The Daughter of Oda’s Landlady
related to me:
— You can know nothing about Oda if you do not know how kind he was and how the kindness that he was and had was in his body, really. It was not a thing of thinking or deciding. He was simply kind and did the right things many times. To show you how — I was not old enough, but my mother, she told me that when the woman who lived above him, an old woman, and he was young, Oda, maybe in his early twenties, this old woman she had some kind of furniture moved into her house. The furniture was too large for the door and it got stuck in the door and the movers had to do something with it. It was late in the day. The workday was finished. They would come back in the morning. But the old lady, she could not go in or out. She was very concerned. She was there by the door trying to peer out through whatever little holes were left. She kept saying things, all kinds of things, but the workmen had already gone. So, Oda, what does he do? He goes up there with a little lamp and he sits on one side of the door and he talks to the old woman the whole night, doesn’t leave until the morning. You know, I don’t think he even liked her. He was just that way. A kind boy. Matter of fact, no one liked that old woman.
Int. Note
I am trying to relate to you a tragedy. I am attempting to do so in the manner least prejudicial to the people involved, those people who were survivors of the tragedy, but also the agents of it.
Oda Sotatsu signed a confession. He did not clearly understand what he was doing, perhaps. Or perhaps he did. Nonetheless, he signed it. The next day, Saturday the fifteenth, he was dragged off to jail. Because of the comprehensive nature of the document, the confession, his guilt was never in any doubt. The trial, when it happened, was a rapid affair in which Oda Sotatsu did little, certainly nothing on his own behalf. The police attempted, over the course of the time he was in jail awaiting trial, and the time when he was on death row thereafter, to get him to speak about the crimes he had confessed. He would not. He carried a sort of tent of silence with him, and out of it he refused to come.
Oda was visited many times during the next months by Joo. He never saw Kakuzo again.
Our story continues with information related to me by officers, guards, priests, journalists (present at the time), and by the Oda family. This is how Oda Sotatsu’s story is told.
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Seven Months of Confinement
Awaiting Trail
Interrogation 1
Fifteenth of October, 1977. Oda Sotatsu brought in on suspicion of participation in the Narito Disappearances. This suspicion having to do with the confession signed by Oda, submitted to the police force anonymously. Conversation conducted in a room of the local police station. Inspector Nagano and another inspector, name unrecorded.
[Int. note . Transcript of session recording, possibly altered or shoddily made. Original recording not heard.]
OFFICER 1
Mr. Oda. I assume you know why you are here. I assume you know why we took the trouble to bring you here, and I assume you know what the penalties are for lying to us.
OFFICER 2
Mr. Oda, if you have any information about the whereabouts of the individuals mentioned in your confession, or if you know any of them to still be living, tell us now. It could help your case greatly, such information.
OFFICER 1
We have read your confession. We are very interested in obtaining more information pertaining to it as soon as possible.
ODA
(silent)
OFFICER 1
Mr. Oda, your predicament is not enviable. I can assure you, it is almost certain that if you are convicted you will be taken to an execution room in X. prison and hanged. If any of the individuals mentioned in your confession are still living, and you cooperate with us to find them, it could help you. It could make the difference. You could live.
ODA
(silent)
OFFICER 2
If you think being silent is going to help you. If you think that.
OFFICER 1
If you think that, you don’t know anything about this.
OFFICER 2
Maybe you got into this the wrong way. Maybe you think you know the way out. But you don’t. The only way out is to help us.
OFFICER 1
Tell us where these individuals are. That’s your play. That’s your way out.
OFFICER 2
Not to freedom.
(Officers laugh.)
OFFICER 1
No, just out — a way to avoid the execution room.
OFFICER 2
And not just that, but even now. Even now, things can be better than they are. They don’t have to be like this. There are, you can believe, better cells in the jail than the one you have. There is better food than the food you’ll get. There’s even, I shouldn’t say this, but it could be arranged for you to go from here to a regular jail. Things are different there. Maybe better for you? There are even different guards. Things aren’t all the same. You can improve your situation, that’s what we’re saying.
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OFFICER 1
We’re not your enemies. You don’t have any. We’re all just working together. We’re all cooperating. Inspector Nagano and I are going to leave the room now. When we come back tomorrow I want you to have things to say to us. Do you understand?
Interview 1 (Mother )
[Int. note . When I visited the village, years after, I managed to conduct a series of interviews with the Oda family. It was difficult to get into contact with them, but as I have told you, I had my own reasons for trying. I had been in Japan only briefly before, and many things were new to me. I felt a beautiful feeling of opening, as though everything was expanding and sharpening, becoming larger and clearer than it had been, just as on a cloudy day, sometimes the light shifts and becomes strong when one is not even directly in sunlight. Various portions of these interviews I here include in order to show the progression of Oda Sotatsu’s incarceration. I will explain it precisely, piece by piece, presenting you the evidence as I received it. The house in which I conducted the interviews was a rented house on a property known to be full of butterflies in certain seasons. At the time in which I arrived, and when I began the interviews, there were no butterflies evident. However, when we sat in the north room of the house, where Sotatsu’s mother most often chose to be interviewed, she spoke of having visited the house under other circumstances, and of having seen the butterflies. For me, it was as though I had then seen them, and later, when they did indeed come, it was exactly as she had said. I say this only to give a sense of her reliability, although, clearly, a matter of insects and the matter of her son’s confession are not really alike, not really. Still, the impression of exactitude remains, and so I explain it.]
