1981 - Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Festival Entry
A Shochiku Film
A Haiyuza Eiga Hoso Production
In 1949, Japan had already lost WWII and unconditionally surrendered...
to the Allied powers four years prior,
and it was now an occupied state.
At this time, the cold war between the US and the Soviet Union...
had already begun.
The US was faced with the need to quickly fashion Japan...
into an anti-communist stronghold for Asia.
The so-called "Dodge Line" was...
an economic rationalization program handed down to the Japanese government...
for the purpose of reviving and reinforcing capitalism in the country.
As a result, major companies announced a string of layoffs.
Labor unions organized protests against the mass layoffs,
and among the protestors was the 600,000-man strong...
National Railway Labor Union (NRLU), which served as the core of the protests.
Consequently, the 100,000 displaced railway workers...
held the key to the success or failure of the "Dodge Line".
National Railway Labor Union Headquarters
Amid these circumstances, National Railway President Sadanori Shimoyama...
released a list of a first round of layoffs of 30,700 employees on July 4.
On July 5, the NRLU organized a strike...
in opposition to the layoffs.
Willful Murder
Starring
Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Hashimoto, Akio Miyabe, Yoko Asaji, Ichiro Akatani, Shinji Ogawa, Koji Yakusho, Jiro Kawarazaki
Kei Yamamoto, Shogen Nitta, Yoshisuke Makino, Seiichi Taguchi, Masao Shishikura, Mikijiro Hira, Yasuyuki Kachi, Hiroyuki Yamada, Yoshio Inaba
PRESS CLUB Showa News
Anyhow, troops returning from Siberia are not to be joined...
with their families and will not be allowed on board.
The trains that had been specially arranged for returning troops...
appear to have departed nearly empty. Yes.
Also, 1,000 labor union members came to greet them, and the whole lot of them...
went to the nearby Shitaya Public Hall for a "People's Assembly".
What?! A "People's Assembly"! Yes!
There are around 3,000 people here, so the situation is untenable...
for the police and they are just standing by watching.
Just between you and me, this is less like the return of troops from Siberia...
and more like the invasion of a revolutionary army.
It's impossible to tell what's going to happen, so I will send my article...
after the "People's Assembly" is finished.
There's no way I'll meet the midnight deadline.
What?! It's been pushed back to 02:00?! What happened?!
It's National Railway President Shimoyama... he's missing.
This morning on the way to work, he got out of his car...
after 09:30, went into Mitsukoshi Department Store, and disappeared.
We're going to be here all night. You stay put.
Understood.
At 24:05 on July 6, the body of President Shimoyama was discovered...
under the railway trestle of the Joban Line of Gotano Station,
in the Adachi ward of Tokyo, having been run over by a train.
This was 15 hours after he had disappeared from Mitsukoshi Department Store.
His body was found in five parts:
the head, the torso, the right and left arms, and the right ankle.
His body and his possessions were found scattered...
in a 90-meter area from under the bridge.
The body of President Shimoyama is currently being examined at Tokyo University.
However, railway experts doubt that it was suicide...
and believe that he was probably dead before the train ran him over.
The government is taking a cautious approach...
and will investigate the matter thoroughly.
The results of the autopsy aren't even in,
and the Chief Cabinet Secretary has already announced it as a homicide.
I understand that the government is trying to use this event, but this is pushing it.
I'm impressed that they haven't outright accused the Japanese Communist Party...
or the NRLU of murdering him.
But the general public must certainly have connected it to the railway's huge layoffs.
I'm back.
How did it go?
I met with Dr. Yasojima, who looked at the body.
- He says it's a suicide. - A suicide?
Yep: there was virtually no pooling of the blood.
It's a little early to officially rule it a suicide,
and Shimoyama's death is attracting a lot of attention,
so there's to be a judicial autopsy conducted tomorrow.
Also, the train that ran over Shimoyama originated at Tabata Station,
and stopped at Gotano Station at 24:19 and 30 seconds.
Hello!
24:19 is an awkward time...
The timeline for a suicide would be today, but yesterday for a homicide.
So?
- It's the date of his death. - Mr. Endo!
Yeah, yeah... I got it.
The Tokyo University autopsy has completed and they issued an official announcement.
Hey, the official announcement is in!
The cause of death is unclear, but since absolutely no bleeding occurred...
from the injuries he sustained from being hit by the train,
it was determined that he died beforehand.
He died beforehand.
So the train ran over a dead man.
Then, it was homicide!
Does everyone understand? We're going with homicide as planned.
Cover every base!
