A/N: This was a tough tag to write for a few reasons. I was coming off a high after churning out a 150,000-word story for the QB and finding it difficult to hit my stride again. Then there was the brilliant Charles Durning playing Ernie Yost – and what's not to love, plus he provided some truly sweet interactions between himself and the cast. Most notably the scene where he dances with Cate and pretty much every scene with DiNozzo, including where he asks Tony for a foot massage and Tony is all on it – before he even knows that Ernie is a recipient of the Medal of Honour. (DiNozzo might suck at relating to kids but that clearly isn't the case when it comes to senior citizens). The episode was clearly intended to be a feel- good one by the writers, which in the most part succeeded and made it difficult to come up with a tag. Therefore, thanks are in order to the awesome Aussiefan70 for coming up with the sanction, pointing out the hole in my initial plot, then coming to the rescue with a workable story, plus letting me campfire al a DiNozzo. I hope you enjoy, and a crateload of virtual Tim Tams and Pollywaffles being sent to Aussiefan70 for the proof reading and invaluable help.
Series: There's Always Tom Morrow
Title: Whatever It Takes
Episode: Call of Silence
Characters: Tom Morrow, Lynette Morrow [OC], Toshi Nakamura [OC]
Tom stared at the complaint that had landed on his desk from Judge Advocate Faith Coleman regarding the MCRT's stonewalling behaviour during the investigation into World War II Medal of Honour recipient, Corporal Ernest Maynard Yost. It arrived over a week ago, but he hadn't taken much notice of it if he was being honest, because it wasn't that unusual to receive complaints about Gibbs from the various law enforcement organisations who worked with the Major Case Response Team. Of course, he was well aware of Gibbs penchant for pissing other people off – he was reasonably sure a case wasn't considered closed by the former Marine gunnery sergeant if he hadn't managed to outrage someone enough for them to lodge a formal complaint against him.
Rereading this particular complaint from Lieutenant Coleman again, he noted that while it stopped short of formally accusing Gibbs and his team of interfering in her investigation and obstruction of justice, he could read between the lines and so would The Powers That Be. Mind you, this wasn't Gibbs first run-in with JAG or Commander Coleman. There was no love lost on either side. Plus, Coleman was very much a stickler for the rules type of lawyer and naval officer. One could make an excellent case that such a trait stood Commander Coleman in good stead to do her job in prosecuting and defending Naval and Marine Corps personnel. However, Morrow felt that there was such a thing as being too inflexible – that even in the enforcement of the Uniform Code of Military Justice there should be room for a little bit of bend.
Of course, in butting heads with Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Coleman had pretty much was at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to regulations. Gibbs, although previously a Gunny in the USMC (and presumably he'd had to adhere to a rigid chain of command) had, after his discharge become a federal agent who abhorred following rules, unless they were of his own making. Even then, he deigned to follow his own set of rules only when he deemed it appropriated (read convenient). Which realistically was nowhere near as often as the NCIS director would have liked. To say that Gibbs and Coleman were bound to rile each other up would be the equivalent of stating that water was wet, or that a working clock told the time.
That they wouldn't see eye to eye while encountering each other on such an emotive case was therefore a no-brainer and normally he would not be too perturbed about the Judge Advocate's complaint. But it wasn't the only complaint he was fielding about the case. In fact, in terms of how much credence he placed upon it, it was definitely in the file of Gibbs pissing off LEOs/ fellow federal agents/ military personnel and sundry bureaucrats and citizenry, of which there was a very vast number.
Viewing the case overall, there'd been a surprising but very welcome decrease in the number of reports from other NCIS agents who shared the bullpen with the major case response team. According to Balboa, Gibbs was not playing his usual mind games with his team; perhaps it was out of respect for Cpl Yost. It could of course be that Gibbs didn't want the older Marine to see how far short from the Corps ethical standards he'd allowed himself to fall, Morrow thought cynically. Maybe he should employ Ernie to supervise Gibbs in the bullpen permanently, if that was all it took to have his supervisory agent refrain from pitting his agents against each other and completely ignoring the chain of command on the team. It had certainly made everyone working there a lot happier.
That wasn't to say that Gibbs' behaviour had been exemplarily during the investigation, nor his 2IC, Agent DiNozzo either. It hadn't escaped Morrow's attention that Ernie Yost after his repeated confessions, should have been read his Article 31 rights the moment they started to investigate him after he confessed to killing his teammate and best friend on Iowa Jima, even if they didn't take him seriously. The regulation was there in black and white - once they started even a half-assed examination of his claims, he should have been read his Article 31 rights.