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[These are excerpts from long conversations, and so they may refer to things previously stated, or may begin in the midst of an idea, when something important had begun to be said.]
INT.
Mrs. Oda, you were speaking of that first day, when you received the call from the authorities, and went to visit Sotatsu.
MRS. ODA
We did not actually go that day. Neither I, nor my husband. Neither of my children.
INT.
Why was that?
MRS. ODA
My husband forbade it. He was horrified by the news. He sat in our house, in a room with no light on, just staring at nothing for many hours. When he came out, he said we would not go to see Sotatsu. He said he did not know anyone with that name and inquired whether I did.
INT.
And what did you say?
MRS. ODA
I said I did not. I did not know anyone by that name. He said he was sorry to hear about the confusion, and that the police thought we knew anyone like that, but we did not. I wanted to go, of course. Of course, I wanted to go. But, he was very clear about how it had to be.
INT.
What about your other children?
MRS. ODA
They were not living in our home at that time, and I hadn’t contacted them.
INT.
So, what changed? Why did you go to visit Sotatsu?
MRS. ODA
When I woke up in the morning, my husband was wearing some clothing I hadn’t seen him wear, an old suit, somewhat formal. He said it was possibly his fault, that we should see our son Sotatsu. I told him I thought that we should also. He said that didn’t matter, what we should do, but that we would do it. So, we went to the car and drove to the jail.
INT.
And what did you find there?
MRS. ODA
The officers did not want to look at us. I don’t think anyone looked us in the eye on that visit, or any other visit. They wanted to pretend we didn’t exist. I understand that, by the way. I understand how it would be. Such a job, to be at a jail. It is good that someone chooses to do it, I guess.
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INT.
Was he far inside in the police station?
MRS. ODA
They moved his cell around. He wasn’t always in the same spot. Maybe because of discipline? He was often being punished, which his father agreed with. When I said I thought it was quite much that was being done, Mr. Oda told me that indeed, no, it was quite little. I don’t know much about these things. If you speak to my husband, he can perhaps remember more, or remember knowing more.
INT.
But the visit itself? You spoke to him?
MRS. ODA
We spoke. He did not. He was in a small cell at first. There wasn’t anything else in there at all, just a drain. I think they wanted him to start talking, but he wouldn’t. He looked very small in the prison clothing. I didn’t like to see it. I don’t like to think about it now.
INT.
I’m sorry, but can you just recall what you said to him?
MRS. ODA
I don’t believe I said anything. I was afraid to say the wrong thing and then that Mr. Oda would have it that we never visited again, so I stayed quiet. I wanted to see how he would say what it was that there was to say. He said, Son, you did this? They say you did this and that you said so, that you said you did. Did you do this? And Sotatsu said nothing. But he looked at us.
THE NARITO DISAPPEARANCES
[Int. note . I felt a word about the Narito Disappearances was in order at this point. Permit me to interrupt the narrative a moment for clarity’s sake. It was to this crime that Oda Sotatsu confessed. When he signed the confession, it is my opinion he was somehow unaware that the crime had been carried out.]
The Narito Disappearances occurred in the villages near Sakai in the year of 1977. They began around June and continued up until the capture of Oda Sotatsu. The newspapers eagerly followed the case and it drew national press attention, culminating in a furor at Oda Sotatsu’s arrest. What was it?
Eight people disappeared, roughly two per month. There was no evidence of a struggle; however, it was clear that the disappearances were effected suddenly (food set out on the table, no personal objects missing, etc.). The people who disappeared were all older men and women, between the ages of fifty and seventy, who without exception lived alone. On the door of the residences a playing card was discovered, one per residence. No fingerprints of any kind were on the cards. No one witnessed the departure of any of the disappeared individuals. It was a powerful and gripping mystery, and as more and more people disappeared, the region went into shock. Patrols were even created to visit the homes of isolated or widowed individuals. But the patrols were never in the right place at the right time.
Interrogation 2
Sixteenth of October, 1977. Oda Sotatsu. Inspectors’ names unrecorded.
[Int. note . Again, transcript of session recording, possibly altered or shoddily made. Original recording not heard.]
OFFICER 1
Mr. Oda, now that you have slept, perhaps you feel differently than yesterday?
ODA
(silent)
OFFICER 2
It is impossible for you, for things to get better for you, if you do not speak at all. You have signed a confession. You do not want a lawyer or any representation. You know what you did. We are concerned with finding the individuals mentioned, those individuals mentioned in your confession.
ODA
Is it possible that I could see it? I would like to see the confession.
OFFICER 2
That is impossible. You cannot see the confession. You wrote the confession. You know what it says. This isn’t a game. Tell us where to look. Where did you go with those people? Mr. Oda, our patience is growing thin.
OFFICER 1
You cannot see the confession. The inspector is correct. It is completely unnecessary. It is possible, of course, that if you cooperate, many things that are unnecessary can occur. As we said, better food, a larger cell, a different facility. Perhaps even this. I do not say yes, not at all. I don’t say that. But speak to us about these things and we will see what can happen.