Homicide Conclusive Special Taskforce Set Up
Shimoyama's Death Ruled a Homicide
Throat Cut
Shimoyama's Dead Body Hit by Train
Tokyo University's Office of Forensic Medicine
The body had over 300 lacerations and abrasions.
None of them bled, which would be a requisite vital reaction.
"Vital reaction"...
It's unthinkable that...
a living person wouldn't bleed from any of those wounds.
I assume you were thorough in your examination?
As thorough as I've ever been.
It's very clear that he was dead when the train hit him.
Yes, he was definitely hit after he died.
What? Witnesses?
There seems to be a number of witnesses who saw..
a man fitting Shimoyama's description at Gotano Station.
The innkeeper of Sueyoshi Inn, which is in the vicinity of the station,
gave a statement that a gentleman fitting his description...
was relaxing there at around 14:00-17:30.
Detectives on the case...
are said to have confirmed that the man was indeed Shimoyama.
Detectives from the First Division?
All the news outlets are setting up offices around Gotano Station...
and media coverage is all over the place,
but the Sun has decided to report it as a suicide.
A suicide? That's ridiculous.
The information about the witnesses isn't correct.
That's why we're going with it as a homicide.
Still, if it turns out to be suicide, it will be hard for us...
to backpedal on our coverage.
OK, I'll go to Gotano and see what I can find out.
Sueyoshi Inn
I see... His clothes were identical to those that Shimoyama was wearing.
What does it say in the register?
He said he'd rather not.
About his appearance,
did he really resemble the photo in the newspapers?
Yes, his skin was white,
his eyebrows were widely separated, and his face was puffy.
A fellow named Tsuji, who saw him by the train tracks...
said that he was tanned dark, had high cheekbones,
and looked like the foreman of a construction site.
That's not true.
But several other people have come forward with descriptions that differ from yours.
He was here for three hours; he must have smoked a lot of cigarettes.
I don't recall.
He evidently loved cigarettes, so he must have filled an ashtray.
I don't recall.
- Good morning. - Good morning.
- Good morning, Yashiro. - Good morning.
Are you working on a Ph.D.?
The scientific investigation is probably going to crack this case,
so Wajima told me to bone up on it, but all of the books are academic...
and I couldn't understand much. I was up all night.
You're going whole hog on this.
What did the Tokyo Metropolitan Police say?
The First Division says suicide and the Second Division says homicide.
But Chief Yoshikawa of the Second Division is insistent about it being a homicide...
and has the backing of the prosecutor's office.
Why is the First Division so sure it's suicide?
They are stressing the instincts of seasoned detectives at the scene,
as well as the reports from 17 witnesses.
However, they found Shimoyama's necktie, glasses, and mechanical pencil at the scene,
but did not find his cigarette case, lighter, or other cigarette paraphernalia.
It doesn't add up.
Comments by the mistress of the Sueyoshi Inn were uneven and are not entirely credible.
Still, his clothes were the same as Shimoyama's, right down to the necktie...
Wait... it's possible that someone was impersonating him.
An impersonator?
That would explain why he didn't smoke...
and didn't want his name in the hotel register.
He knew that his blood type could be taken from the cigarette butts...
and his handwriting could be analyzed.
It's possible... but it's a bit contrived.
No, the man who stopped at the inn and had a glass of water at around 14:00,
there are no reports of him stopping for water anywhere else.
No one could walk around in this heat for 10 hours without drinking any water.
Would it be possible to impersonate him?
Hand me the chart.
There were 10 witnesses at 18:00,
and none in the following two hours.
So he must've stopped somewhere for dinner.
Someone else could've taken over as the double.
But there must've been an easier way to make it look like a suicide...
like throwing him in the ocean.
No, once the train passed by, his body was sure to be found.
And his body was torn apart and it was a grisly death.
It would lend credence to the public opinion that...
it was leftists that led him to resort to a bloody suicide.
It was done for shock.
So it was perpetrated by right-wing syndicates?
If so,
it would be...
an exceptionally well-planned crime.
Around that time, forensic scientists at Keio and other universities...
started to sharply criticize Tokyo University's findings...
that Shimoyama was run over after he had died.
Did Shimoyama Kill Himself?
If it turns out to be a homicide and the perpetrator is apprehended,
I'll commit seppuku.
There is absolutely no forensic basis for ruling this a homicide.
It can only be explained by incompetence on the part of Tokyo University...
and political scheming on the part of the government.
It absolutely was not a conspiracy.
Reporters like to make hay, but I'm not looking to be second-guessed.