All military members were entitled to Article 31 rights, irrespective of whether or not they are in official custody and that hadn't happened. A failure to advise him of his right to remain silent and have legal representation if he'd subsequently been charged with a crime could have seen the case thrown out of court on that technical failure. It also seemed obvious to the director that it had been a deliberate oversight by two such highly experienced investigators. Tom might be able to rationalise one of his agents forgetting (although not really) but two failing to read Cpl Yost his Article 31s stretched the boundaries of credibility way too far.
Naturally, he would have to censure both agents although he wasn't too concerned about the lapse. He was fairly sure that many if not all of his other SSAs would have probably had similar difficulties under the circumstances presented in this situation. To be perfectly honest, Tom probably would have been tempted to pull the same stunt himself since it seemed very apparent that they were dealing with not only a true American hero but also a grief-stricken and confused elderly veteran. The fact that he was trying so hard to be incarcerated, having called the cops on seven occasions before showing up at NCIS' DC office and also sending off a written confession to SECNAV was not the usual modus operandi of a murderer. No, it spoke to a far more desperate motive which made seasoned investigators very sceptical.
As it turned out, they'd had with good reason to doubt Yost's account which was something that experienced investigators developed a sixth sense for, so Tom didn't consider the lapse to be too grievous. That said, he would make sure that he tore them a new one in front of Agents Todd and McGee since as probie agents, he didn't want them thinking that 99.99 percent of the time, this failure to observe regulations wouldn't be grounds for severe discipline and probably lead to a criminal getting let off unpunished. He would give them both a week suspension to hammer home the point to the probies and make Todd and McGee help out in the evidence garage.
What was really disturbing him was far more serious because Gibbs had decided to play fast and loose with the truth. Sure, he often came close to the precipice and drew others in too but this time, he had gone rushing off half-cocked in his determination to clear Ernie Yost before Commander Coleman took him into custody. Tom Morrow knew Gibbs had been a Marine Recon sniper which required a capacity for unerring focus, and it was certainly something Gibbs possessed in spades – he'd been awarded the Silver Star for Pete's sake. However, the degree of what fighter pilots called target fixation that Gibbs possessed was also sufficient to fly him (and anyone else he'd hijacked) into a mountain without compunction if it achieved his goal. He had elevated singlemindedness to an Olympic sport!
Still, it was one thing to know this truth about his SSA intellectually – it was another matter entirely to see the outcome when it occurred, know that a vulnerable old man had paid a huge price. Damn it, Tom so wanted to throttle Jethro for his headstrong arrogance and wilful blindness.
~o0o~
Morrow pushed his dinner plate away as he gave his wife an appreciative smile. "Excellent filet mignon, Lynnie, as usual. My compliments."
She nodded in acknowledgement. "Thanks, darling. You feel like talking about it now?"
"Talking about what?"
Shaking her head, she told him, "We've been married for over twenty years, Tommy. I know when something is troubling you. Can you talk about it or is it classified?
He sighed and decided to stop deflecting. "No, but it is case related." He was silent as he contemplated whether he should reveal what had disturbed him and figured that it was nothing confidential and besides, his wife knew how to be discreet.
"I went to Kamakura for lunch today with the director of CGIS, Grant Watts," he told Lynette, in what seemed to be a complete non sequitur to anyone who didn't know him as his wife did.
"So, they're open again?" she observed.
Tom looked pained. "They are."
Lynette looked pleased. "We'll have to go there for dinner next week. Did you find out why they closed down so suddenly, Tommy?"
Her husband looked grim. "I did. They had to hire a new sushi chef."
"What happened to Hitoshi?" Lynette asked worriedly. "Is he okay?"
Scowling, Tom told her, "No, unfortunately, he's not. PTSD!" he said shortly.
His wife regarded him intently. "He was in the Imperial Japanese Army, wasn't he?"
"Fought and captured during the battle at Guadalcanal."
Lynette got a far off look in her eyes, her Uncle Edward was serving aboard the USS Atlanta when she went down at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in November 1942. Although he'd died before she was born, her father who was too young to fight in World War II and her grandparents had never truly gotten over the loss of their elder son.
"Hitoshi seemed fine the last time we were there. I wonder what triggered him?" she mused, thinking of the elderly chef who had made their night out at the sushi restaurant such a memorable one.