OFFICER 2
This is about you. This is in your hands.
(Forty more minutes of quiet on the tape as the interviewers and Oda stare at one another. Finally, the sound of a door closing, and the tape clicks off.)
Interview 2 (Brother )
[Int. note . This interview also was conducted at the house previously mentioned. Sotatsu’s brother, Jiro, was his most loyal supporter. He actually learned about what had happened and tried to visit the station prior to his parents. However, he was turned away, for reasons unknown. Perhaps the first interrogation had not yet happened at the time of his visit. It is unclear. I spoke to him at great length. Of all the family, he was the one most angry about what had happened. He had worked at a steel plant as a younger man, and was doing so in 1977. He later became active in organized labor. When I met him he was well dressed and drove an expensive car. Of his personal habits, I can say he smoked nearly an entire pack of cigarettes during each one of our conversations. I don’t know if this was usual for him, or if my presence and the subject of our discussions made him nervous. On several of the interviews, he was accompanied by his children, both young, who played in the yard while we spoke. Although he was very matter of fact, and even at times hostile with me, he was exceptionally soft-spoken with them. I had done judo for a while, and Jiro had also done so; at one point he broke in, out of the blue, to ask if I had ever done it. I had never said a word on the subject. When I answered yes, he laughed. I can always tell, he said. A judo man walks a bit differently. While this may have predisposed me to liking him, I assure you, I have tried at all times to be as objective as possible.]
INT.
That was the nineteenth of October?
JIRO
It may have been. I don’t know.
INT.
But it was your first time inside the police station?
JIRO
Actually, no, I had been there once before, in connection with a friend from the mill. I had been visiting him, accompanying his wife to visit him. I think he had been fighting and was taken by the police.
INT.
Your friend?
JIRO
Yes, that was some years before that.
INT.
But on this visit …
JIRO
I saw Sotatsu. The police frisked me. I signed some papers, showed some identification, and was taken in. His cell was at the back. He was there, by himself, in a long cell with no window.
INT.
Did the police leave you alone to speak with him?
JIRO
No. One of the officers stayed within earshot. When Sotatsu saw me, he came to the edge of the cell and we looked at each other.
INT.
How did he look?
JIRO
Terrible. He was in jail. How do you think he looked?
INT.
What did you say?
JIRO
I didn’t say anything. I hadn’t come there to say anything. I just wanted to see him and I wanted him to know that I was thinking of him. I don’t know that I wanted to hear him say anything. I don’t know what he could have said that would have been worth hearing.
INT.
You had read about the matter in the newspaper?
JIRO
Yes, it was all over the newspaper. It had been for months already, all about the disappearances. Then, it became all about Sotatsu. He confessed to it all, even to parts that the newspapers hadn’t known anything about. That’s what made the police sure. They had thought there were eight disappearances, but he had confessed to eleven, and the other three had been entirely unreported. When the police went to check on those people, they were gone too.
INT.
And you didn’t ask him about it?
JIRO
I just said that. I saw him and left.
INT.
And you had other visits like that?
JIRO
I came every day. Some days they would let me in. Some days they wouldn’t. When they would it was always the same. I would approach the bars from one side, he from another. Neither one of us spoke. It was said there was a room where prisoners received visitors. I never saw that room.
Interrogation 3
Nineteenth of October, 1977. Oda Sotatsu. Inspector’s name unrecorded.
[Int. note . Again, transcript of session recording, possibly altered or shoddily made. Original recording not heard.]
OFFICER 3
Mr. Oda, I have been informed about your case by the inspector you spoke to previously. He declared you unresponsive. It is his opinion that you should simply be run through the system. Flushed out of the system . Those were his exact words. Not to be vulgar, but you see what I mean. You are getting a particular reputation around here. I am going to explain something to you. In jail and in prison, even here at a police station, a local police station like this, there are things that people have done that make them what they are. Do you see? I was in the military, I went to school, I was in a training program, after that I joined the force, and I have worked my way up to being an inspector. That is what I am. Those things I did have made me what I am. You, on the other hand. You have done a crime. That is why you are here. What you are is a prisoner. That is what you are. However, what you are does not determine how you are treated, not the way you would think. What determines how you are treated in here is how you behave and how that behavior creates a reputation. I have a reputation for being good to the people I talk to. Then more people talk to me, then more people learn that I am good to talk to. That is my reputation. There are prisoners here who are treated exceptionally well. Some who have done worse things than others are treated better than the others. Do you know why that is?
ODA
(silent)
OFFICER 3
It is because they have learned how to behave and how to represent a particular reputation, to make it real. You are creating a reputation for yourself. Do you know that?
ODA
(silent)
OFFICER 3
There is a reason you sleep in a concrete cell with no bed, night after night. There is a reason that you get the food that no one else wants. Not all the prisoners get sprayed with a hose. Do you see what I mean? These officers are from good families. They grew up in your town. You may even know them. They have children. They treat people well. But when they see you, they think: here is an animal. Here is a person who wants nothing to do with being human, with being part of our community.
(Officer takes a deep breath, pauses.)
