his fast, that’s when they began to feed him. I think then there was a definite change in his manner. While his behavior was outwardly the same, he seemed resigned. There was even less to be found in his eyes than before.
INT .
And you were all hoping that he would speak about the victims?
KO
The judges questioned him repeatedly and at great length about the victims. It was to no avail. His own lawyer, I believe it was Yano Haruo, the defense counsel …
INT .
It was Mr. Uchiyama, I believe.
KO
Oh, yes, dear me, it has been so many years. Uchiyama Isao. He is dead, I believe. Just a few years back. A man with a large family. They have always lived in Sakai, I believe, many generations.
INT .
You were saying that the defense counsel …
KO
The defense counsel, let me see … ah, yes, the defense counsel even tried to convince him, tell all, pleasetell all, it will be the best for you and all concerned. He really was a good man, a very good, just man, Uchiyama. Very respected. He tried everything he could with Oda. I spoke to him alone about it, long afterward. It was a great regret of his, the whole thing. Some blamed him. Unfairly, but, well, some did. Uchiyama told me he kept a picture of Oda in his house for many years, the rest of the time he was practicing, just to remind him—we know so little about our fellow men. There is always more to know. Do you know what he said to me? What Uchiyama said? On the day he retired, he tore the picture up and threw it out. He didn’t want to look at it anymore. I think he felt he had tried with Oda. He had begged him to speak and explain himself. But Oda was unmoved.
INT .
And the result was?
KO
The result was that the trial came to an end. He wouldn’t speak, and the facts seemed relatively clear. He had said in his confession that the twelve victims were taken from this place and that place, all information that was nowhere else to be found, not in the newspapers, nowhere. I think the newspapers had only known about some of the victims anyway. There is a burden, a revelation of secret that has to occur—and that was it. The confession is never enough on its own, or shouldn’t be. Perhaps it sometimes is. It shouldn’t be. In this case there was more. All these people had disappeared. You have to understand, we were very concerned. Everyone in Sakai, in Osaka Prefecture, we were very concerned.
INT .
I do, I appreciate that.
KO
There was just no way anyone could have known.
INT .
And the sentence—did Mr. Oda accept it in the same spirit that he accepted the rest?
KO
The sentence was, as you know, he would be hanged. He would go to a prison and wait for some time, and thereafter be hanged. Some had spoken of leniency in the case, based on his silence, his aberrant behavior. Perhaps he was mad? He did not appear mad to me, or to the judges. No one in the room thought he was mad. The work of the court is to give justice, it is the one measure of a society, when all other measures are abandoned. How do you give justice? Here we had twelve …
INT .
Eleven, I believe.
KO
Yes, yes, eleven victims. Who was to speak for them?
INT .
But the reading of the sentence. Did it affect him?
KO
Not noticeably. I believe he was aware that it would come. It was not a surprise to any of us.
INT .
I will read to you what you wrote on that occasion. You wrote,
So ends the long, painful story of the Narito Disappearances. Sadly, we know as little at the end as we did at the beginning. We have found someone to blame for it, but are no better equipped to factually answer the question, where are our lost family members and why were they taken? These are secrets it seems that Oda Sotatsu will bear with him to the grave. May they give him no solace there
.
(A minute’s pause.)
INT .
How does that sound to you now?
(Tape-device clicks off.)
[
Int. note
. Here Ko Eiji chose to stop the interview.]
Int. Note
[That afternoon, I left Ko Eiji’s house and went
INT .
And you were all hoping that he would speak about the victims?
KO
The judges questioned him repeatedly and at great length about the victims. It was to no avail. His own lawyer, I believe it was Yano Haruo, the defense counsel …
INT .
It was Mr. Uchiyama, I believe.
KO
Oh, yes, dear me, it has been so many years. Uchiyama Isao. He is dead, I believe. Just a few years back. A man with a large family. They have always lived in Sakai, I believe, many generations.
INT .
You were saying that the defense counsel …
KO
The defense counsel, let me see … ah, yes, the defense counsel even tried to convince him, tell all, pleasetell all, it will be the best for you and all concerned. He really was a good man, a very good, just man, Uchiyama. Very respected. He tried everything he could with Oda. I spoke to him alone about it, long afterward. It was a great regret of his, the whole thing. Some blamed him. Unfairly, but, well, some did. Uchiyama told me he kept a picture of Oda in his house for many years, the rest of the time he was practicing, just to remind him—we know so little about our fellow men. There is always more to know. Do you know what he said to me? What Uchiyama said? On the day he retired, he tore the picture up and threw it out. He didn’t want to look at it anymore. I think he felt he had tried with Oda. He had begged him to speak and explain himself. But Oda was unmoved.
INT .
And the result was?
KO
The result was that the trial came to an end. He wouldn’t speak, and the facts seemed relatively clear. He had said in his confession that the twelve victims were taken from this place and that place, all information that was nowhere else to be found, not in the newspapers, nowhere. I think the newspapers had only known about some of the victims anyway. There is a burden, a revelation of secret that has to occur—and that was it. The confession is never enough on its own, or shouldn’t be. Perhaps it sometimes is. It shouldn’t be. In this case there was more. All these people had disappeared. You have to understand, we were very concerned. Everyone in Sakai, in Osaka Prefecture, we were very concerned.
INT .
I do, I appreciate that.
KO
There was just no way anyone could have known.
INT .
And the sentence—did Mr. Oda accept it in the same spirit that he accepted the rest?
KO
The sentence was, as you know, he would be hanged. He would go to a prison and wait for some time, and thereafter be hanged. Some had spoken of leniency in the case, based on his silence, his aberrant behavior. Perhaps he was mad? He did not appear mad to me, or to the judges. No one in the room thought he was mad. The work of the court is to give justice, it is the one measure of a society, when all other measures are abandoned. How do you give justice? Here we had twelve …
INT .
Eleven, I believe.
KO
Yes, yes, eleven victims. Who was to speak for them?
INT .
But the reading of the sentence. Did it affect him?
KO
Not noticeably. I believe he was aware that it would come. It was not a surprise to any of us.
INT .
I will read to you what you wrote on that occasion. You wrote,
So ends the long, painful story of the Narito Disappearances. Sadly, we know as little at the end as we did at the beginning. We have found someone to blame for it, but are no better equipped to factually answer the question, where are our lost family members and why were they taken? These are secrets it seems that Oda Sotatsu will bear with him to the grave. May they give him no solace there
.
(A minute’s pause.)
INT .
How does that sound to you now?
(Tape-device clicks off.)
[
Int. note
. Here Ko Eiji chose to stop the interview.]
Int. Note
[That afternoon, I left Ko Eiji’s house and went
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