happen?
The judges call for a recess. The trial will continue on the following day.
ODA TRIAL COVERAGE [Ko Eiji]
DAY TWO
Oda Sotatsu is brought into the room. He is seated. He, Prosecutor Saito, and Defense Counsel Uchiyama await the entrance of the judges. One by one the judges enter the room and are seated.
The judges announce: it has been decided that, as the general effect of the language present in the confession is a mirror to that of the indictment, it is legitimate and appropriate that admitting the facts of the confession is identical to admitting the facts of the indictment, and that as a practical matter, it shall be considered as such in this case.
The court will therefore be recessed for the day, and on the following day Prosecutor Saito will present his case.
ODA TRIAL COVERAGE [Ko Eiji]
CONDITION OF MR. ODA
It has become known that Oda Sotatsu has, at some point in the week previous, stopped eating altogether. At the point of the trial’s inception, he was on the fourth or fifth day of his fast. In the radical papers, it is being called a hunger strike. We see no grounds for that, as it is not apparent that Mr. Oda’s fast has any purpose, or any possible object. Certainly, Mr. Oda has not made that object known.
ODA TRIAL COVERAGE [Ko Eiji]
ATMOSPHERE IN THE PREFECTURE
While staying in the region for the trial, I have witnessed a huge outpouring of emotion. There is great hope that the trial may move Mr. Oda to confess the location of the victims of the Narito Disappearances. Whether that will happen or not is, however, completely unknown. It is even espoused in some legal circles that the trial may be lengthened in the hopes that the particular sort of pressure it exerts might be helpful in eliciting a full disclosure by Mr. Oda. Whether that will be the case or not is unclear. Certainly it appears that no effort has been spared in the selection of the individuals involved in the trial. Also, the results of Prosecutor Saito’s pretrial investigation have not yet been made known. It is quite conceivable that he has discovered information that may be of use.
Interview
[
Int. note
. I had intended to give you more of Ko Eiji’s serialization, but I find that I want, again and again, to intercede and explain things. Therefore, I believe, we will continue, as if on foot, together. I decided to try to find Mr. Ko; indeed, I managed to find Mr. Ko, and he consented to speak to me about the trial. I present the results of that interview below.]
[This interview took place in Ko Eiji’s own home, a shabby building on the south side of Sakai. His daughter let me in, but left immediately after seeing that I was situated and given various measures of hospitality. We sat by a long series of windows looking out toward the harbor. The old journalist explained that he liked to sit there in the mornings, but that the noise became too much in the afternoon, and he would retire then to the far side of the house. I told him that the interview would likely not take such a long time as that.]
INT .
Mr. Ko, I wonder if you would give an explanation of the final days of the trial of Oda Sotatsu. Your coverage of it was quite sensational at the time, and syndicated throughout the country. How did events play out?
KO
He simply wouldn’t speak. There were, I suppose, many things he might have said. He said none of them. Apart from the moment when he was made to speak, at the trial’s beginning, he did not speak again. It simply wasn’t the way a prisoner should behave, certainly not the way an innocent man would. The whole thing defied reason. If it was a joke, it was thestrangest joke in the world, and for a person to risk his own life, and with no sense of what anything might mean? I just don’t know.
INT .
Some have said that the forced feeding that went on, that may have made him willful. Do you believe that view?
KO
Certainly, after the fourth day of trial when he was becoming seriously ill from
The judges call for a recess. The trial will continue on the following day.
ODA TRIAL COVERAGE [Ko Eiji]
DAY TWO
Oda Sotatsu is brought into the room. He is seated. He, Prosecutor Saito, and Defense Counsel Uchiyama await the entrance of the judges. One by one the judges enter the room and are seated.
The judges announce: it has been decided that, as the general effect of the language present in the confession is a mirror to that of the indictment, it is legitimate and appropriate that admitting the facts of the confession is identical to admitting the facts of the indictment, and that as a practical matter, it shall be considered as such in this case.
The court will therefore be recessed for the day, and on the following day Prosecutor Saito will present his case.
ODA TRIAL COVERAGE [Ko Eiji]
CONDITION OF MR. ODA
It has become known that Oda Sotatsu has, at some point in the week previous, stopped eating altogether. At the point of the trial’s inception, he was on the fourth or fifth day of his fast. In the radical papers, it is being called a hunger strike. We see no grounds for that, as it is not apparent that Mr. Oda’s fast has any purpose, or any possible object. Certainly, Mr. Oda has not made that object known.
ODA TRIAL COVERAGE [Ko Eiji]
ATMOSPHERE IN THE PREFECTURE
While staying in the region for the trial, I have witnessed a huge outpouring of emotion. There is great hope that the trial may move Mr. Oda to confess the location of the victims of the Narito Disappearances. Whether that will happen or not is, however, completely unknown. It is even espoused in some legal circles that the trial may be lengthened in the hopes that the particular sort of pressure it exerts might be helpful in eliciting a full disclosure by Mr. Oda. Whether that will be the case or not is unclear. Certainly it appears that no effort has been spared in the selection of the individuals involved in the trial. Also, the results of Prosecutor Saito’s pretrial investigation have not yet been made known. It is quite conceivable that he has discovered information that may be of use.
Interview
[
Int. note
. I had intended to give you more of Ko Eiji’s serialization, but I find that I want, again and again, to intercede and explain things. Therefore, I believe, we will continue, as if on foot, together. I decided to try to find Mr. Ko; indeed, I managed to find Mr. Ko, and he consented to speak to me about the trial. I present the results of that interview below.]
[This interview took place in Ko Eiji’s own home, a shabby building on the south side of Sakai. His daughter let me in, but left immediately after seeing that I was situated and given various measures of hospitality. We sat by a long series of windows looking out toward the harbor. The old journalist explained that he liked to sit there in the mornings, but that the noise became too much in the afternoon, and he would retire then to the far side of the house. I told him that the interview would likely not take such a long time as that.]
INT .
Mr. Ko, I wonder if you would give an explanation of the final days of the trial of Oda Sotatsu. Your coverage of it was quite sensational at the time, and syndicated throughout the country. How did events play out?
KO
He simply wouldn’t speak. There were, I suppose, many things he might have said. He said none of them. Apart from the moment when he was made to speak, at the trial’s beginning, he did not speak again. It simply wasn’t the way a prisoner should behave, certainly not the way an innocent man would. The whole thing defied reason. If it was a joke, it was thestrangest joke in the world, and for a person to risk his own life, and with no sense of what anything might mean? I just don’t know.
INT .
Some have said that the forced feeding that went on, that may have made him willful. Do you believe that view?
KO
Certainly, after the fourth day of trial when he was becoming seriously ill from
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