OFFICER 3
What we want is for you to tell us more. The information in the confession is not enough. It is very little. It is almost a useless document, other than where you are concerned. Where you are concerned, it is probably the end of you. But for others, it is useless. We need you to tell us more. Tell us more and we can help you. When I came here, today, and I was told that I would be the one to speak to you, I had an idea about who you were. There had been talk about you. Also, the newspapers. They have been running stories. Many things about you. So, I had an idea about what you would be like. But you aren’t like that. To me, you look like a regular guy, who ended up in a bad spot. You look like maybe you need to talk to someone. Like maybe all this can be explained somehow. I’m the guy you want to talk to. Think about it.
(Tape recorder clicks off.)
Interview 3 (Mother )
[Int. note . To this visit, Mrs. Oda brought a toy that had been Sotatsu’s. It was a long stick painted blue with a red bell on the end. The bell was shaped like a flower. It did not make any noise, Mrs. Oda explained. It had originally been given to Sotatsu’s brother as a present, and he immediately broke it. Sotatsu had found the broken toy and began carrying it around all the time. It became his. He even claimed that he could hear the sound of the bell, although clearly the bell made no sound. Once, the family played a trick on him and hid little bells in their clothing. When he would move the stick, one of the family members would surreptitiously jingle a bell. This caused him great concern and difficulty, and both parents regretted having done it; so said Mrs. Oda. It also confirmed him in his belief that there truly was a sound, and even after their ruse had been explained to him, he disbelieved it.]
INT.
Your next visit to Sotatsu was some weeks later?
MRS. ODA
One week later. I brought him a blanket, but they wouldn’t let him have it. They said he had all the blankets he needed.
INT.
He was provided with blankets by the jail?
MRS. ODA
I do not believe so. What they were saying was …
INT.
That he shouldn’t have a blanket. Or that his sort shouldn’t …
MRS. ODA
I think so. They did let me stand there with the blanket and try to speak with him. I told him that we were all thinking of him, and I tried something that a friend of mine said.
INT.
What do you mean by that?
MRS. ODA
A friend of mine, an older woman whose opinion I respected greatly. She said to me to do something when I went and I did. I worked it out carefully and did it. What it was was this: I should tell him a memory I had, very clearly and just speak of it, let it all move there by itself without me or the sad time we were in, just by itself, the past moment. So, I had remembered a time that would be good to speak of, that I thought I could do …
INT.
Did you prepare it ahead of time?
MRS. ODA
Yes, I thought about it a few ways and tried it out. Then when I went I said it to him.
INT.
Would you want to say it now the way you said it, do you think you could still remember it?
MRS. ODA
Yes. I remember. I actually said it to him several times. He seemed to like it, so when I went there I said it a few times.
INT.
And could you say it now?
MRS. ODA
I can. Let me think a minute and I will be ready.
INT.
That’s fine. Do you want me to stop the tape?
MRS. ODA:
Just for a minute.
[Int. note . Here I stopped the tape for approximately fifteen minutes while Mrs. Oda went about remembering her words. I got a glass of water for her from the kitchen and found something to do in another room. When I returned, she was ready.]
INT.
The tape-device is recording.
MRS. ODA
I said to him, I said: When you were four, your father and I had a thought that we should perhaps travel to different waterfalls, that it might be a good thing to see all the waterfalls we could. So, we began to go to waterfalls whenever we had a chance. That year I believe we saw thirty waterfalls, in many places. We developed a routine for it. We would drive there and get out. Your father would pick you up. He would say to you, Is this the right waterfall? and you would say, No, not this one. Not this one . We went all over. There are really more waterfalls than one thinks. When he talked to me about the project, I said, I don’t know how many waterfalls there are to go to, but I was wrong, there are many. It was just the three of us in the car then, as your sister and brother weren’t born yet. Just the three of us, riding along. We would go down these tiny roads, past fields and rice paddies. We would have to stop to ask directions of the strangest people. But everyone seemed to understand what we were doing. It was never hard to explain it. We are going to see many waterfalls. And the person would say that that was a good thing to do, and that right that way was another waterfall, a very fine one, quite worth seeing. Then we would go on down the road, and pull up at the place. I would get out, I would get you out. You would go to your father. Then the two of you, the two of you would go to the edge of the water. Your father would cock his ear to listen, and you would imitate him. We didn’t have a camera, so I don’t have any pictures of it. But the two of you would listen to the waterfall for quite a while. Then he would pick you up and he would say, Son, is this the right waterfall? and you would say, No, not this one. Not this one . Then we would sit and have some food that we had brought. We would look at the waterfall some more and sometimes talk about what was particular about it. Then we would get in the car and go. Your father would never look back at the waterfall as we were leaving, but you would always turn around as best you could and try to look out the window or over the backseat to see it as we drove away. When finally we had been going for months and seen many many waterfalls, we went to one that we had missed, one that was actually rather close to where we lived. It was a rainy day. It had started out pleasant, with blue skies and fine white clouds, but while we were driving there came many gray clouds that were nearly black from the north and west and with them all kinds of rain. Your father did not want to stop. It was very close, this waterfall, he said, and it was a part of the expedition that we would not turn back. So, we got there in the rain and when we did, the rain cleared. We sat in the car for a few minutes and then got out. It was a very small waterfall, one of the smaller ones we had seen. That was probably why no one said anything about it to us when we were trying to find the waterfalls. But when you and your father had listened for a while, and when he lifted you up and he asked you, Son, is this the right waterfall? you laughed and laughed. You didn’t say anything, you just laughed and laughed. And so he said to you again, Is this the right one? Is this it, the right waterfall? and you said, Yes, this is the one we have been looking for . Then when your sister and brother were born, and we would go on family picnics, we often went there, but we did not talk about our waterfall expedition, and because you had been so young, you never remembered it. You didn’t know why that was the waterfall we always went to, or that you had chosen it from all the waterfalls we had seen. We didn’t know anyway, why it was the right one, your father and I. Or maybe he knows, but I don’t know.
