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.