Read Online Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jesse Ball
Tags: Mystery
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mean to suggest …
JIRO
Just continue.
INT .
Did you notice a change in him once they began to feed him again?
JIRO
He got more energy. He began standing again. They tell me he was carried into the courtroom on the day of his trial, that he was propped up on the chair, and that a bailiff had to stand by and keep him in it or he would fall out.
INT .
I hadn’t heard that.
JIRO
But you know what I believe?
INT .
…
JIRO
I think that the hunger strike wasn’t real. I think it was another tool they used to try to break him, to try to get him to sign another confession, confessing more.
INT .
Because the first confession wasn’t enough …
JIRO
It wasn’t enough. They wanted more from him. Maybe they started to starve him and he turned it around. Maybe he said to himself, fine, then I won’t eat. Then I’ll just die. I think he saw it as a way out. Things had become so bad, and there was no door. Then they showed him this door of not-eating.
(A minute of silence, tape running.)
INT .
And there would be no way to know, to know which it was.
JIRO
No way, a hunger strike imposed by the guards on a prisoner who won’t break would look identical to a hunger strike staged by a prisoner as a protest. No one could tell the difference.
INT .
But in this case they didn’t want to starve him to death. They wanted to execute him.
JIRO
Right, so they had to make him eat.
Interview 11 (
Watanabe Garo
)
[
Int. note
. Through a very peculiar and wonderful action of chance, the landlady who rented me the property on which I conducted many of the interviews had a friend whose brother had worked in the prison where Oda Sotatsu sat on death row. Apparently the high profile of the case had led to this brother’s stories of Oda becoming common anecdotes that were told and retold in that family, eventually reaching the ears of the landlady to whom I came. When she learned what I was writing about, she put me in touch with the brother. I spoke to him several times on the telephone and once in person at a ramen house in Osaka. He was an extremely vain man in his sixties and he boasted at every conceivable opportunity. Even the ramen house we met at, it was a
personal connection
. He would get us some kind of special service, he said. In fact, they did not know him at all. It is my belief that this man did not personally know Oda Sotatsu at all, but rather that he relayed all manner of prison lore and anecdotes about Oda Sotatsu, casting them in the first person as though he were the one having had the experiences. As anyone familiar with oral histories will attest, this is quite a common occurrence. His narratives of the time are quite compelling, however. Whether that is because he actually knew Oda, actually was there, or whether it is due to him repeating the anecdotes countless times, I can’t say. However it may be, he was an invaluable source of otherwise unobtainable data about this time period and I am grateful that he consented to speak to me.]
[This first interview occurred via telephone. The house in which I lived (the leased property) had no telephone, so I made use of the telephone situated on the property immediately adjoining.]
INT .
Hello. Mr. Watanabe.
VOICE
One moment. Garo! One moment, please.
(Noise of the phone being put down.)
(Perhaps thirty seconds.)
(Noise of the phone being picked up.)
GARO
Mr. Ball.
INT .
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. We are being recorded at this time.
GARO
I understand.
INT .
You were a prison guard at the L. Facility during the spring of 1978?
GARO
I was employed there from 1960 to 1985. Yes, you could say …
(Laughs.)
GARO
You could say I was there in 1978.
INT .
And you were a guard on what is called death row, with the most dangerous prisoners?
GARO
The ones on death row aren’t always the most dangerous; that’s what people often think, but it isn’t always true. Quite the opposite sometimes. Certaintypes of
JIRO
Just continue.
INT .
Did you notice a change in him once they began to feed him again?
JIRO
He got more energy. He began standing again. They tell me he was carried into the courtroom on the day of his trial, that he was propped up on the chair, and that a bailiff had to stand by and keep him in it or he would fall out.
INT .
I hadn’t heard that.
JIRO
But you know what I believe?
INT .
…
JIRO
I think that the hunger strike wasn’t real. I think it was another tool they used to try to break him, to try to get him to sign another confession, confessing more.
INT .
Because the first confession wasn’t enough …
JIRO
It wasn’t enough. They wanted more from him. Maybe they started to starve him and he turned it around. Maybe he said to himself, fine, then I won’t eat. Then I’ll just die. I think he saw it as a way out. Things had become so bad, and there was no door. Then they showed him this door of not-eating.
(A minute of silence, tape running.)
INT .
And there would be no way to know, to know which it was.
JIRO
No way, a hunger strike imposed by the guards on a prisoner who won’t break would look identical to a hunger strike staged by a prisoner as a protest. No one could tell the difference.
INT .
But in this case they didn’t want to starve him to death. They wanted to execute him.
JIRO
Right, so they had to make him eat.
Interview 11 (
Watanabe Garo
)
[
Int. note
. Through a very peculiar and wonderful action of chance, the landlady who rented me the property on which I conducted many of the interviews had a friend whose brother had worked in the prison where Oda Sotatsu sat on death row. Apparently the high profile of the case had led to this brother’s stories of Oda becoming common anecdotes that were told and retold in that family, eventually reaching the ears of the landlady to whom I came. When she learned what I was writing about, she put me in touch with the brother. I spoke to him several times on the telephone and once in person at a ramen house in Osaka. He was an extremely vain man in his sixties and he boasted at every conceivable opportunity. Even the ramen house we met at, it was a
personal connection
. He would get us some kind of special service, he said. In fact, they did not know him at all. It is my belief that this man did not personally know Oda Sotatsu at all, but rather that he relayed all manner of prison lore and anecdotes about Oda Sotatsu, casting them in the first person as though he were the one having had the experiences. As anyone familiar with oral histories will attest, this is quite a common occurrence. His narratives of the time are quite compelling, however. Whether that is because he actually knew Oda, actually was there, or whether it is due to him repeating the anecdotes countless times, I can’t say. However it may be, he was an invaluable source of otherwise unobtainable data about this time period and I am grateful that he consented to speak to me.]
[This first interview occurred via telephone. The house in which I lived (the leased property) had no telephone, so I made use of the telephone situated on the property immediately adjoining.]
INT .
Hello. Mr. Watanabe.
VOICE
One moment. Garo! One moment, please.
(Noise of the phone being put down.)
(Perhaps thirty seconds.)
(Noise of the phone being picked up.)
GARO
Mr. Ball.
INT .
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. We are being recorded at this time.
GARO
I understand.
INT .
You were a prison guard at the L. Facility during the spring of 1978?
GARO
I was employed there from 1960 to 1985. Yes, you could say …
(Laughs.)
GARO
You could say I was there in 1978.
INT .
And you were a guard on what is called death row, with the most dangerous prisoners?
GARO
The ones on death row aren’t always the most dangerous; that’s what people often think, but it isn’t always true. Quite the opposite sometimes. Certaintypes of
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