In “JIN 2” (Episode 6)

After meeting up with Ryoma-san again and learning about his smuggling of weapons, Jin felt that something had changed; that Ryoma-san was no longer the lighthearted and carefree man Jin once knew. Ryoma-san’s words had a darkness to them that disturbed and disappointed Jin. In his confrontation with Ryoma-san, Jin reminded Ryoma-san that his ideal could be achieved in many other ways than war; that whichever side soldiers were on, they were still all people of this country; that “violence will only beget violence”. These words rang a bell in Ryoma-san’s heart, yet he left begrudgingly due to his prideful self.

Back at the Western medical school in Nagasaki, Tanaka-san (famous engineer and inventor) approached Jin to thank him for his time lecturing at the school. And the conversation brought hope and a hint of enlightenment to Jin.

Jin: You can make anything, can’t you?

Tanaka: Whatever I create, the reaction is the same.

Jin: The same?

Tanaka: When people see my mechanical doll, they burst into laughter. When my inexhaustible light shines, they burst into delight. Seeing those faces is all that’s taken to get me this far.

Jin: You’ve had a wonderful life, haven’t you? I’m envious.

Tanaka: My son and grandson were both killed…

Jin: Ki-killed?

Tanaka: My son was an engineer, who together with a Soga soldier went to Nagasaki to buy a warship. That soldier slashed both him and my grandson.

Jin: Why would he do that?

Tanaka: I don’t know. That soldier too, had studied abroad and was with the enlightenment faction, so their wills should have been the same. But one day, suddenly, it became like that.

Jin: How could such… Such a heartbreaking thing have happened?

Tanaka: In the whirlpool of this era, I think he became consumed by it.

Jin: The whirlpool of this era?

Tanaka: Today’s ally may be tomorrow’s enemy. And then it reverses. Inside it, as it spins around and around, you can become confused about the place you’re standing at. You can lose track of what it was you were aiming for.

Jin: My friend right now… Is caught up in that whirlpool. I wasn’t able to pull him out of it.

Tanaka: Both of you being swallowed up by the whirlpool would be senseless. Shouldn’t your friend become a signpost for what you shouldn’t become, Sensei? From within even the darkness of the whirlpool, you can become a blinding light so that they don’t lose sight of their destination. Sensei, you can be just like that inexhaustible light.