"NCIS did," Morrow growled. "Specifically, Gibbs did!"
"Jethro did? How did he do that and why?"
"I took him there for dinner one night after he helped run an op from MTAC," Tom explained. "And he loved it!"
"Huh, I wouldn't have pegged Gibbs as a sushi kinda guy, more like a steak and potatoes guy," she mused.
"So, what are you saying; you think Gibbs is too macho for sushi? What does that say about me?" he asked, only half in jest.
Rolling her eyes at her spouse fondly, she said, "Not about being too macho, Tommy. More about Jethro being too staid. He doesn't exactly embrace change easily, does he? His favourite takeout is fairly sedate, pizza or Chinese. He doesn't like Thai and who doesn't like Thai? Nor is he keen on Indian food, either."
Tom considered what she'd said. "True. If it were teriyaki or a Japanese steak place, possibly a hibachi grill, it would be a bit more plausible. I never thought about it when I took him to Kamakura. I was tired and hungry, but you're right, plus the trendsetters that go there aren't exactly the sort of people he has a lot of time for, nor the bureaucrats, diplomats, lobbyists and politicians who flock there in all their cosmopolitan glory."
"Did he ever serve in Japan?" she asked her husband inquisitively.
No, never served with the Corps in Japan," Tom stated categorically.
Lynette shrugged. "Well, I think we got distracted. What do you dragging Jethro to Hitoshi's restaurant one night have to do with his PTSD?"
"Seems on subsequent visits to Kamakura he must have been chatting to Hitoshi and learned he was in the Japanese Imperial Army and fought at Guadalcanal."
"Chatting? Gibbs!" Lynette asked incredulously.
Tom huffed. "Yeah, okay. Poor choice of words," he conceded.
Husband and wife were silent as they pictured a conversation between the taciturn Marine and Yashida who spoke minimal English, even after more than fifty years in the United States. The Morrows had spent time in Japan when Tom had been assigned to the NIS (now NCIS) Far East Field Office in Yokosuka, so they were both fairly fluent in the language. During Tom's deployment, they'd developed a real appreciation for Japanese cuisine so when Yashida and his grandson decided to open up an authentic sushi restaurant in DC called Kamakura (named in honour of the city where Hitoshi had been born) they were ecstatic. One thing they'd learnt early on, Hitoshi was an extremely reticent fellow, even in his native language.
Lynette sighed. The details about Gibbs triggering Hitoshi's post-traumatic stress were proving to be ridiculously hard to extract from her hubby. At this point, she felt that alcohol might help to move things along, so she stood up to retrieve a bottle of scotch and two balloon glasses from the wet bar and poured a healthy measure of spirits into each glass.
Handing her husband his glass of spirits, she said sweetly, Okay so what's all this have to do with Jethro triggering Hitoshi's PTSD, Tommy?"
Morrow wasn't fooled by his wife's saccharine sweetness. It meant she was getting to the end of her patience, so he decided to hurry up with the story. "Remember I told you about Corporal Yost, a Marine Medal of Honour recipient from WWII who came into the office six weeks ago to confess that he'd murdered his best friend. He wanted us to lock him up."
"Yes, I do remember, darling. It isn't every day that a MOH veteran confesses he's a murderer some half a century after the fact. I also remember you said he was confused and grieving after his wife died and was harassing the LEOs before he came to NCIS. You said the cops fobbed him off, believing he was drunk and deluded."
Morrow nodded. "Yeah, so did we but he also wrote to SECNAV, confessing to him too, and SECNAV ordered JAG to launch an investigation."
"You said that your agents began investigating it to mollify him, initially."
"Gibbs and DiNozzo were convinced that he was innocent, and they only began an investigation to prove to Yost that he hadn't killed Corporal Kean, but the evidence started mounting, corroborating his story. Even though Ducky's examination of the remains of Corporal Kean showed he'd lost both of his legs from a landmine, there was also evidence of blunt force head trauma that seemed to match the .45 gun that Yost surrendered to NCIS, claiming that he'd used to kill Kean.
"However, Gibbs and DiNozzo were adamant that he hadn't murdered his best friend - there was no motive for it. At that point they assumed he was suffering from survivor's guilt which had been triggered by his wife's death from cancer a few weeks prior. Then Agent DiNozzo discovered a motive – they'd both been in love with his wife, Dorothy. Although it was love at first sight when he met her in an army hospital in Hawaii after he'd been injured, his buddy Wade Kean had been her high school sweetheart.
