This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Jesse Ball
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House Companies.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
A portion of this work first appeared in
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ball, Jesse.
Silence once begun / Jesse Ball.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-307-90848-3
eBook ISBN 9780307908490
1. Journalists—Fiction. 2. Americans—Japan—Fiction. 3. Secrets—Fiction. 4. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602. A596S55 2013 813′. 6—dc23 2013005948
Jacket design by Peter Mendelsund
v3. 1
For K. Abe & S.
EndoContents
Prefatory Material
1. The Situation of Oda Sotatsu
A First Telling of the Story
The Wager
According to His Landlady, the Next Morning
The Daughter of Oda’s Landlady
Int. Note
Seven Months of Confinement
Awaiting Trail
Interrogation 1
Interview 1 (Mother)
The Narito Disappearances
Interrogation 2
Interview 2 (Brother)
Interrogation 3
Interview 3 (Mother)
Int. Note
Interview 4 (Sister)
Interview 5 (Brother)
Interview 6 (Brother)
Interrogation 4
Interview 7 (Mother)
Interview 8 (Mother)
Interview 9 (Father)
Trial
Int. Note: Regarding the Newspaper Coverage of the Trial
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Oda Trial Coverage [Ko Eiji]
Ko
Interview
Int. Note
Room Like a Gallows Tree
Int. Note: Transfer to Death Row
Interview 10 (Brother)
Interview 11 (Watanabe Garo)
Photograph of Jito Joo
Interview 12 (Brother)
Interview 13 (Brother)
Interview 14 (Watanabe Garo)
Interview 15 (Brother’s Wife)
Int. Note
Int. Note
Interview 16 (Brother)
Interview 17 (Brother and Mother)
Interview 18 (Watanabe Garo)
Interview 19 (Brother)
Interview 20 (Brother)
Document Side One: Holograph Will
Document Side Two: Letter to Father
Interview 21 (Watanabe Garo)
2. To Find Jito Joo
Int. Note
Int. Note
The House of Jito Joo
Int. Note: Speaking to Joo in Her Home
Int. Note
Int. Note
Int. Note: Letter to Jito Joo
Int. Note: Two Weeks
2. 1. The Testimony of Jito Joo
Int. Note
3. Lastly, Kakuzo
Int. Note
Interview (Sato Kakuzo)
Statements (Sato Kakuzo)
Narito Disappearances: BLUEPRINT
The Invention of a Crime
Confessions & The Idea of a Confession
Joo & How It Went in Practice
Joo & How It Went in Practice 2
How It Went in Practice
How It Went in Practice 2
How It Went in Practice 3
How It Went in Practice 4
How It Went in Practice 5
Fin
The following work of fiction is partially based on fact.