Silence Once Begun (6 page)

INT
.

What day was this?

JIRO

I don’t know what day. This was so long ago! He had been in jail for at least two weeks by this time. I got up the next day and went to see my father, before going on shift at the factory. I was still feeling hopeful. I thought maybe the lawyer could convince him to talk about it. When I got to the hospital, my father was much improved. They were going to release him that day. He could walk around on his own. I told him the news, that I had gotten the lawyer to come, and that I
had tried to find out about the confession. He was very cold.

INT
.

What did he say?

JIRO

He has always been cold to me. I don’t think he ever liked me. But this time he was very hard. What had happened to him, maybe it used up something that he had. Now he had no more of it. He told me that I was a fool. That I was running errands for a fool and that I was a fool. My sister came in while he was talking. I hadn’t even known she was there. I thought she was in Tokyo. They both started talking about how Sotatsu had signed the confession and it must be true. How I was always believing people, that I was foolish, that I should let people with better judgment take charge of things. They said it was clear he had done the crime, the thing now was to get him to admit it in a way that would save him being executed. This other thing, of him being innocent, was just a fantasy, a fantasy I had put on him. When I described how I had told Sotatsu that I thought he was innocent, and that my words had made him speak to me about being innocent, my sister became angry. She told me that I was stupid, going around behaving this way, that I should not put a stick into a beehive. My father agreed. He told me to go away, that he would see me once he was at home, but that he just wanted to rest now. He was going to go home later that day, but for now, he wanted to rest. I left with my sister, and she told me again that I was an idiot for causing my father more harm and worry when he had already been put in the hospital, been beaten up, had nearly died. I apologized. I was
confused and, again, I keep saying this, but I was very young and didn’t know very much. Now, I would act differently, I think, but then, my sister had always been the one who was right. My father also. I had been a disappointment to both of them.

(End of tape.)

[
Int. note
. The brother left the day before without concluding our interview. He had evidently found it difficult speaking of the relations among himself, his father, and his sister. I think it points to how important Sotatsu was to him that he would even consider disclosing these things to me, a stranger. He had an enormous desire, Jiro, to get the complete and true account of these things across. I had come to believe he disliked me; in fact, I’m almost sure of it. However, he also believed that I was going to do the thing properly. In his work with unions, he perhaps had gotten used to compromises, to making compromises and working with people he disliked. Nonetheless, it was difficult for him to speak in this manner, so we stopped for the day and the next day we resumed.]

INT
.

So, you went from the hospital, from seeing your sister, directly to the jail?

JIRO

I could not; I had to work. I went to the police station when my shift was done, perhaps at eight in the evening. When I got there, I saw a person leaving, a girl I knew Sotatsu had been familiar with.

INT
.

She had been his girlfriend?

JIRO

I don’t believe so. I think she knew him, though. So, I assumed she had been there to see him, although it puzzled me. I thought only family were allowed visits. Evidently, she had been admitted, and admitted many
times. One of the guards told me she had been coming every day. Jito Joo was her name.

INT
.

Did she greet you as she passed?

JIRO

She ignored me, which was not surprising. We were not on friendly terms, and everyone in the town was ignoring me at that time.

INT
.

So, what happened when you reached his cell?

JIRO

The lawyer was there already, in the station. He accompanied me to the cell. Sotatsu stood there with his back to us and he told the lawyer to leave. The lawyer was quite angry. He was very busy. Did I know he had literally hundreds of cases? Did I know he had no time for such things? I apologized as much as I could, and went with the lawyer out of the station, apologizing the whole way to the car, where the lawyer got in and drove away. When I went back into the station and the officers took me again to Sotatsu he would not speak to me. He wouldn’t turn around. He stood in the middle of the cell, facing away from me. I was sure that meant he was innocent. But, if he wouldn’t say it, I didn’t know what to do. I went home and my girlfriend, she was waiting for me in the driveway. She told me she had taken her things. She was moving back to her parents’ house. She couldn’t see me anymore.

INT
.

It was a bad time.

JIRO

You could say that.

INT
.

And then you saw your mother at home?