"Tony managed to figure out that Yost believed he killed Kean because they fought over her after Yost proposed to her right before Iwo Jima. Although the team were all of the opinion that Yost hadn't murdered his buddy in a fit of jealous rage, as Agent DiNozzo pointed out, what was more pertinent was that Corporal Yost believed it.
Until they could convince Yost otherwise, then he would keep on confessing, even if they failed to charge him. Plus, they were well aware that the judge advocate general, Lieutenant Coleman did believe Yost and was a stickler for the rules."
Lynette had been listening intently. "I'm following all of this. Some of this you told me before, but I don't see how it relates to Hitoshi, Tommy."
He smiled grimly. "Getting to it, my love. So, the MCRT tried to find a witness from Iwo Jima to help convince Yost he hadn't murdered his friend, but they couldn't find anyone still alive. Then Gibbs got the brilliant idea of using Yashida as a witness and persuaded the JAG officer, Lt Coleman. He tried to recreate the battle at Iwo Jima using Marine footage from the battle at Iwo Jima to help Cpl Yost remember what had really happened."
Lynette frown. "But Hitoshi wasn't at Iwo Jima. He had already been captured by then and was a prisoner-of-war," Lynne objected.
"I know."
"Gibbs lied?"
Tom shrugged. "Let's just say that Gibbs was highly motivated to convince Corporal Yost that he hadn't killed his best friend on Iwo Jima."
"So, he lied to do it!" Lynette stated, pursing her lips reproachfully.
Tom shrugged because she was correct.
"Why did you permit it?"
"I didn't. He went off half-cocked without getting authorization because he was trying to pre-empt JAG from taking Corporal Yost into custody. I had no idea what he was contemplating, Lynne."
"I get that everyone was invested in proving that Mr Yost wasn't a cold-blooded murder. He was a genuine honest-to-God hero and sounds like he must be a venerable old gentleman to have evoked everyone's respect but obviously, Jethro never stopped to consider how what he was asking Yashida to do would impact him personally. Was it because he fought in the Japanese Imperial Army and was the Enemy?" she queried cynically.
Morrow snorted. "That's what Toshi said to me when he ripped into me, today," he said ruefully.
"And what was your response, Tommy?" Lynette asked her beleaguered husband somewhat tartly.
Tom looked reflective. "I told him that I could understand why he might think that but that I felt fairly confident that it was a straight-up case of target fixation that had nothing to do with his grandfather being in the JIA during the war. Jethro can be incredibly high handed and rides roughshod over everyone to achieve his objective; he frequently ignores the bigger picture – like his team needing to eat or sleep – so long as they close a case."
It was his wife's turn to snort, although it was far more lady-like.
"I explained to him that I believed that Gibbs failed to consider Yashida's needs in his single-minded drive to clear Yost's name because he was fixated on a fellow Marine who he revered. He didn't stop to consider how it might impact on his grandfather because he is NOT a touchy-feely kind of guy."
His wife took a large gulp of whiskey and choked before Tom turned and stared at her. "What?"
Shaking her head she said, "Sometimes your gift for understatement is staggering, Tommy. Jethro is definitely not someone in touch with his emotions."
"Which is probably why he would have ignored or not even considered any possible impact that his stunt may have had on Hitoshi."
"Maybe…maybe not. Gibbs has some pretty clear indicators for narcissism."
"But he was trying to save Ernie Yost from his demons," Morrow objected.
"True, but Gibbs strongly identified with him because he was a Marine, like himself who saw combat. And he'd lost his wife and had no other family. Do the math, Hon. Saving Mr Yost became a personal crusade. Hitoshi was simply another tool…like his agents…his to do with as he pleases to get the outcomes he requires. Classic narcissistic tendencies, Darling."
Seeing that her husband looked set to debate her observations, she said, "Even if I'm wrong about this, the fact he didn't stop to consider Mr Yashida's welfare because of his obsessiveness is still a piss poor excuse. It isn't an excuse at all. Jethro rides roughshod over everyone's feelings and gets away with it. You acknowledged that, yourself."
Tom looked at his infuriated spouse and nodded. "I did. The trouble is that despite being director and his superior, Gibbs is Teflon™ coated. Nothing ever sticks."
Lynette looked pensive. "I might have an idea or two about punitive measures," she said, a strange light in her eyes that had Tom silently groaning.
