time, he doesn't know what direction his bullets flew.
"You cannot blame people for what happened back then. What happened during WWII was a problem of the time period, not a problem between people," says Yeh in a voice deepening with the emotion and authority of someone who knows.
"I still have a lot of Japanese friends from the war and a lot of Nationalist Chinese friends who came here in its aftermath, and I can tell you this -- no matter what events may pass and who gets the blame, people are pretty much the same no matter where they come from."
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