O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming
And the rockets'--
So, Dr. Whitman, sir, you found...
blood on the gaff.
It was not fish blood at all.
It was human, yes?
- Type ""B"" positive. - Carl Heine's type.
Yes, but you can't say with any certainty that the blood was his.
No, but as I say...
the type is rare.
Ten percent of Caucasian males. Whereas the defendant is type ""O.""
Yes, sir, you told us. No one is contesting that.
But you also told us that you scraped the dry blood...
from the handle of the--
An object was propelled against--
The State calls Mrs. Susan Marie Heine.
Can you think back for me to the morning of September 8?
The morning after your husband...
purchased the Jurgenson farm.
One week before his death.
Did the defendant come calling that day...
to speak to your husband?
lt's no big deal.
It's a long story.
He wants to buy seven of Ole's acres.
The ones his family had.
You know that thing my mother talks about?
Had a feeling it was that. What did you tell him?
What could I tell him? There's my mother to think about.
- You know her. - Uh-huh.
I said I'd think it over, and have a talk with you.
He go away angry?
I couldn't tell. Kazuo's a Jap. You can't read Japs.
Don't say that. You don't mean that.
You fished together. You and he were friends.
We were kids then.
So your husband said he'd think it over.
He encouraged Mr. Miyamoto to believe he might--
I--
Well, I wouldn't say encouraged.
But he didn't say no, did he?
He didn't say no hope existed.
Not in those words.
So, the defendant was encouraged to hope.
How could anyone know what he hopes for or anything else he's thinking?
But, Mrs. Heine.
- You really think that's fair? - Objection!
- That's totally irrelevant. - There's nothing more relevant!
- You know that as well as anybody. - Your Honor.
Gentlemen, please! Back to your corners.
Mrs. Heine, I'm very sorry for this little interruption.
No further questions.
Thank you, Mrs. Heine. You may step down.
The State rests, Your Honor.
Very well. Mr. Gudmundsson, the defense may call its first witness.
The defense calls Mrs. Hatsue Miyamoto.
My husband came home excited.
He woke me with the news.
He told me he helped Carl at sea.
And Carl had agreed to sell us the land.
We started making plans right away.
When did you first learn that Carl Heine had drowned?
1:00 that afternoon...
from a clerk at Petersen's.
Kazuo? Kazuo?
- What is it? - Carl Heine's dead.
It's all over the island.
- What do you mean? - He drowned.
They found him in his net.
His poor wife and those kids.
I can't believe it. How horrible.
Gotta get to the boat, replace that battery.
What are you talking about?
I was on his boat last night, remember?
Yeah, but you were helping him. Tell the sheriff.
Are you kidding? You think they're gonna believe me?
It's the truth, isn't it?
That's right. Let's just leave it at that.
So, your husband came home agitated...
after his encounter at sea with the deceased?
I said ""excited,"" not ""agitated.""
He was excited in the sense of being overjoyed.
You were...
overjoyed yourself to hear the news?
Happy for him, and relieved.
So then you and your husband, you must've called...
well, friends and relatives...
to tell them the happy news, yes?
No.
Really?
You didn't call your mother, your sisters about starting a new life?
Your husband never tells his family the family honor's been vindicated?
No.
We decided not to tell anyone...
until we signed papers in case something went wrong.
Then something did.
Carl Heine was found dead...
with his head crushed.
Yes. And then, what was there to call about?
Everything was up in the air.
""Up in the air."" Was that your reaction?
So, apart from your concern about a land deal evaporating...
what was your reaction...
to the news that a husband and father to small children was dead...
with his skull bashed in?
If you mean to imply that we didn't care about Carl's death...
that is wrong and insulting.
I see. I see. Then did it occur to you to come forward...
and tell Sheriff Moran what you knew about this encounter in the fog?
The dead battery, was it?
We discussed that, and decided not to.
Why not?
Because things looked bad. Very bad!
Kazuo and I knew that.
We thought he could end up here on trial for murder.
And that's exactly what has happened.
But if truth was on your side, whatever were you worried about?
Trials aren't only about truth, Mr. Hooks...
even though they should be.
So you hid the truth deliberately. You lied, didn't you?
We were afraid to come forward. Seemed like a mistake.
Doesn't it seem to you that your mistake was in being deceitful...
and deliberately concealing information...
during the course of a sheriff's investigation?
It seems human to me.