As a parent, she had always been highly creative when it came to disciplining their son and daughter. He was figuratively quaking at what she might come up with. Still, he was fresh out of ideas so really, what did he have to lose? Plus, he'd promised Toshi, that Gibbs would suffer consequences for triggering his grandfather's PTDS so casually and failing to check up on Hitoshi in the days and weeks that followed him doing Gibbs and Ernie Yost such a huge favour.
He remembered the grandson and part-owner of Kamakura Sushi House ranting at him at lunch today about how he and the rest of the household were unable to sleep for the terrible nightmares Hitoshi was experiencing after helping Gibbs exonerate Yost. He was furious, saying that his grandfather was already under an enormous amount of pressure, had then been conned into taking part in the Iwo Jima recreation, the pressure had become unbearable, triggering his most severe episodes of PTSD ever.
Tom had asked, "Here's what I don't understand about all of this, Toshi," he told the young man. "Knowing he had severe PTSD, why would your grandfather agree to help Gibbs? He must have known it could trigger him?"
The young man, who' been named after his maternal grandfather sighed, regarding Tom in a world-weary fashion. "It's well known that the Japanese Imperial forces committed collective and individual acts of barbaric atrocities during WWII. An estimated forty percent of American prisoners of war died of starvation, illness and torture at the hands of their Japanese captors in slave labour camps."
Tom nodded, "So your grandfather was ashamed. It was an act of atonement?"
Toshi frowned, screwing up his youthful features. "Partially it's that, I guess but it's a whole lot more. It's really complex. Not sure if it is possible to explain so you can understand."
The slim young man in his tailored black slacks, white button-down shirt and black vest sighed hugely, wondering if he could reduce into a short discussion, a lot of complicated issues before giving it a go.
"What tends to be glossed over is that the atrocities committed by the Japanese armed forces also created much anguish and hardship for Japanese American citizens and their families settled in the US, Director. Most if not, all were appalled by such abject cruelty by the Imperial Armed Forces; as many as 33,000Japanese Americans served in all areas of the armed services during WWII, including the Merchant Marines, fighting AGAINST Japan.
"Yet, despite this, our government ordered the incarceration of roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps in mainland America. They imprisoned children and the elderly, many people who were detained were second and third-generation American citizens. My grandmother (Hitoshi's wife) was a third-generation US citizen, but her family including her parents and younger siblings were still suspected of spying for the Emperor and locked up for the duration of the war. Baba and her family spent the war in the same internment camp as that Star Trek actor's family."
Tom, a skilled interrogator automatically could detect a palpable degree of anger at his ancestors' treatment during the war even if he didn't come right out and say it, partially due to the inflexion he placed on the phrase internment camps. He also suspected that Toshi didn't express his anger because he knew that some people would become deeply offended and downplay their unfair experience of racial profiling by the much-abused tool of false equivalency. In this case, calling out the horrific treatment of allied prisoner-of-war at the hands of the Japanese Imperial forces.
Tom felt great empathy for Toshi's family and thousands of his fellow Americans of Japanese descent who had effectively been between a rock and a hard place when World War II had broken out. It must have been even harder to tolerate knowing that the large majority of Japanese Americans (approximately 150,000) who lived in Hawaii had spent World War II without being rounded up and imprisoned for the war's duration.
Toshi Nakamura paused in thought. "While they understood it was a difficult situation, essentially a political one, many American citizens who possessed Japanese ancestry were adjudged guilty without a scrap of evidence to convict them. They had no recourse to proving that their loyalty was to America. They quickly realised that realistically, it wouldn't do any good to complain about it either, because the war atrocity committed by so many Japanese imperial soldiers soured many of their fellow Americans to their plight. They knew there would be little sympathy for them, despite doing nothing wrong because they had Japanese ancestry."
Tom nodded, "It must have been extremely difficult for them. The fact that Pearl Harbour was physically attacked in the war incurred casualties of over 2,400 dead and nearly 1,200 wounded dead and yet Hawaii didn't imprison their large Japanese American population proved how illogical it was."
Toshi gave Morrow a grateful look. "Thank you, Director, not a lot of people acknowledge that fact. If anyone had cause to be paranoid it was the Hawaiians who suffered such devastation.
