Marco Polo and Susan's Relationship Breaks Down after the Japanese Invasion of Burma

The breakdown of Marco Polo and Susan Munro’s marriage begins with the Japanese invasion of Burma, but war is only the turning point that exposes differences already widening between them. Their return to Calcutta brings social suspicion, financial strain, and sharply unequal ambitions: Susan’s voice can earn a living, while Marco cannot accept the means by which that success might support him. Distance follows, then a proposed divorce built on a false accusation that might preserve Susan’s professional reputation while securing the legal separation Marco wants.

Rangoon and the return to Calcutta

For a time in Rangoon, the couple’s life had a workable balance. Susan’s hopes and Marco’s hotel work kept them occupied, and foreign guests were impressed that such a hotel existed in Burma. That interval ends abruptly when Japanese bombers appear over Rangoon and Burma must be evacuated. The return to Calcutta is not a return to their former circumstances: people who had once urged Marco to stay now turn away because of his connections with Burma, while others distrust his Italian connections. His Greek passport keeps him from possible imprisonment as an Italian, but does not restore the welcome he had previously received.

The invasion also changes the economic balance within the marriage. Marco’s savings run out as thousands of British and American soldiers fill Calcutta and create a demand for restaurants and music. Susan’s singing, which had previously attracted resistance to a fee of ten rupees, now earns offers of five hundred. She asks what the couple should do in the meantime if she stops working and waits for the grand musical future Marco imagines. Lisa has left, and Susan points out that without musical entertainment the soldiers will become angry. Marco accepts that she must continue: he cannot feed his wife and still claim the right to dictate her work.

Work, pride, and growing distance

Marco nevertheless objects to the conditions under which Susan sings. He urges her to aim beyond the immediate restaurant engagements, imagining that people everywhere might one day listen to her music and buy her records. Susan answers with the present facts: she is paid well and has become popular. The dispute is not simply over whether she has talent, but over whose vision of the future can govern their household when immediate need is pressing. Marco’s ideal of artistic ambition cannot itself pay their expenses; Susan’s successful work can, but its value to the family makes his dependence on it painful to him.

Susan tries to help by finding Marco a position as manager of the army canteen at Liluah. She explains that the employers were enthusiastic when they learned the job was for her husband and that Major Shannon will come to discuss it. Marco reacts with anger at the suggestion that his employment would come through her voice or through pity. His objection turns an offered solution into another point of conflict: accepting the position would mean accepting help procured by the very success he resents. He leaves to search for work, first in Patna and then in Karachi, where he finds a job in a large hotel but remains dissatisfied.

Their letters show how separation becomes a daily condition rather than a temporary inconvenience. Marco writes that Karachi is attractive, more orderly than Calcutta, and safe from Japanese bombing; he tells Susan that he misses her. Susan replies that she is in love with Calcutta, where restaurants that once resisted paying ten rupees now offer thousands, and another has promised more. When Marco asks her to come to him, she says she is leaving on a six-week tour of American military bases. He tries to take a few days off to visit her but cannot do so until a year has passed. Work and opportunity draw them into different places and schedules, and neither account of the future now depends on a shared home.

A changed home and incompatible plans

When Marco finally reaches Calcutta, he is astonished by how much has changed. Susan’s house is scarcely recognizable to him, and she has bought a car at a time when even obtaining tyres is difficult. She says she got it cheaply and that Major Shannon arranged everything. The purchase makes visible the prosperity and connections accumulated during his absence; it also demonstrates how little of Susan’s new life has been shared with him. When he asks why she never told him, she says she forgot.

Marco asks seriously about her plans. Susan intends to leave restaurant work for singing on Theatre Road, where she will also receive free sandwiches. Major Shannon has promised to obtain a licence for a bar, and she wants selective customers rather than anyone indiscriminately admitted. She asks Marco to take responsibility for the practical arrangements so that she can concentrate on music. To her, this is a proposal for him to contribute his hotel-training and management skills to a new enterprise. To Marco, it is an intolerable transformation of his professional identity: he protests that, with his Swiss hotel-school degree, he is being asked to become the agent of a prostitute. His physical agitation makes plain that he sees no acceptable role for himself in the future she describes.

Separation and the proposed divorce

The next morning Marco declares that it is time for them to separate. Susan initially resists divorce, not because she denies that they are already apart, but because marriage has practical value in her profession. She says that unwanted men do not dare molest her while she is married and that the American military police prevent officers from coming to her house. She also accuses Marco of trying to ruin a respectable profession. The exchange makes their separation both intimate and social: they disagree about the marriage, but Susan also describes it as a form of protection in a working life exposed to unwanted attention.

The lawyer warns that the proceedings could take as long as two years. To make the case easier, they decide that Susan will file and accuse Marco of flirting with other women. The allegation is fabricated; its purpose is to leave Susan’s reputation intact while giving Marco the divorce he wants. Because his work is far away, he will be unable to participate in the case, making a favorable verdict easier to obtain. Susan is not enthusiastic, since the marriage certificate benefits her professionally, but Marco takes her hands and asks her to do it for the love he once had for her. The account ends with an agreement to pursue legal separation, not with confirmation that the divorce has been granted. Their marriage, once sustained by shared work and hopes, has become a legal arrangement whose remaining value each understands differently.