Page "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" Paragraph 4

Like Celliers, Yonoi, too, is tormented by guilt.

Having been posted to Manchuria previously, he was unable to be in Tokyo with his Army comrades, the " Shining Young Officers " of Japan's February 26 Incident, a 1936 military coup d ' état.

When the coup fails, the young army officers are executed.

Yonoi regrets not being able to share their patriotic sacrifice.

Jack Celliers had betrayed his younger brother while the two of them were attending boarding school.

Although Celliers confesses this only to Lawrence, Captain Yonoi senses in Celliers a kindred spirit.

He wants to replace the British camp commandant Group Captain Hicksley with Celliers as spokesman for the prisoners.