THE INSCRIPTION

A motion picture treatment by Jon Davison and Alan Swan © 2006
Revisions 2017 and 2020.

The story, set before, during, and after the Second World War, is about the special friendship between a young Japanese pearl diver Katsu and his roughish Australian friend Jack, his pearling skipper. Katsu is as proudly Japanese as Jack is proudly Australian, yet the two find that they are able to transcend cultural differences in extraordinary circumstances to develop a camaraderie that bonds them as if brothers. But as their two countries edge closer to war, their world starts to change.

POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT

Darwin in 1940 was a hot, dusty, ethnically diverse, frontier-like outpost in the far north of Australia. As well as being a major northern harbour port, pearling had for many years been a lucrative, yet potentially dangerous occupation, and for over 100 years Japanese pearl divers had been among the finest in the world. In the 1930’s there were more Japanese pearling crews working the Australian coastline than anywhere else in the world. With Japan’s desire for raw materials and recent territorial gains in South East Asia, attitudes towards the pearl diving community in Darwin began to change. Racial discrimination reared its ugly head, reinforced by Australia’s whites only policy. Although Australia had been involved in World War II, which commenced in Europe in 1939, the country had never been exposed to the reality of war on its own soil. Indeed, most of the population believed they were immune to the horrors of war. In terms of understanding anything north of Australia, her people were largely naive.

 The atmosphere at the time in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin reflected the typical laid back nature of the hot and humid ‘top end’. But, with ever increasing news reports of Japanese territorial gains in South-East Asia and the rape of the Chinese city of Nanking uppermost in people’s minds, an underlying paranoia became apparent, and evacuation orders were being put into place. The first signs that the mighty British Empire was crumbling came with the fall of Singapore, Malaya, and the loss of the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse, setting the scene in many peoples minds that Australia would be next in line. When HMAS Sydney was lost off the West Australian coast, the reality began to bite, and finally with the attack on Pearl Harbour, Australia joined with the United States in a declaration of war against the Japanese Empire.

CHAPTER ONE - THE SUBMARINE

PRESENT DAY

 A museum dive expedition is in progress in a secluded bay near Darwin. They are looking for a rumoured, undiscovered wreck of a WW2 Japanese submarine.  The divers have not found any war records relating to a submarine loss, or a battle ever taking place near here, yet they feel that the rumours could be true. This is the last of five dives they have done that day. Just as they about to pack up, the side-scan sonar shows a large metallic object on the seabed.

 Two SCUBA divers in wetsuits, their long flippers slowly beating rhythmically, descend into the deep. Rays of sunlight streak through the water like stage lights. Bubbles trail behind them reaching for the surface. Deeper they go and as daylight begins to fade, their underwater lights pierce the deep blue. The only sound is the inhaling and expulsion of air. An ominous dark shape materializes below them. Closer, and the huge dark mass below them fills their vision left and right. They turn to each other with a thumbs up, they have found what they are looking for, the submarine. Soon they are swimming past a large growth encrusted deck gun, then a clearly damaged conning tower. The vessel is so large that they cannot view its entire length. Marine creatures protect their rusting ocean home.

One of the divers, CLAIRE, points to an open hatch and signals that she wishes to enter the vessel. Her companion ANDRE, is more cautious, vigorously shaking his head.  In an instant he sees Claire's flippers disappear into the bowels of the submarine. He shakes his head in annoyance, curses and reluctantly follows. Their powerful torches illuminate years of ocean growth covering everything inside the submarine. They glide through the barnacle-encrusted passageways and doorways, finally reaching the control room, their fins stirring up clouds of fine silt. The periscopes are still in their extended position. Barnacle covered dials and pipes occupy the confined space. The damage to the conning tower extends into the control room, with metal structures bent inwards indicating possible gun action, revealing perhaps what sank her. Part of the floor has given way and fallen into the bilge area below.

Claire enters a small side cabin and sees on a silt covered rusted metal bunk, an intact metal case protruding from the silt. She instinctively puts it in her dive bag attached to her waist, then backs out into the control room. At first, she does not see the stingray lying silently in the silt but the knife like pain in her foot rockets her upwards in agony. The startled Ray whips up and shoots through her legs into the small cabin. In shock, she falls backwards and into a rack of rusting helmets, and other objects. Her torch falls to the floor and goes out. Andre, hearing the crash shines his torch in time to see her hit the floor. She has dislodged a crate of rusted hand grenades, and they bounce and slowly roll across the silt covered control room floor. His eyes widen in fear. Andre tries to move but there is nowhere for him to go.