I suppose you mean that somehow excuses your lies?
I don't know, Mrs. Miyamoto.
I just--
I don't understand. I'm completely at a loss.
How on earth can you expect any of us to believe you now?
Question withdrawn, Your Honor.
Wait a minute! I haven't had a chance.
No further questions.
That's enough, Mrs. Miyamoto. Not another word.
The fact that you wish to give Mr. Hooks a piece of your mind...
that just isn't allowed, Mrs. Miyamoto.
Very well. Mr. Gudmundsson, will you redirect--
Under the circumstances, we will adjourn early.
9:30 tomorrow.
This is a very fine car.
Much better than the new ones.
Well, it was my father's.
He was a good man.
I know it's caused you trouble, but the snow's beautiful, isn't it?
Yes, very beautiful.
This trial is unfair.
Your father would have written about that in his paper.
What would he have said?
How this trial is wrong!
The whole thing is unfair!
Sometimes I think unfairness...
is a part of things.
I'm not talking about the whole universe.
I'm talking about people. The coroner, that prosecutor.
You! You could do something to help.
Is that what you think?
Maybe I should write an article.
About unfairness.
About all the unfair things people do to each other.
Excuse me, Mrs. Chambers.
The Japanese people of the island are saddened by this loss.
Your husband was a man of great fairness and compassion for others.
A friend to us and to all people.
We know you will follow in his footsteps, Ishmael...
and honor his legacy.
Thank you.
You should stay the night.
- Don't drive back through this. - I've got an early start.
This room is full of ghosts, isn't it?
I hate to see you this way.
I don't know what you mean.
She's married, Ishmael.
Look, it's awfully cold in here. Let's talk in the kitchen.
I don't wanna talk about anything.
You're just like your father.
I'm not just like my father! I know everyone wishes I was.
Whenever they look at me, I hear them thinking...
""He's only half the man his father was.""
I was only going to say he never minded the cold.
It's not such a terrible thing...
being your father's son.
Well organized rhythm, as the men of the dance band...
take over and start the air jumping to the tune of "My Blue Heaven. "
Pardon us, Your Majesty.
Who's your lover boy?
Give it back!
Does this explain your eagerness to walk in the woods every day?
Does it?
Answer me!
""Dear Ishmael...
I can't think of anything more painful...
than writing this letter to you.
l feel l have to tell you the truth.
When we met the last time in the cedar tree...
and l felt your body move against mine--
When we met the last time in the cedar tree...
and I felt your body move against mine...
I knew with certainty...
that everything was wrong.
I knew we could never be right together...
and that soon I would have to tell you so.
And now, with this letter...
l am telling you.
This is the last time l'll write to you.
l'm not yours anymore.
l don't love you, lshmael.
l can think of no more honest way to say it.
When l heard your heart beating...
as we lay together...
l felt closer to you than l had ever been to anyone.
And l knew...
when l heard your heart beating.
This is the last time l'll ever write to you.
l knew with certainty...
that everything was wrong.
l loved you.
And l didn't love you at the same moment.
l can think of no more honest way to say it.
l don't love you, lshmael.
l knew it.
l can think of no more honest way to say it. l loved you.
And I didn't love you at the same moment.
l'm going to move on with my life...
as best l can.
And l hope that you will too.
l don't love you, lshmael.
l can think of no more honest way to say it.
Whenever we were together, l knew it.
l loved you.
And l didn't love you at the same moment.
You must have.
l must say good-bye to you.
l know you will do great things in this world.
You have a gentle heart.
A good heart.
l will never forget you...
and the time we spent together. '"
Scissors.
Retractor.
A clamp.
Fuckin'Jap bitch.
- Are they gonna send you to Europe? - I think so.
Why did you have to volunteer?
They'll hear everything.
Wouldn't some music be nice?
Have you ever done this before?
Never.
You're my only.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth...
and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
I do.
l heard an air horn and saw a lantern in the fog.
- Is that you, Miyamoto? - And another one in Carl's hand.
What's up, Carl?
Both my batteries are drawed down. The generator belts were loose.
Lantern and air horn's all I got. I'm dead here.
No problem.
We'll pull one of my batteries and get you started.
That thing's big, but it'll fit if I bang the flange out of the way.
We can use this to hammer with.
I cannot imagine why you kept this story from the sheriff.
Why?
I didn't have a lawyer.
