Silence

Inoue is the antagonist of the story, the Japanese magistrate over Nagasaki, and the “architect of Christian persecution.” Although Rodrigues hears of Inoue long before meeting him and expects him to be evil incarnate, Inoue is surprisingly personable, kind, and meek, even though he inflicts brutal suffering and torture upon Japanese Christians. Inoue opposes Christianity’s presence in Japan, even though he himself was once baptized a Christian, because he feels it does not offer Japan anything new and in return grants too much of a foothold to England, Holland, Spain, and Portugal. Additionally, like Ferreira—who he drove to apostatize before the story begins—Inoue believes that Christianity is incompatible with the way the Japanese view the world, particularly in its dogmatic defense of universal truths and transcendent deities. The magistrate states his lack of hatred for Christianity, but admits to opposing to it on purely pragmatic grounds. This demonstrates that religious persecution, even when brutal and violent, may be a practical matter rather than an ideological one, and those who enact it may be regular individuals rather than hateful monstrosities. Although Inoue manages to make Rodrigues apostatize, the priest’s maintenance of his personal faith suggests that he is not entirely the victor in their struggle.