 Waving his arms wildly, his hand connects with the metal above him and he drops his torch. The torch flickers as it falls through the broken floor into the bilge, giving out an eerie dull blue green glow as it settles on the bottom. Claire, in agony, sees bubbles pouring from some of the grenades and points. The near darkness gives way to a dull blue glow from the daylight that shows through the damaged wall. It is the only way out. In the dim light he grabs Claire and swims towards the opening, but it is too small for his SCUBA tank. Panic. Claire knows what must be done. She removes her tank and swims into the opening with her dive bag trailing behind her. Andre follows.

 As they near the surface, a vivid yellow flash flowers for a second below them amongst the darkness of the wreck from the exploding grenades. A vast column of boiling water and bubbles surges upwards. As the dive crew sit calmly above, the explosion vents through the surface in a huge column of white water that sprays the boat and its occupants. All hell breaks loose. The dive crew haul on the ropes and the two semi-concussed divers are bought aboard out of breath but alive. Andre checks that Claire is okay, at the same time explaining to the others cursing Claire and what had happened. Her actions almost cost them their lives.

 Still faint from the blast, the crew enquires after the case that she had recovered from the wreckage.  Just then a shrill blast of a marine horn very close by interrupts them. Silhouetted by the dying sun, a smartly painted pearling lugger in full sail, passes alongside. The dive boat rocks in its wake. On the deck of the lugger, an elderly couple with jerseys around their shoulders wave at the receding dive boat, illuminated by the last rays of the sun. The young man at the wheel gives a blast of the horn and waves, as is typical of mariners. The divers raise their beers in a responsive cheer.

 They go back to the retrieved case, pondering why a submarine with obvious battle damage sank in this bay, when no war records indicate there was any battle action here. Claire gently prizes the old case open to reveal of all things, a remarkably preserved trumpet. Although free of marine growth, it is green with the tarnish of over six decades underwater. They all crowd around and look at it. Claire brings it closer to the light. Gently wiping the trumpet casing, she sees an inscription revealed.

 'To Katsu Imahara my one-sakae friend. Jack Lucas, Darwin 1940'.

 She shrugs, wondering what it could mean. They agree it is without doubt a Japanese Second World War submarine they have found, but this inscription has Claire intrigued. She takes a photo of the inscription and emails it back to their museum. The others, seeing not much value in a trumpet go back to their beers. Claire feels there is something puzzling about the words. She gently starts to clean the old trumpet, as if willing it to reveal its lost secrets.

As she does this we dissolve into the past.

CHAPTER TWO - DISASTER

Backstory - 1940

A deep blue sky joins a calm azure sea that is intersected by the clean line of the horizon. The strains of a melodic, softly played trumpet are heard. Into the frame enters a two masted PEARLING LUGGER in full sail, moving slowly over the tranquil ocean. Seated on the bow of the boat with his legs over the side playing the trumpet, sits bronzed, muscular, 20 year old Australian JACK LUCAS, the boats skipper.

Seagulls cry and wheel in circles above the boat, almost in tune to Jack's melody. The crew, a mixture of Japanese, Malays and Koepangers wearing T-shirts and shorts, work at cleaning barnacles and growth off the pearl shells. The mood is easy. Men laugh, and sing in a variety of languages the same melody that Jack is playing. Most have cigarettes hanging out of their mouths as they work. One sews patches on a diving suit, others mend ropes and clean the boat.

Jack stops playing, and walks to the centre of the boat where a Japanese pearl diver KATSU IMAHARA sighs as he takes his fingers out of his ears, readying himself for a coming dive. He is a likeable, slightly stocky character in his early twenties. He sits in his heavy woollen diving clothes; jumper, trousers and beanie. It is obvious that he is good friends with Jack. He teases his Japanese buddy as he prepares for his dive, saying that he'd better not fall asleep down there as he looks tired from their previous night’s party. Katsu replies that if he looks tired it is simply because of that awful bloody sound Jack makes with his trumpet. They both laugh.

 A crewmen manning the air pump gives the thumbs up. Two other crewmen move over to their positions; one in charge of the diver's air-line, the other, the Tender, holds the hundreds of feet of life-line in readiness. Katsu is helped out to the dive veranda by the Tender holding the lifeline, and Katsu stands waist deep in water ready to go down. Passing it through the open visor, Jack gives Katsu one last drag from his cigarette then removes it. Katsu winks at him saying Sayonara. The crewman closes the helmet face-plate visor and secures the clamps, then Katsu steps off the dive verandah and into the depths. He is slowly towed by the drifting Lugger at a 45 degree angle just above the sea bed amongst sponges and other marine growth. The water is a clear blue-green, sand stirs in small puffs as his foot occasionally touches the seabed. Fish move past him in abundance seemingly oblivious to his presence. Katsu begins to harvest the shells and as his catch bag fills, he pulls on the life-line three times so that the Tender can pull up the load.