(Mrs. Oda begins to cry. I pass her a handkerchief. She refuses it.)
INT.
And did he say anything to that?
MRS. ODA
He watched me the whole time, sitting with his back to the wall, he was watching me very closely. His eyes changed while I was watching so I knew that it affected him, and that is why I came back and said it again and again. I felt that it was affecting him, whether he would talk or not.
Int. Note
The guards I spoke to said Oda dealt poorly with being in jail.
Of course, the newspapers were readily available to the guards and so they read about Oda and about what had happened, and were deeply prejudiced against him on account of the confession he had signed, which seemed to reveal his guilt beyond any doubt.
This is a peculiar matter, because the confession should not have been available to the press. Indeed, the actual confession was not. However, it seems that on the evidence of: a. witnesses seeing Oda Sotatsu dragged away from his house, and b. data from an anonymous source supplied to the press, the newspapers gained the knowledge they needed to investigate further, at which point perhaps police officials disclosed information. What happened precisely is unknown. That there were many newspaper accounts linking the Narito Disappearances to Oda Sotatsu via his own signed confession is beyond doubt.
This led to Oda being dealt with harshly, most particularly because he would not cooperate. He was kept separate from the other prisoners, and visited almost constantly by a series of officials attempting to get information from him. The interrogations that have been made available to me form a part of this narrative, as you know, but are, I suspect, the least part of the many interrogations that took place. It is clear that the guards often would not allow him to sleep ahead of an interrogation in the hopes that it would weaken his will. However that may be, it appears, from the transcripts that we have, that it was not an effective strategy in this case.
Oda Sotatsu was in jail at the police station for a period of twenty days prior to charges being brought. He was then moved to a different facility, for the trial. The entire case was evidently expedited, possibly because of the enormous media scrutiny, and as well because of the confession, and because Oda refused to deal with any potential representation he would have in court.
Interview 4 (Sister )
[Int. note . Oda Minako, Sotatsu’s sister, was living elsewhere, possibly in Korea, when I began this series of interviews. It was important enough to her, when the family spoke about what I was doing, that she chose to return to Japan for some days to speak to me. These interviews also took place in the house I had let. She was an attractive woman, older, of course, and dressed very professionally. It seems she had acquired an advanced education, and was actually a professor at a university in Korea, in what subject I do not recall. She had been away at her studies when Sotatsu was apprehended by the police, and she returned from Tokyo to visit him. She was uncertain of the day, or whether her visits followed or preceded those of other family members. She did say that a childhood friendship with one of the police officers permitted her to actually enter the cell and sit with him, something allowed none of the other family members, and something mentioned by no other source.]
INT.
You were there then, sitting beside him in the cell. You were a young woman, in the midst of her Ph.D., called away into what must have been as absurd a situation as you had ever dealt with.
MINAKO
I was angry with him. He had never lied, not once, and so I was sure that the confession was true. I was worried about the people who had gone missing. I knew two of them personally, an experience the rest of my family did not have, and so …
INT.
And so it was more complicated for you?
MINAKO
You could say so, but I expect it was more than complicated for all of us.
INT.
Of course, I don’t mean to say …
MINAKO
I know, I understand. I just meant that my loyalties, my immediate duties in the situation were twofold. I wanted simultaneously to help my brother, a person I loved as much as I had ever loved anybody. I preferred him, in fact, preferred him to Jiro, to my mother, to my father. He was the only other one who actually read, who encouraged my studies. He wrote a great deal of poetry. He was cultured, although I don’t know that anyone besides me knew that. I don’t believe he shared that with anyone … I wanted to help him, but I also wanted to find these two people who were missing, a woman who had been my violin teacher, and a man, a Shinto priest whom I had visited as a child. I was deeply concerned that they should be missing, and I felt the guilt of their disappearance keenly. If there was something I could do to help them, I must do it, so I told myself.
INT.
And that led to you behaving in a certain way?
MINAKO
One can’t say how one behaved or why, really. Such situations, they are far more complex than any either/or proposition. It is simplistic to produce events in pairs and lean them against each other like cards. I suppose if you are playing go or shogi, then such a thing might be helpful, but that is not life.
INT.
But you might have simply done things to make his time more bearable, irrespective of his guilt, or, alternately, tried to query him about the crime itself.
MINAKO
I did the latter. I sat by him and I told him that he was my brother, that I did not refuse him any family connection based on what happened, but that I needed to know if these people could be helped, or …
INT.
Or?
MINAKO
Or if they were beyond help.
INT.
And did he speak to you?