Even after you had an attorney, you still claimed to know nothing.
You claim not to have seen Carl.
- Am I correct? - Yes, initially.
Well.
""Initially."" That's an interesting word. You'd been arrested.
You had a lawyer. You still claimed ignorance.
I should've told everything right away. I wouldn't be here if I had.
""Should've told everything.""
Meaning you should've told the truth.
But is that the truth? The whole truth?
ls it?
You don't wanna hear the whole truth.
Why don't you try me?
The whole truth is, I wanted to kill him.
But did you?
Nothing to say?
It'll take me a while to charge up.
We'll catch up on the dock.
Nothing to say?
- I didn't know that was a question. - Oh, my apologies.
- You regret not telling the truth? - I have told the truth.
You mean this morning. The battery story. That one is the truth?
- That's a question, sir. - Yes.
And I told it long before this morning.
You said in your testimony that...
""I slept until 1:30 when my wife woke me with the news.
We talked for a while, then I went straight to my boat.''
You didn't go anywhere else. Just straight to your boat.
- Is that the truth? - Yes.
Well, the sheriff found two batteries in your well.
If, as you claim, you left one with Carl.
- How's that possible? - I had a spare battery in my shed.
I brought it down and put it in just before the sheriff showed up.
Conveniently, in your shed.
Why does the battery story change every time a new question's raised?
You asked me if I went straight to the boat. I did, with the battery.
And the new line too? Was that in your shed?
You have a regular chandlery in there?
When you have no answer, you sit in silence with no expression?
You're a hard man to trust, sir.
Objection!
Sustained.
You know better than that.
Either ask questions that count for something or sit down.
Shame on you.
No further questions.
Believing that Etta Heine's son...
would never sell him the land--
land that in his mind, belonged to his family--
his only chance to get that land would be to eliminate Carl Heine.
Thus believing that cold-blooded murder...
was justified, he trailed Carl Heine--
Left before striking the treacherous blow...
he had been trained to strike by his father's hand.
After a series of lies, the defendant at last...
admits he was there, alone on the boat, in the fog.
Carl Heine's blood on his fishing gaff.
Seven acres.
I just wonder what you'd pay for 'em.Just curious, is all.
- What are you selling 'em for? - Did I say I was sellin'?
If I was, I guess I'd have to figure you want 'em real bad.
I ought to charge a small fortune, maybe.
All right, I'm sorry about it, okay?
About the whole damn mess.
Twelve hundred an acre.
That's what I paid Ole. You got no choice on that.
We'll sign off tomorrow.
Look clearly at the defendant.
See the truth self-evident in him...
and in the facts of this case.
Look into his eyes, ladies and gentlemen.
Consider his face.
Ask yourself...
each one of you...
""What is my duty as a citizen of this community?
Of this country?
As an American?''
There's no evidence of anger at Carl...
or much less rage, or much less murderous rage.
No reason for premeditation.
No evidence of it anywhere.
He had asked his childhood friend Carl to sell him some land.
Carl was considering it. Carl's own wife testified...
that her husband had not made up his mind.
A strange moment to follow and kill a man.
Don't you think?
What Mr. Hooks asks you to believe is that no proof is needed...
against a man who bombed Pearl Harbor.
""Look at his face,"" the prosecutor said...
presuming that you will see an enemy there.
He's counting on you to remember this war...
and to see Kazuo Miyamoto...
as somehow connected with it.
Indeed he is!
Let us recall that First Lieutenant Kazuo Miyamoto...
is a much decorated hero of the United States Army.
Now...
Kazuo Miyamoto did one thing wrong.
He wasn't certain he could trust us.
He was afraid that he would be made the victim of prejudice...
as Mr. Hooks, indeed...
is urging you to do.
And there's reason in his uncertainty.
Why?
Well, we sent him and his wife...
and thousands of Americans to concentration camps.
They lost their homes, their belongings, everything!
Should we now be unforgiving of his mistrust?
Now...
our learned prosecutor will have you do your duty as Americans.
Proud Americans.
And, of course, you must!
And if you do, Kazuo Miyamoto has nothing to fear...
because this great country is supposed to be founded...
on a set of principles of fairness...
of equality and justice.
And if you are true to these principles...
you'll only convict a man for what he's done, and not for who he is.
I'm an old man. I don't walk so well anymore.
One of my eyes is close to useless.
My life is drawing to a close.
Why do I say this?
