Mr. Tagomi's Heart Attack

Mr. Tagomi's Heart Attack is the physical and spiritual collapse of Nobusuke Tagomi immediately after he signs the extradition order for Frank Frink and confronts the German consul Hugo Reiss, an event that crystallizes the moral exhaustion, guilt, and existential crisis that have been building since he shot two SD men. The attack forces him to confront the limits of his own understanding and the inadequacy of the I Ching to resolve the paradoxes of evil and necessity, and it marks his withdrawal from active participation in the political struggle.

Causes and Background

Tagomi's heart attack is the culmination of a series of traumatic events that began with the shooting of the two SD men in his office. He had killed and mutilated them with his treasured Colt .44 revolver, a collector's item he had practiced with in vainglorious swift-draw contests but had never before used for its mature purpose. The act left him with a profound sense of guilt that he could not shake. "Blood, Herr Reiss, can never be eradicated like ink," he told the consul, and he confessed that he craved forgiveness but knew that no one could give it to him. He had been reading the I Ching obsessively, seeking an external frame of reference to comprehend his act, but the oracle had given him Hexagram Sixty-one, Inner Truth, with the judgment that pigs and fishes are the least intelligent of all and hard to convince—a line he interpreted as referring to himself. The political situation compounded his distress: he had learned from Rudolf Wegener and General Tedeki about Operation Dandelion, a planned nuclear attack on the Home Islands, and he had witnessed the SD raid on the Nippon Times Building. Earlier that day, he had wandered the city in a dissociated state, riding cable cars, visiting Portsmouth Square, and experiencing a visionary episode with the Edfrank silver triangle that Mr. Childan had sold him—an episode that ended when a policeman interrupted his meditation, mistaking the object for a child's puzzle. The silver triangle had not saved him; it had not helped. All that endeavor had come to nothing.

What Happens

When Tagomi returns to his office, Mr. Ramsey informs him that the German consul, Freiherr Hugo Reiss, is waiting to see him. Tagomi carries his briefcase containing the Colt .44 and goes out into the corridor to meet Reiss. The consul attempts to smooth over the shooting incident, claiming that the contention that the hoodlums were connected with the Reich has not been established and proposing a gentlemen's agreement to drop the matter. Tagomi responds with a passionate, disjointed speech: he declares that his nation is about to descend into greater vileness than ever, that a bloodbath is coming beyond all compare, and that Reiss is striving for some slight egotistic gain while the SD chief Bruno Kreuz vom Meere is in hot water. He quotes the hexagram The Abyss and says he is suffering from a malady that has grown over long years but entered virulent form the day he heard the German leaders' escapades recited. He tells Reiss, "Repent!" The consul, visibly shaken, lights a cigarette with trembling fingers. At that moment, Mr. Ramsey appears with a sheaf of forms, including Form 20-50, a request by the Reich through its representative for the remand of the Jew Frank Fink, now in custody of the San Francisco Police Department, for protective custody under Reichs law. Tagomi takes the form, scribbles "Release. Ranking Trade Mission, S.F. authority. Vide Military Protocol 1947. Tagomi" on the bottom, and hands a carbon to Reiss. He then says, "Good day, Herr Reiss," and bows. When Reiss complains that Tagomi is making the matter bitter and vindictive, Tagomi replies, "Chicken shit. I say that to that." As Reiss throws his cigarette onto the corridor floor and strides off, Tagomi calls weakly after him to take the foul stinking cigarette along. Then he makes his way unsteadily back into his office. He cannot breathe. A pain flows down his left arm, and a great open palm flattens and squashes his ribs. He sees a shower of sparks rising, red. He tries to call for help but no sound comes. He reaches out, stumbles, and falls. As he falls, he clutches the silver triangle inside his coat. It did not save him, he thinks. It did not help. All that endeavor. His body strikes the floor, hands and knees, the carpet at his nose. Mr. Ramsey rushes about bleating. Tagomi manages to say, "I'm having a small heart attack." Several persons transport him to a couch. He asks them to notify his wife. He hears ambulance noises wailing from the street. A blanket is put over him, his tie removed, his collar loosened. He lies comfortably, not trying to stir. The building's physician arrives and says, "Remove his shirt." Tagomi smiles at the authoritative tone.

Consequences and Aftermath

Tagomi's heart attack is both a physical collapse and a moral crisis. He recognizes that his career is over, that the German consul will raise a row higher up and complain about his incivility, and that his part in the struggle is done. The rest is up to Tokyo and the factions in Germany, a struggle beyond him in any case. He reflects that he had thought it was merely plastics, an important mold salesman, but the oracle had guessed and given a clue. Now he wonders if the heart attack itself is the answer—the mystery of the body organism's own knowledge, a sign that it is time to quit, or time partially to quit. He recalls the oracle's last response to his query as the two SD men lay dying or dead: Hexagram Sixty-one, Inner Truth, with the judgment about pigs and fishes. He thinks, "It is I. The book means me. I will never fully understand; that is the nature of such creatures. Or is this Inner Truth now, this that is happening to me? I will wait. I will see. Which it is. Perhaps it is both." The event has a direct consequence for Frank Frink: Tagomi's signing of the release order, in the same moment as his heart attack, leads to Frink's release from the Kearny Street Police Station that evening. A police officer comes to Frink's cell, unlocks the door, and tells him to go pick up his possessions at the desk. Frink finds himself on the sidewalk, free, unable to believe it. He wanders through the darkening city, struggling to get back to the fixed, comprehensible place of his workshop, where Ed McCarthy is eating his dinner at the bench. Frink collects half-completed silver segments and begins removing the fire scale from them, one by one. Tagomi's collapse, then, is the hinge point at which one man's moral exhaustion becomes another man's liberation, a paradox that the oracle's Inner Truth cannot resolve but only names.