MINAKO
He did not. He watched me as I came in. He sat by me. He held my hand. When I left, we embraced. But there was no speech. It was as though he had become pre-literate. The expressiveness of his manner was magnified. His actions no longer leaned on his words. All that he meant he meant through his face and eyes, his hands.
INT.
And what did those tell you? How did they speak to you?
MINAKO
That there wasn’t any hope in him, none at all. That he was waiting to die, and did feel, did indeed feel that he was not any part of any community, not ours, not any.
INT.
But he embraced you.
MINAKO
I initiated the embrace. It might have been as much out of habit as anything else. Or out of boredom. Who can say? He had been in the cell a long time.
INT.
His silence, were you prepared for it by the way he had been as a boy?
MINAKO
Everything is contextual. No situation he had been in as a boy was anything like the one I found him in.
Interview 5 (Brother )
[Int. note . When Jiro discovered that Minako had come to be interviewed, he cautioned me against her. He said that she had always been against Sotatsu, that she had enjoyed the prestige that his crime had afforded the family (a peculiar point, and one I did not understand), and that it was in part due to her intervention that Sotatsu’s case had gotten worse. I absorbed this information, but did not act on it in any regard.]
INT.
So you had visited him a half dozen times, simply sitting with him, before this visit that you just began speaking of?
JIRO
As I described before, I simply sat with him. I didn’t expect I could accomplish anything else. I was a young man, and had no idea what I would say, or if there was anything to say.
INT.
But then you had this outburst.
JIRO
Yes, I had the outburst, on my eighth or ninth visit.
INT.
Can you describe the events that led to the outburst?
JIRO
Things had become bad for us in the town. No one would speak to my mother. Only my very best friends would tolerate me, and even then, only in private. My father, who had been a fisherman all his life, could no longer sell his fish. No one would buy them. It came to a head one day when my father went to the store to buy something. I don’t know what he was buying, but the store clerk wouldn’t serve him. They got into an argument that went out into the street. Apparently the grandfather of the store clerk was one of the people who was missing. They were shouting at each other. I wasn’t there, I only know what people say about what happened.
INT.
And what do they say?
JIRO
That he was denying Sotatsu’s guilt. He was saying Sotatsu hadn’t done it. He just kept repeating it over and over, and although the clerk had been the one who was aggressive at first, denying him service and chasing him out of the store, my father became aggressive in the street. He was just shouting at everyone, getting in people’s faces — not behavior anyone had ever seen. He kept saying, He didn’t do it. He didn’t do it. You know him from a boy. You know him. He didn’t do it . The crowd grew, and became angry. Someone hit him. He fell down. Other people began to hit him. He got hit and many people stepped on him before the police arrived. He was badly hurt and had to go to the hospital. And that’s when it got bad.
INT.
How so?
JIRO
At the hospital, they wouldn’t receive him. So, he had to be driven to a different hospital where they did take him.
INT.
How could that be, that the hospital wouldn’t take him?
JIRO
I believe the presiding doctor was connected with a victim of the Disappearances also.
INT.
And so, this is all prelude to your visit, no?
JIRO
That day I went to see Sotatsu. He knew nothing of any of this, and was the same as he had always been, just sitting in the cell. When he saw me, he stood up and came to the bars. I looked at him and I thought, is there something I can see, some change in him that would make him a different person than the one I knew? I looked at him very carefully. I wanted to see who it was I was looking at. And it wasn’t anyone else. It was my brother, Sotatsu. I had always known him. It was absurd that he had done these things. He hadn’t done them. I was suddenly completely sure. I said to him, I said, Brother, I know you didn’t do these things. I don’t know where this confession came from, but it isn’t true. I know this . And I took his hand through the bars.
INT.
The guards let you touch his hand?
JIRO
I don’t remember what the officers were doing. They were watching, but they didn’t stop us. I don’t think they felt that Sotatsu was any danger. If you had ever seen him, you would not think him any danger.
INT.
And what did he say, you said he spoke then, what did he say?
JIRO
He said, Brother, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do it .
INT.
And what did you say? You must have been shocked.
JIRO
I was not shocked. It was what I expected. I said to him that he hadn’t done it, because I believed he hadn’t done it, and then he replied, confirming what I said. It was all very clear.
INT.
But there must have been some relief on your part?
JIRO
I don’t know about that. All of a sudden there appeared a huge mountain to climb where there hadn’t been anything before. Now it was a matter of trying to get him out. Before that it was just visiting, just standing. So, my mind was racing.
INT.
And you said something to him?
JIRO
I told him he needed to get a lawyer to visit him, and he needed to sign a document protesting the confession, refusing it. I told him I would go and apply for the lawyer to visit, if he would agree to it. But he became hesitant. I don’t know , he said. I don’t think it matters . So, I tried to convince him that it mattered, I don’t know what I said, but when I left, he had agreed to speak to the lawyer and tell the lawyer what he told me. I left, and went straight to visit my father in the hospital. My mother was there, and I told them. My mother was just shaking. She didn’t cry, just sat there shaking. My father had many bandages and such. He seemed to stiffen. He said, Why did he sign the confession, ask him that . I said that I hadn’t thought to ask him that. He said I should have thought of that. I apologized for not having thought of that. He was always very hard on me, my father.
INT.
And then you went to make the application for the lawyer’s visit?
JIRO
I did.
INT.