On deck the airline snakes its way over the wooden decking following Katsu's path. The Tender pays out the life-line as Katsu moves away from the boat, feeling for signals that he may be making. The crewman looks at the gauges on the recently installed 'new fangled' mechanical pump, but is not quite sure what he is meant to be looking for.  He lights up another cigarette and starts chatting to a crewmember. Like a snake, the air-line uncoils and feeds out across the deck as the boat moves. Then unseen, the air-line knocks a leather bag of fish hooks and lines that spills onto the deck. The air-line is pierced by a large hook, it snags, holds fast, and bends the line in half, instantly cutting off Katsu's air supply. Nobody notices as there are still coils of life-line on deck.

 On the sea bed Katsu comes to a halt and then is jerked forward off his feet. His pearl shells fly in all directions and sand stirs up in huge clouds as he is dragged along the bottom rolling over and over in all directions. He feels the loss of to his lungs, taps the helmet and tugs at the line. Then, suddenly there is no more air. He reaches up and closes off his suit valve, trapping the air inside it. He tries to grab and pull on the line but it is too tight. In front of him a coral pinnacle looms larger as he gathers speed. Then he slams head first into it. The force of the stop is enough to rip his airline off, which in turn somehow frees the deck snag.  But the life-line still attached to Katsu now snags on the pinnacle. The freed air-line venting air again snakes off in violent whips upwards into the distance. Katsu struggles in vain to free himself from the coral pinnacle but he is pinned by the trapped life-line.  On deck there is no indication of the tragedy that is unfolding beneath the boat, other than the excessive bubbles that are starting to rise to the surface near the boat.

 The boat shudders slightly when the trapped life-line goes taught. Jack registers the bump at the tiller with raised eyebrows. A crewman SAYID with his legs over the side, is suddenly sprayed by a solid blast of water and air knocking him backwards in surprise. He jumps up shit scared saying he thinks they have hit a whale. The spray comes again. Jack tries to look for it but is has gone, then Sayid sees it thrashing up ahead. Jack squints into the sunlight, then with a shock realises that it is a divers airline... Katsu's. Jack drops what he is doing, puts the tiller hard over to bring the boat into the wind, and stops. He screams a warning to the crew who all jump into action, paying out more life-line. They find the hook embedded in the line. One puts up the distress flag. Without hesitation, Jack signals one of the crew to take the tiller and dives over the side following the life-line, hand over hand to the bottom. Without goggles though he can hardly see a thing, although it is not that deep.

 Katsu finally loses consciousness.  The small amount of trapped air inside his suit is nearly depleted. His frantic movements have stirred up clouds of sand and sediment. The heavy brass helmet pulls him over in slow motion and he falls head first beneath the coral pinnacle. Like a marine astronaut he lands as if in slow motion. Sand and sediment rise from the seafloor from the impact of his fall. Small fish greedily race in to pick at the disturbed sediments. Katsu lays motionless. Jack follows the life-line and sees the tell-tale sediment cloud and the feeding fish, but not seeing Katsu, and with his own lungs nearly bursting, he has to surface again for air. He shakes his head in disappointment to the eager crew lining the deck, takes a large breath and goes down again, frantically hand over hand. Again he comes up, once more without Katsu.

 Diving beneath the pinnacle this time, he sees the lifeless Katsu. With bulging eyes and nearly bursting lungs, Jack frees the life-line from the coral. He tugs it twice hard, to let the crew know to start pulling Katsu up. He starts for the surface alongside the unconscious Katsu. Jack gasps lung fulls of air as they break the surface. The unconscious, swollen and black/blue Katsu is hauled unceremoniously onto the deck.  The glass face is unscrewed and air rushes in. Jack sits him up and a crewmember removes his heavy lead boots, while another unscrews the breast plate. Jack pleads with him to wake up. Katsu is laid flat on his back, his stomach is pressed, then his wrists are grabbed and pulled so that chest is given a lifting motion, then his wrists are pushed down onto his chest in a pumping motion backwards and forward. Colour returns to Katsu's face. After an age it seems, Katsu gasps in huge lung-fulls of air and coughs. He unconsciously pushes Jack away as he is helped into a sitting position.

 As Katsu recovers from his ordeal the boat makes it's way back to port.  Dusk approaches as Jack sits beside Katsu who has now regained his senses and some energy. Relieved at the outcome, Jack taunts the unusually retrospective and pensive Katsu with his boyish humour. Katsu's mood is dark and he shuns Jack. Jack shrugs, assuming Katsu must be in shock or something. Jack tries again to talk with Katsu to get him out of his mood, but to no avail. He shakes his head, not understanding what the problem is. He frowns and thinks that Katsu is deeply humiliated by the experience. Jack is not to know that this event will change the nature of their relationship. Jack suggests that they go to the Shoro Nagashi festival tomorrow night, as it is that time again. Jack hopes that it may take Katsu's mind off things.

 The lugger makes it's way across an orange ocean back to port as the sun sets.

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