I say this because it means that I ponder matters...
in the light of death...
in a way that most of you do not.
And I feel like a traveler descended from Mars...
astounded by what I see here.
The same human frailty...
passed on from generation to generation.
We hate one another. We are the victims...
of irrational fears, of prejudice.
You might think...
that this is a small trial in a small place.
Hmm? Well...
it isn't.
Every once in a while, somewhere in the world...
humanity goes on trial...
and integrity...
and decency.
Every once in a while...
ordinary people just like you, ladies and gentlemen...
get called on to give the report card for the human race.
In the name of humanity, do your duty as jurors.
Return this man to his wife and children.
Set him free...
as you must.
Good night, Mrs. Miyamoto.
Please.
l know you'll think this is crazy.
But all l want to do is hold you...
and l think that if you'll let me do that just for a few seconds...
l can walk away...
and never speak to you again.
Hatsue, can you please look at me?
I did a terrible thing, Ishmael.
But you have to hear this.
l can never touch you.
You have to let go.
That's the way things are.
Things end, Ishmael.
They do.
You have to let go.
I went by the lighthouse, and I found a report...
that stated the freighter passed through the Ship Channel Bank...
at the exact time of Carl Heine's death.
Which is something that should have been discussed at the trial.
I can't believe I let you rope me into this.
God! We've been over these boats a dozen times.
If there's a lantern on Carl's mast, then Miyamoto's story's true.
See? No lantern.
- What are those? - Nothing. Bits of twine.
Bits of twine aren't nothing.
Maybe somebody should take a look at those.
Don't touch anything up there. It's still a crime scene. Remember?
Don't ever touch something at a crime scene.
Don't the phrase, ""The jury's out"" mean anything to you?
They're lashings.
Figure-eight lashings all cut through.
And you know something?
These stains here on the mast, they could be blood.
The cut on his hand.
See this?
Art, I think you better come down here.
- Something you should see. - What the hell is it now?
- What? - Take a look at this.
This better be good.
I can admit evidence if required in the interest of justice.
Only if it changes everything.
- Nels explained that to you? - Yes, he did.
Very well then. About this second lantern and the freighter.
After Miyamoto left, and Carl's engine was up and running...
he must have remembered the lantern, so he climbs up to cut it down.
Everything fits.: the coast guard report...
the lanterns, the freighter's course...
the coffee cup, the time on Carl's watch...
and Carl's blood on the fishing gaff.
Your Honor, that is the rankest speculation.
Alvin, please spare me.
- With all due respect-- - You listen here!
We're going to hear this theory out.
And if justice demands it, we're gonna let the jury hear it too...
just in case it might be the truth.
The head wound?
We found a small fracture in the gunnel.
-Just below the mast. - Anything could've caused that.
-Anything with human hair. - Why?
May I?
This isn't a legal case.
There's no way to prove any of this, Your Honor.
This certainly warrants a fresh look.
I want to think about it.
By the way...
this coast guard report, when did you come across it?
Was it today you went out to the lighthouse?
Day before yesterday.
You're wondering why I held on to it.
Perhaps I have some idea.
Could it have anything to do...
with the way you look at her?
It takes a rare thing...
a turning point...
to free one's self from any obsession.
Be it prejudice or hate...
or even love.
I had to, really.
I had no choice.
You're sounding just a little like your father.
Did I ever tell you how much I liked him?
I keep thinking about Carl. How unfair it seems.
An accident. Just like that.
Things just bear down on us, I suppose.
A freighter in the fog.
Or a war.
Accident rules every corner of the universe...
except maybe the chambers of the human heart.
Morning, Horace. Reminds you of 1930, doesn't it?
1929, Nels. I believe you're thinking of 1929.
Of course it was, Horace. Winter of'29.
All rise. The Superior Court for the State of Washington...
County of San Piedro, is now in session.
Members of the jury, this court thanks you for your diligence...
in the task you have performed under difficult circumstances.
However, in the light of the new forensic evidence we have heard...
you are hereby discharged from your responsibilities.
Order.
You will resume your seats.
Settle down.
Let us not forget...
we have been considering the death of one man...
as well as pondering the fate of another.
Will the defendant please rise?
Kazuo Miyamoto, in the interest of justice...
the charges against you are dismissed.
You're free to go home.
It's been a pleasure serving with you.
Can I hold you now?
I'm so grateful for your gentle heart.