And the lawyer was scheduled to visit after three days, you said.
JIRO
Then I went to see my brother again. That was the next day, I think. I had to work, so I visited him late. He seemed happy to see me, for the first time. I asked him why he had signed the confession. If he hadn’t done it, why had he signed it? He said he couldn’t speak about it. I said he would have to. He became quiet again. I couldn’t get any more out of him. So, I stood there for about forty-five minutes hoping he would change his mind and speak. He didn’t. I reminded him I was coming with the lawyer and I left.
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.)
Interview 6 (Brother )
[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.
Interrogation 4
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.)
Interview 7 (Mother )
[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.
INT.
And then the hospital wouldn’t accept him?
MRS. ODA
The hospital wouldn’t accept him. He was bleeding all over. He wasn’t even awake. He was going in and out. The doctor looked at him, opened the back of the ambulance, looked at him and said that he would not receive him at that hospital, that everyone should know he would not do such a thing for the Oda family. I don’t know. I ask you, how can such a person be a doctor? My husband was taken to another place where there were real doctors, an actual hospital, not like this first one. There he was taken care of. In all the years since, I have never gone to that hospital, not once. I tell my friends, also, do not go there. That is not a good place.
INT.
But the main thing I wanted to ask you about was Sotatsu telling Jiro that he hadn’t done it.
MRS. ODA
We did not believe Jiro. He was always a difficult child, did poorly in school, was always lying. He was a lying child, every time he would say something it was likely to be something a person couldn’t believe. You had to look at everything from three sides and even then it would turn out to be false. So, he gets it in his head he would convince Sotatsu of something. We did not believe him. Also, he picked the worst time to tell anyone about this. In the hospital room when my husband was nearly dying? He did not die, no. But he was almost dying, very close to it. My daughter came from Tokyo, just to see my husband, just because of his injuries. She did not visit Sotatsu. She was there, and she didn’t like it either, what Jiro was doing. We were not alone.
INT.
But he is your son.
MRS. ODA
Yes, he is. He has done better for himself. Now he has a good family. He is no longer the same. But when he remembers that time, I do not think he can be trusted.
Interview 8 (Mother )
[Int. note . Mrs. Oda returned specifically to explain her last point. I was woken up by knocking at the door of the house where I was staying. I went downstairs and there she was. She apologized for the sudden visit, but felt there was something that must be cleared up.]
MRS. ODA
I will tell you a story about Jiro. I will explain why he cannot be trusted, not really at all. He used to have a game where he would pretend that he was a lord and he would have his toys come before him and present him with cases to decide. He thought this was a very amusing game. I do not remember him ever playing it with anyone else, just alone. He would do different voices for the different toys. They did not need to be figures in order to bring a petition. His favorite spoon, for instance, was often coming. First in line, second in line, third in line — they would all argue and jostle, trying to be the first to speak to Jiro, and he would sit on a little stage he had made and argue with them or tell them what was what. Well, it would be like this: Jiro would say, who is this and what have they to say? And the little wooden box would be there in front of the spoon which was in front of the cloth bird and they would all be shouting and saying things and Jiro would hold up his hand for silence. Then there would be some quiet and he would say they would all be taken and killed if they couldn’t speak in turn. Then the box would say, I don’t know what it would say exactly, this was something that went on all the time, hundreds of times. Possibly the box had something it was always asking for, and never getting, I don’t know. But it might say, I don’t like the spot where I am put at night. Often other ones get placed on my head and it’s uncomfortable, and Jiro would say, don’t open your mouth again or I will have you killed, and he would send the box away. Then it was the spoon’s turn. He would say that, would say the same thing every time. No matter what was said to him, he would say that, don’t open your mouth again or I will have you killed. I doubt he even remembers it. This was long ago, even before he went to school.
INT.
But why do you say that he can’t be trusted? I’m sorry, I don’t see …
MRS. ODA
That he thinks everyone should receive the same treatment, regardless of what they did or what they say? Or that it doesn’t matter what anyone does — it all ends up the same? Maybe he has changed some things about himself, but a boy is a boy. He is still the same one he was. Don’t tell him that I told you this. Or do. I guess I don’t know.
(She roots around in her bag and brings out an old soup spoon.)
MRS. ODA
This is it, I thought I would bring it to show you. For some reason, he would always have this spoon go on and on. It was like the spoon was trying the most to convince him. But it never did. I would be sitting in the next room and listening as he would play this game. I would listen to the whole game. Every time I listened, from beginning to end. The things he would have them say, you couldn’t believe. But this spoon was always the one with the most elaborate excuses, the most long-winded little speeches. Always it was the same, though. Don’t open your mouth again, or I will have you killed. I really pitied the spoon, so, so I still have it.
INT.
It is a keepsake, from Jiro’s childhood. That’s a good thing to have, and a good reason to have it.
MRS. ODA
Oh no, I don’t think of it that way. I rescued it from him. I don’t think he cared about the spoon at all.
