What I did not want was a collection of disembodied voices. Perhaps it's an occupational hazard of the novelist's profession, but I am less interested in the 'big picture,' as it were, than in the concrete, irreducible humanity of each individual . . .
The Japanese media had bombarded us with so many in-depth profiles of the Aum cult perpetrators--the 'attackers'--forming such a slick, seductive narrative that the average citizen--the 'victim'--was an afterthought . . . which is why I wanted, if at all possible, to get away from any formula; to recognise that each person on the subway that morning had a face, a life, a family, hopes and fears, contradictions and dilemmas--and that all these factors had a place in the drama . . .
Furthermore, I had a hunch that we needed to see a true picture of all the survivors, whether they were severely traumatized or not, in order to better grasp the whole incident.