Nothing caught my eye until I got to 18 September. Eighteen books were burned that day, more than the usual ten. They were mostly confiscated items from new prisoners or records that were due to be destroyed, but there was one book without an identification number – Birth of an Empire, issued by the Citizens’ Education Bureau of the Interior Ministry. I took the log and headed to the tiny library next to the office. The limewashed walls were peeling and giving way to mould. The library contained only two desks, four chairs and rickety bookcases that held guard-education publications distributed by the Public Security Bureau: How to Make Rounds, Prison Administration Regulations and soldiers’ manuals distributed by the Army Ministry. There were some war novels, too: The Way of the Empire, The Cherry Blossom Warrior, Cherry Blossoms in the Blue Sky. It was part of the censor’s job to sort the books distributed every month and incinerate older volumes to make room for new ones. I traced a finger along the spine of each book.