Interview 9 (Father )
[Int. note . I had attempted to speak with the father on many occasions. He would agree over the telephone to meet, and then the day would come and he would simply not arrive. His wife gave many excuses: his declining health; the difficulty of travel; the day was hot, etc. When we spoke again on the telephone he would act confused. He had not known we were to meet, etc. After perhaps nine or ten such assignations, he finally arrived. He was extremely thin and small, hardly the dominating force that he had seemed to be from his family’s accounts of him. However, when he spoke, there was a certain forcefulness there. Like his son, he appeared to distrust and dislike me. He felt that I was attempting to trick Mrs. Oda into telling me things that I shouldn’t hear. He had come to set things straight. I was not to listen to the things that Mrs. Oda said. He wanted to make that clear. He was going to tell me some things, and that would be that. The things he would tell me would take the place of what Mrs. Oda had said, and certainly should take the place of whatever nonsense his son was feeding me. He was surprised to hear that Minako had spoken to me. He did not know she was in the country, and seemed confused by the news. It took a little while to get him back on track. He preferred to speak in the yard, so occasionally on the tape there is the sound of traffic in the distance. He said that when one was his age, any day with a fine afternoon sun like that had to be used. One had to use things when one had them, so he said.]
INT.
Where shall we begin?
MR. ODA
I was not surprised when I heard the news, when I was told by our neighbor that someone had seen my son taken away to the police station. I can tell you that, Mr. Ball. I was not surprised at all. If these things took others by surprise, well, they did not take me by surprise.
INT.
Why were you not surprised? How could you possibly have guessed that such a thing would happen?
MR. ODA
I have always known that something terrible was going to come. Until then our life had gone well. I was living in the shadow of this thing, this terrible thing that no one else could see. But, I knew that it was coming. Fishermen are not like other people. We can tell things; not like priests. I am not saying we are special or deserve any regard. We deserve no regard. In fact, one might say we are the lowest ones, drudging around in the water for a lifestyle that keeps one’s family poor, that never amounts to anything. But we do see things. Sometimes we see them before they happen. It is not reliable. It isn’t the same as knowing about things. One doesn’t find it useful, you see? Do you, do you see? It isn’t a useful thing. It is just a thing. I knew something grave was coming, and when it came, I recognized it. I had seen it before, you see. It was like an old friend. Or an old enemy. One saw, though, immediately, that there were no preparations that could have been made. That sort of thing is just foolishness.
INT.
So, you thought Sotatsu was doomed? That he never would have amounted to anything?
MR. ODA
He and my brother got along very well. My brother’s business was nearly ruined by that, by Sotatsu’s presence. But they got on well.
INT.
Why did you not visit your son in the jail?
MR. ODA
What do you mean? I went there. I went there first, before anyone.
INT.
I’m sorry, I know that, I meant to say, why did you not visit him after that first visit? Why did you stop going?
MR. ODA
This is not the reason I came here to talk to you.
INT.
Do you have something else you want to talk about?
MR. ODA
I do. I do.
INT.
Well, tell me what you want to tell me. I am ready to hear anything you have to say.
MR. ODA
Mr. Ball, my son was ill. He was ill his whole life. He was sick once as an infant. My wife denies it, but she is a moron. He cried once for two weeks straight and his head turned blue. He recovered, but he was never the same. He was always ill with this, whatever it was. He thought he could hear bells ringing all the time. It was part of his illness. That’s why he was always playing records. He wanted it out of his head.
INT.
No one else says anything about this.
MR. ODA
You shouldn’t listen to the others. This is what we are saying, that I am telling you the things now that you can use. We are talking about that.
INT.
I understand that. You said that already.
MR. ODA
Maybe others couldn’t see it, but I always could. I could always tell when he was about to do something stupid. He would get this blue look, this look that I recalled from his childhood. It would be like he was being strangled, but he wasn’t, and you would know, you would just know — he is going to do something now that everyone will regret. And then he would do it. Of course, he would never apologize either, afterward. He would do something like, for instance, he would forget to greet me when I came in. I would just stare at him and stare at him, waiting, and the longer I stared the more I could see it building up. Then, instead of saying anything, anything at all, he’d just up and run off out of the house. And Jiro would run off too. Anything he did, Jiro would do. Only Jiro didn’t have the sense that Oda sometimes had. Although now, it’s not easy to say which one turned out worse.
INT.
Are you angry at Jiro for something that he has done?
MR. ODA
You come here and it is like you are going to fix something, but either the thing that is broken is part of something that is gone, or you are doing no good with the thing that is still around. I don’t know why I came to talk to you.
INT.
Please, just let me ask you a few questions. You said at one point, after the accident, when you were in the hospital, you said …
MR. ODA
That is an invention of my wife’s. I was not in the hospital. I don’t know about that. She talks about it sometimes. I don’t know where she got that.
INT.
All right. Well. It is said that you forbade the family from visiting with or talking about Sotatsu. That you were very angry with Sotatsu and no longer wanted to have him be a part of your family, that you specifically told your daughter, your wife, and your son not to speak to him or visit him. Is that true?
MR. ODA:
I do not think that you, I think, I …
[Int. note . Here, Mr. Oda got up and left the house in great confusion, stopping occasionally to tell me that I should not speak to his wife, his son, or his daughter, that his son was not to be believed, and that he did not understand why I had come in the first place. I apologized to him for making any difficulty, and told him that I was going to use his testimony as well as any other testimony I could find because I wanted the account to be complete. He said that this was an idea with no merit, that there wasn’t anything complete, that I should just leave.]
Trial
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