"And even after the war, years after the war, many Japanese Americans tried to hide or downplay their Japanese ancestry by adopting Anglicized names and calling their kids Anglo names. My mom and dad were called Caroline and Michael and I was named Michael Robert Hitoshi Noakes when I was born. When I was legally old enough, I changed my name to Hitoshi Nakamura which is my parents' last name, which they Anglicized."
Toshi frowned, "I went to school with a boy whose grandfather fought in WWII in the German Army. He was just a private who was forced to enlist or be shot; he did not support the Fascists; he was just a kid but felt he had no other option. Some years after the war, he and his family emigrated and they also opted to change their names to help them assimilate, choosing quintessential American names but they had an advantage that my family didn't. They were able to blend in because of their Caucasian appearance in a way we never could. Yes, they still faced bigotry, but Japanese Americans couldn't blend in ever."
Tom admitted that he'd never really given a lot of thought to what Toshi was describing. Although once the young man explained it to him, he could empathise with his experience. He wasn't sure what this all had to do with why Yashida would agree to participate in Gibbs' sham interrogation stunt, knowing his longstanding post-traumatic stress was likely to be triggered but he was sensitive enough to trust that the man's grandson was attempting to convey something pertinent to answer his question.
As if reading his mind, Toshi asked him, "Do you know why my Ojiisan remained in the US after the war ended? Many of his fellow prisoners-of-war were repatriated back to Japan soon after the war."
Morrow quirked an eyebrow as he considered the question. "Ah no, Toshi. Your grandfather is a man of few words. I never felt it was appropriate to ask, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would say that he met your grandmother and decided to marry and raise a family."
"Good guess, but no, that wasn't why. He didn't meet my grandmother until 1947. He was sent to the internment camp at Fort Hunt, Virginia…"
"Wait, why was he sent to Fort Hunt, Toshi? Fort Hunt and Camp Tracey in California were used as specialist intelligence-gathering facilities. They were reserved for prisoners believed to possess strategic or significant technical information so they could be interrogated by professionals," Morrow interrupted him. "I thought he was just a simple soldier."
Toshi laughed sardonically. "Oh, he was, Director and before enlisting he was studying to become sushi chef, but it was a case of mistaken identity. Someone else with a similar sounding name managed to convince the Allied interrogators after they captured them on Guadalcanal that it was Ojiisan who was the cryptographer instead of himself," Toshi frowned.
"So instead of ending up at a prisoner-of-war camp in Australia or New Zealand, he was sent to the United States. Despite the wiretaps and the interrogations, the prisoners were generally treated pretty well at Fort Hunt but in some ways that made him feel even more shamed for having been captured. The cultural messages from the Japanese authorities were that getting captured was dishonourable – that the JIA expected that they fight to the death. So…getting taken alive was seen as an act of extreme cowardice which brought great shame to one's family."
"So, your grandfather was too ashamed to return home?" Tom asked sadly.
"It was a bit more complicated than that, Director Morrow. "In his mind, and many other Japanese soldiers, rather than being taken by force by the Allied forces, even when they were gravely wounded as my grandfather was, they believed it was surrendering and felt great shame for not dying. Marrying Baba in 1948 gave Ojiisan a reason to want to live but he never returned to Japan, believing he had brought a huge dishonour upon his family."
Tom wondered if Yashida felt that in helping Gibbs to clear the good name of a war hero, it might also help restore his honour.
"Of course, for Ojiisan, it wasn't only his sense of shame for being taken prisoner, it was a lot more complicated," Toshi told him unhappily. "My Grandfather is a devout Buddhist, Director Morrow. While most of the Buddhist monks in Japan supported the need for their followers to kill in the defence of Japan, influenced in part by Shinto religious and cultural influences which were extremely dominant at that time, there were a few Buddhist groups who maintained that taking a life was not justifiable. They opposed the war, and the leaders were imprisoned for those views. Hitoshi's father agreed with the vast majority of his fellow Buddhists that they must defend Japan and Emperor Hirohito. To not fight was highly dishonourable.
"However, his maternal grandfather was a follower of Honmon Hokkeshu who were opposed to the militarization of the country and the influences of state-mandated Shinto principles. He begged Hitoshi not to fight before he and other like-minded Buddhists were imprisoned by the Japanese government. Given that the overwhelming majority of his countrymen and women supported the war, my grandfather felt he had no choice but to do his duty like hundreds of thousands of other young Japanese men of his generation. However, killing his enemies went against everything he believed in, and I know it is something he is still struggling to come to terms with."
