P.E.’s Reviews > Silence > Status Update

'The monotonous sound of the waves biting at the shore reminded the priest of the death of Mokichi and Ichizo. On that day, too, the misty rain had fallen ceaselessly on the sea, and on that rainy day the seagulls had flown in near the stakes. The sea was silent as if exhausted; and God, too, continued to be silent.'

'When I see that town, I think of a story I heard long ago. It is about Takenobu Matsuura of Hirado who had four concubines who constantly quarrelled out of jealousy. Takenobu, unable to bear it any longer, ended up by expelling all four from his castle. [...] our whole Japan is like Matsuura. [...]Spain, Portugal, Holland, England and such-like women keep whispering jealous tales of slander into the ear of [Japan].'

'Among the people who appeared in the pages of the Scripture, those whom Christ had searched after in love were the woman of Capharnaum with the issue of blood, the woman taken in adultery whom men had wanted to stone – people with no attraction, no beauty. Anyone could be attracted by the beautiful and the charming. But could such attraction be called love?'

'Father, we are not disputing about the right and wrong of your doctrine. In Spain and Portugal and such countries it may be true. The reason we have outlawed Christianity in Japan is that, after deep and earnest consideration, we find its teaching of no value for the Japan of today.'

'Now if you are really a father at heart, you ought to feel pity for the Christians. Isn't that so? [...] It is because of you that they must suffer,' concluded the old man.'

'Father, if we are ordered to trample on the fumie...' Mokichi, head hanging, mumbled the words as though he was talking to himself. 'It's not only a matter that concerns us. If we don't trample, everyone in the villge will be cross-examined. What are we to do?'

'Even the barking of the dogs had suddenly come to an end, and Tomogi was like an ancient, abandoned ruin. Yet I could sense the awful silence that enveloped the whole place. Earnestly I prayed to God. Well I knew that we should not pray for the happiness and good fortune of this world; yet I prayed and prayed that this awful silence might forever be taken away from the village over which it hung so ominously.'

'When you see how the land is cultivated right up into the middle of the mountain facing the sea, you are struck not so much by their indefatigable industry as by the cruelty of the life they have inherited. Yet the magistrate of Nagasaki exacts from them an exceedingly harsh revenue. [...] for a long, long time, these farmers have worked like horses and cattle; and like horses and cattle they have died.'