The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

Kaji: [discussing the pardoning of prisoners due to be executed for an alleged escape attempt] I'll be honest. There's only one chance in one hundred.

Kyôritsu Ô: This does not concern us alone. Just as my companions stand between life and death, so do you now stand at an important crossroads.

Kaji: You're right.

Kyôritsu Ô: If you fail now, no one will ever trust you again, and you too will lose faith in yourself.

Kaji: It's true.

Kyôritsu Ô: Yet you would do nothing?

Kaji: What can I do?

Kyôritsu Ô: Must a man outside this barbed wire ask me such a question? Not all the Japanese working here are murderous devils. Their combined opinion objecting to this execution will be more effective than one individual alone.

Kaji: If I'd always acted as you wanted me to there'd be no Kaji here today. I'd like to see what you'd do in my position.

Kyôritsu Ô: You and I will both make minor mistakes. Such things can be forgiven. But an error made at a crucial moment is an unforgivable crime. Your life has been a series of errors stemming from the conflict between your work and yourself. Such errors can possibly be corrected. But this one cannot.

Kaji: Meaning?

Kyôritsu Ô: You'll either be revealed as a murderer wearing the mask of humanism or as one worthy of the beautiful name... "man".