As he relayed what Toshi had told him, Lynette had become emotional. "That poor man; torn between two opposing constraints about the ethics of taking a life and having to choose which of his grandfathers to obey. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. Plus feeling he brought dishonour by surviving and being captured. Little wonder he ended up with PTSD. He must feel so conflicted."
"I know. So much guilt. I understand now what Toshi meant about his reasons for agreeing to help Gibbs being complex. Was he seeking redemption, to reclaim his honour? Was he looking to punish himself even further?" Morrow speculated.
"You know, dear, maybe another reason why Hitoshi never went back to Japan was that despite our less than stellar treatment of Americans of Japanese descent, he may have wanted to raise a family where his children and grandchildren wouldn't be forced to kill others if it went against their religious beliefs. The Mennonites, Seventh Day Adventists, Brethren, and the Quakers due to their conscientious objector status were allowed to serve in non-combatant roles or Civilian Public Service programs in WWII such as working in psychiatric hospitals which were seriously understaffed throughout the war."
Tom decided that there may be some truth in his wife's musing. As he thought about the whole damned debacle, it just proved how dangerous it was to assume that an individual was coping because outwardly, everything seemed fine. Nothing was ever as simple as it appeared on the surface. Tom hoped that Hitoshi was getting the support and treatment he desperately needed; at least he had his family who would stand by him.
It was a start!
Coda
Tom Morrow looked at his wife, dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, what? You want me to make Senior Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs complete an intensive training course on becoming a phone counsellor for a VA Post Traumatic Stress Disorder hotline? Are you serious, Lynnie?
Lynette looked at him archly, her arms folded as she said, "Deadly. And don't forget, that he'll have to take part in extensive role-play scenarios which will entail being subjected to brutally honest feedback."
Tom sniggered, "My bad! How could I have forgotten participating in role-play scenarios and brutally honest feedback? But… let's be real here for a moment, oh wily creator of evil punishments," he joked, before turning super serious. "Gibbs will lose his shit!" he told her bluntly.
Lynette simply shrugged. "And your point would be? Correct me if I'm wrong, dear but my impression is that Jethro is constantly pissed off at the world anyway. You've said many times that anger is his default emotion, Tom."
"True, but more than anything else, he hates to be being forced to do something he doesn't want to. That and anything that smacks of psychological get-in-touch-with-your-emotions. He's gonna go feral!" he said shaking his follicle-challenged head in dismay.
Looking pleased, his wife told him, "Good! Then hopefully this punishment is going to be a highly effective deterrent, then. You call him Teflon™ coated because other methods of discipline don't affect him. At least this might – I stress might – force him to consider the perspectives of other people rather than being fixated on his egocentric arrogance."
Ignoring his eye rolling, she added rather smugly, "Plus, the punishment does fitting the crime."
And how could Tom possibly argue with his wife's logic? She was right on all counts, and with Jethro's fanatical target fixation whenever he became obsessed with a case, trying to develop his ability to understand other people's perspectives was an admirable goal even if it was a long shot. After all, being able to consider people's needs and situations was something most children learnt to do before attaining adulthood, but it was worth giving it a try. They wouldn't be worse off it failed.
Not quite finished, his wife using her super sweet tone that usually meant she had more evil retribution noodling around in that blonde head of hers, added, "And Tommy, dear. Perhaps you could suggest to the trainers that they invite Hitoshi's family to talk about his PTSD – how it impacts not only on himself but his whole family."
Morrow thought about it. "Excellent suggestion, dear. I don't suppose since this was your brilliant idea that you'd like to break the news to him?" he said, only half joking.
Standing up and approaching him, she hugged her husband vigorously. "Thank you, Tommy, I'd love that, but we both know that would be highly irregular. I'm sure that HR would strenuously object to such a departure from SOP but perhaps you could tape it, so I can see his reactions," she implored him winsomely.
He chuckled, "Yeah, Delores would have pink kittens. Pity, though."
They were silent for a minute or two before Lynette began speaking again. "I called Caro Noakes today." Seeing her husband's blank look she clarified. "She's Hitoshi's daughter and also Toshi's mom. I want to know how her father was doing. She told me that they'd lost her mom to cancer last year and since Mary was his rock, her father was struggling to cope."
Tom thought about that snippet of information. "Just like Ernie Yost."
"Except that Hitoshi has a loving family to support him, thankfully. She said he is smitten with his three grandchildren," Lynette informed him.
