By Irvin Faust, this story relates from first person pov a young soldier’s time spent in Japan right after the War and tells of his relationship with a young Japanese woman. He takes her into the destroyed city of Hiroshima to meet her cousin who plays baseball and the two men throw the ball back and forth between them, the cousin wearing the glove the soldier’s brought him, and the soldier catching barehanded. They begin throwing the ball harder and harder to each other until the soldier’s mittless hand is stinging and he returns a ball that knocks the cousin down by the force.
Nicely written, no deep mystery, but the obvious mimicking of war via the game, and the pride that sustains the vanquished is shown by the cousin’s refusal to keep the glove, and the young woman’s laughing assurance that her cousin is "Funny guy. Ruv faw down." Though gracious but quiet upon their return home, she never sees him again, ending the relationship without notice.
As the soldier much later ships for home, he finds some postcards and photos–one of the girl–rips them up slowly and tosses them into the sea. Symbolism? Likely of a difference in cultural traditions, or the difference between the victorious and the beaten.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology