Soon after his arrival the young missionary is himself captured and forced to witness the brutal torture of native Japanese converts, a process that will only cease if Rodrigues is prepared to trample on the image of Christ. The novel centers on Rodrigues, a young Jesuit evangelist who travels to 17th-century Japan from Portugal in order to discover why his mentor has apostatised rather than suffer martyrdom. The novel Silence (1966), which most critics consider to be Endo's masterpiece, is an austere historical drama which deals more directly with the religious concerns which plagued Endo's entire life. The lack of conscience of the doctors is set against the agonising predicament of a young intern, Dr Suguro, who feels compelled to obey orders despite his harbouring profound reservations about the actions of his superiors. His first great book, The Sea and Poison (1958), concerns the illegal vivisection of American soldiers by Japanese doctors during the second world war, and it is based on historical fact. These questions were all the more problematic for him because he continued to find himself uncomfortable with certain aspects of his faith. When the young author returned home to Japan, and began to embark upon his career as a writer, he was immediately fascinated by questions of guilt and responsibility in Japanese society and history. These two events, the thrusting upon him of Catholicism, and his being exposed to the world beyond Japan, created a peculiar prism through which Endo peered upon Japanese society. He travelled to France, where he enrolled in the University of Lyon in order that he might pursue his burgeoning interest in 20th-century Catholic fiction. In 1950, Endo became the first Japanese student after the second world war to leave the country and study abroad. The religion did not sit easily on Endo's shoulders, and his shallow commitment caused him to suffer great feelings of guilt, for he felt sure that he was disappointing his mother. Soon after, the mother convinced her young son to be baptised and Endo found himself part of the tiny minority group of Catholics in Japan. He spent his early years in Manchuria, but after the separation of his parents he and his mother returned to Japan and moved in with an aunt who persuaded Endo's mother to convert to Catholicism. As the waitress places two more cups of coffee in front of us I am beginning to flush with embarrassment, unsure if I can help him. Mr Kato is still trying to understand how I have made a personal connection across race, nationality, religion and generation with his "master", the man to whom he has dedicated the greater part of his life. He continues to look at me with a puzzled expression. Understandably, this technical and somewhat convoluted explanation of my connection to Endo has failed to satisfy Mr Kato.
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Despite the intrusive "barrier" of translation, Endo's novels have always provided me with valuable instruction in how to locate character. I have already told Mr Kato that the gentle intimacy of Endo's narrative style, with his deeply reflective first-person voices, has always appealed to me.
Why, he wants to know, does a Caribbean-born British writer consider Shusaku Endo to be a great personal influence upon his own work? The truth is I have travelled all the way to Japan, in part, to seek out an answer to this very question. Mr Kato's question still hangs in the air. And now we are seated together in the coffee lounge of a large hotel in the Shibuya district of central Tokyo. All enquiries about the late Mr Endo have been met with the "news" that I should speak with Mr Muneya Kato. I too am sorry, but meeting Muneya Kato is the next best thing.
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