Overview
The oni in “Zach Dinesen’s Ghost” is the supernatural entity that Zach Dinesen believes has manipulated him into making a film about a tortured American bomber crew. Zach first believes the apparition is the ghost of a dead airman, but later tells the narrator that it is a malevolent Japanese spirit.
Role
Zach says the entity first appears at the foot of his bed in the form of Dale Plambeck, a dead American B-29 crewman. In that form, it asks Zach to tell the crew’s story so Plambeck can find peace in the afterlife. Zach then becomes obsessed with researching the crew and making a horror film about their deaths.
After Zach secures financing and begins production in Japan, a stunt injures an actor. Zach disappears from the set and hides in the countryside. When the narrator finds him, Zach says a rubber hacksaw was impossibly replaced with a real one during the take.
Zach then claims the apparition was never Plambeck. He identifies it as a yokai or oni that wants to see the airmen’s suffering reenacted through the film production. He believes the entity is hunting him because he has discovered its nature.
The entity’s objective and reality are not independently confirmed in the story. Its last known role is as Zach’s explanation for the production’s apparent sabotage, his disappearance, and his fear that he will be trapped in a nightmare if the entity catches him.