JIRO

I went to their house and my father was asleep. My mother was washing something, a shirt or something. She was washing it and washing it. It didn’t need to be washed anymore. I stood there and talked to her and she said that my father had made the decision and that was that. What was the decision, I asked. She said we were no longer going to talk about any Sotatsu. That I was now the first son, that there was no Sotatsu and hadn’t ever been. She said my sister had gone back to Tokyo, my one sibling had gone back to Tokyo, and that we were four, that there were four of us in the family. I didn’t say anything to this. I just left.

Second of November, 1977. Oda Sotatsu. Inspectors’ names unrecorded.

[
Int. note
. Again, transcript of session recording, possibly altered or shoddily made. Original recording not heard. Furthermore, it appears that many interrogations are missing from the record, as it is absurd to conclude Sotatsu was not interrogated at all between the nineteenth of October and the second of November. This transcript is large. The inspector speaks at length on various matters, possibly trying to elicit a response from Sotatsu. He refers to previous conversations they have had, which are unrecorded. This is further evidence for the suppression of interrogation transcripts. I will note that it was not necessary at the time for these transcripts to be released, so the destruction of empty-interrogation sessions is potentially legitimate.]

OFFICER 3

I want you to tell me about these cards. These are the cards you left on the doors. Why did you do that?

ODA

(silent)

OFFICER 3

Nothing in your history suggests you care at all about France, that you have any acquaintance with France. Yes, musically, we can see you have some recordings. But, beyond that, cards … It’s unclear where you even obtained them. Tell me at least that. Where did you buy these cards?

ODA

(silent)

OFFICER 3

I am just thinking, I have a daughter who likes these sorts of things. She is kind of empty-headed, a dreamer. You know the type. She is too pretty for her own good. A father should not say such things, I know. But I think she would be better off a bit plainer but with good sense. Anyway, she would love to have cards like these. But I don’t know where to get them. Where should I go to get these cards? Perhaps in Tokyo? You have a sister in Tokyo, no? Does she like cards? She studies languages, no? She speaks German, Korean, English. Does she speak French, your sister?

ODA

(silent)

OFFICER 3

Maybe I will call this sister of yours. Maybe I will send someone to ask her, does she speak French. Or you could spare me the trouble. You could just tell me. I would trust your answer.

(Tape-device clicks off.)

[
Int. note
. When I brought up the details that Jiro had spoken of, the narrative of the father’s beating, Sotatsu’s possible recanting of the confession, the visit of the sister, etc., Mrs. Oda became very agitated. She said that Jiro meant no good for anyone, that he was against the rest of the family and always had been. She said that he was jealous of his sister’s good fortune, and that he had no sense of family responsibility. I was not to trust anything he might say. I asked her if she could speak of particular things he brought up, because I wanted to clear up the record. I wanted to make the record as clear as possible. Would she mind that?]

[She said she would not.]

INT
.

The first question is, what happened at the store?

MRS. ODA

You mean, when my husband had his accident?

INT
.

Yes, the accident. How did that come about?

MRS. ODA

Everyone in the town had turned against us. They felt that we were just as guilty as Sotatsu. Maybe it was true, maybe it would have been true, that we were all equally guilty. That is what my husband believed. He thought it was his fault, in particular. All of a sudden, we were despised. We were the lowest ones of all. No one would speak to me. People I had spoken to for years, I would pass them in the street and they would do this thing, this stepping away. They would walk
a little farther away than usual. Maybe someone else couldn’t see it, but I could see it. It was very evident, this distance. Also, some would even, they would even spit on us. Children.

INT
.

Children would spit on you?

MRS. ODA

It happened once. From a window, a child spat on me. Mr. Oda knocked on the door of the house, but no one answered.

INT
.

But we were talking about the accident.

MRS. ODA

My husband went to buy some rice flour. We were out of rice flour and he wanted to buy some for me so I could do the cooking. At the store, the clerk, a mean little person, I had never liked him, never. He refused to sell my husband the flour. My husband put the money on the counter and took the rice flour. The clerk followed after my husband, saying his money was no good. He threw the money at my husband. I think he never liked my husband. He threw it on him, the money, and he shouted that he could never come in the store again. My husband tried to talk to him. He said,
You know he didn’t do it. Sotatsu does not do things like that. It is a mistake
. But the man wouldn’t hear of it. He just started hitting my husband with a stick, a cane of some kind. He started that, and then he was chasing him. My husband tried to run away, but others caught him and they held him down and hit him until the police came. The police didn’t even check to see who had done it. They told everyone to go. The police felt it was all right for this to have been done.