"You think that learning that Ernie had lost his wife made Hitoshi identify with him psychologically and that's why he agreed to help?"
"I think that it may have played a part in it, but I think it is way more complicated than that. Maybe he might have even felt guilty that Yost, a hero and one of the victors, had no family to support him and Hitoshi who brought dishonour to his Japanese family had been able to fall back on the loving support of his American family after his wife's death."
Morrow sighed. It was always far more complicated than it seemed on the surface and yet, too many times they never stopped to consider what lay beneath the surface, like an iceberg. When it came to those who willingly and knowingly broke the law or thought that they were above the law, Tom wasn't all that concerned about understanding their complicated motivations. It was the people who helped them to deliver justice, who had done nothing wrong, who might be at risk, physically, emotionally, or psychologically…the Hitoshi Yashidas without whom they would find it difficult to do their jobs. He realised they must be a damned sight more mindful of their needs in fulfilling their sworn duties as federal law enforcement agents.
For all of those individuals, ethically, they must start asking the question, at what cost their participation? The ends should not ever justify the means, ever.
Despite how invested the MCRT team had been in pursuing the objective of clearing Ernie Yost's name and their subsequent success, the NCIS director wasn't sure that the cost was worth it. Especially since there had been other options available, even if they weren't as palatable to the team, particularly Gibbs who'd stooped to deception and stonewalling of Judge Advocate Faith Coleman instead. The truth was that if she had charged Ernie with the murder of Corporal Kean, then there would have been mandatory psychological examinations that would have uncovered Yost's understandable PTSD.
Given Gibbs' rule about walking away when the job was done, it might have even been better for the World War Two veteran in the long run, if it had become a formal JAG case. Maybe the publicity it would have inevitably generated might have been the catalyst to getting him the support he needed to cope with the loss of Dorothy Yost, the guilt of his best friend's bloody death and the lives he'd taken as a Marine at war.
The way things stood with Yost's repudiation of Kean's death, Hitoshi and his family were left coping with a severe episode of PTSD and Ernie had gone back to living out the rest of his years without any adequate support systems being put into place. Had anyone checked to see if he'd been triggered by Gibbs' little recreation scene of Iwo Jima, too? Even done with the best of intentions, Gibbs was hardly a geriatric psychiatrist or an expert in PTSD and the MCRT had verified that his fellow veterans were all deceased, so no support there, and the VA was not exactly a shining beacon of light or hope when it came to providing veterans with the degree of support that sadly, was often needed. Particularly when the veterans' needs were complex, ongoing, and expensive.
He and Lynette were active in raising funds for a variety of Navy and Marine charities and he resolved to quietly ensure that the Medal of Honour recipient, Ernest Maynard Yost didn't die alone, lonely and forgotten.
Sometimes when the job was done, walking away simply wasn't an option.
End Notes
Ojiisan -grandfather
Baba - grandmother
US Conscientious Objectors in World War II
For more information about the invaluable role played by COs either in serving in non-combatant roles such as medics or Civilian Public Service programs and their lasting contributions to society and the lives they helped save, you might want to check out the article on Alternative Service: Conscientious Objectors and Civilian Public Service in World War II on the National WWII Museum ( ). Perhaps the most famous conscientious objector was Private First Class, Desmond Doss, an army medic, and Medal of Honour recipient. Other COs volunteered to act as guinea pigs for medical research and in particular, the work studying human starvation by these altruistic COs would have massive worldwide consequences in how doctors treated people who were starving, particular prisoners freed by the Allies at the end of the war.
The actor who played Hitoshi Yashida in this episode was Lloyd Kino (1919 – 2012). His real name was Lloyd Hiroya Kinoshita. At the time of writing this, I didn't know that he also appeared in an episode of Star Trek The Original. He played a character called Wu (s02 episode Omega Glory) so my oblique mention of George Takei as the actor whose family was interned during WWII was coincidental. I had no idea that the actor had worked with Takei.
Here is his bio on IMDb:
Lloyd Kino was born on May 16, 1919, in Seattle, Washington, USA as Lloyd Hiroya Kinoshita. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Mortal Kombat (1995), Godzilla (1998) and The Cable Guy (1996). He died on July 21, 2012, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA aged 93.
Born: 5/21/1919, in Seattle, Washington, USA
Died: 7/21/2012, In Woodland Hills, LA, California, USA
Charles Durning who played Cpl Ernest Yost also died in 2012 on the 24th of Dec aged 89.