Professor, the cause of death isn't determined yet.
Could it have been poison or something?
There is absolutely no reason to believe that.
Now what?
Actually, he did have a few cuts in subcutaneous tissue that showed bleeding.
These lacerations clearly occurred while he was still alive.
On his eyelid, on the right side of his chest,
on both of his shins, on the top of his feet.
On both of his elbows, the back of both of his hands.
There was also internal bleeding in his penis and testicles.
Look you can see where it bled.
What caused the bleeding?
I shouldn't speculate,
but if he was kicked or punched, or poked with a stick...
I'll report that!
Don't, it's just conjecture.
But there's a basis for it.
Yashiro, don't take this information so seriously.
- I'll give you a scoop. - A scoop?
Actually, the US military is investigating this.
This information is from the GHQ's Criminal Investigation Laboratory.
Traces of blood were found at the site, in locations...
opposite to the train's direction of travel.
Meaning?
I know an officer at the CIL, and when I asked him,
he said the blood type proved to be A,
which was the same as Shimoyama's.
Really?!
There might turn out to be other traces of blood yet to be found.
Thank you!
July 15, sometime after 21:00,
an unmanned train on the Central Line went out of control at Mitaka Station,
and demolished buildings by the station. Six people died and 14 were injured.
It has become known as "the Mitaka Incident".
You want Ono to help you? Are you soft in the head?
- Don't you know what happened in Mitaka? - I know!
- Then get down there and cover it! - I'm not covering Mitaka!
What?
We've only just started to make headway in the Shimoyama Incident.
Forget about it! It's not news anymore.
Every news outlet is swarming on Mitaka.
All the more reason to stick with the Shimoyama Incident.
I'm on the verge of a major break in the story.
What are you talking about?
This could easily turn into a global news story.
Do you want me to leave it alone?
Now you're just bluffing. Why do you say that?
Blood traces were discovered. It was the same blood type as Shimoyama's,
and was found in an area opposite from the train's direction of travel.
It could prove to be blood shed when Shimoyama was actually killed.
Really? Then it was left-wing radicals, just as I suspected.
OK, go, but don't take too long.
Hey, Ono!
- Yes, sir. - Mr Endo!
There's a warrant out for the arrest for...
two former Strike Committee Chairmen of the Mitaka and Nakano train depots.
- Were they Communist Party members? - Yes.
Write up that the suspects have been apprehended.
- They haven't been arrested yet. - I don't care! - That's irresponsible!
They'll be arrested soon enough. Get an article ready!
Let's go, Ono.
EXTRA... Daily News Two Suspects Arrested for Mitaka Incident
The Shimoyama and Mitaka incidents occurred while...
the administration of Japan's government was in the process of being reformed,
and the government stated that social unrest was springing...
from the activities of the Japanese Communist Party.
This marked the first time that the JCP was identified as agitators,
and this set the course for the government to issue anti-communist policies,
and to announce that it would be the target of government programs.
Public opinion overwhelmingly held the belief that Shimoyama was murdered,
and there were rumors that it was an act of the leftists in the NRWU.
Occupation forces and the Japanese government...
pressured the leftist wing of the NRWU and supported its conservative wing,
thereby creating a schism in the union and allowing 95,000 workers to be fired.
The spirits of the NRWU strikers, whose activities were fueled by...
their opposition to the "Dodge Line" was broken, which allowed massive layoffs...
to be carried out in accordance with the government's and occupation forces' plans.
This is called luminol.
It's a German agent that can be used to show the presence of blood.
It works even with traces of blood.
Really? May I?
Thank you very much.
- Be careful, right there. - I'm on it.
We got it!
Get ahold of yourself!
This is where we use all of the chemical!
Look, it's like a drunkard was stumbling around.
I imagine you'd stumble too,
if you were carrying the body of a 75 kg man.
I can't believe we found this!
Maybe it isn't my place to say, but this is the scoop of the century.
It's too early to celebrate.
Four out of 10 people are blood type A.
Tokyo Public Prosecutor's Office
That's an important discovery.
I'm extremely grateful to you.
Mr. Kawase, this should be immediately verified.
This way.
You will be willing to testify, as to having discovered the blood?
Yes.
Luminol doesn't work unless it's a moonless night.
I'll check with the Japan Meteorological Agency and set a date.
With regard to your role, Mr. Yashiro,
I would like you to have an official role in...
the scientific investigation of the prosecutor's office.
That would mean that I would be gagged as a reporter.
I'll have to check with the newspaper on that.
Naturally.
I'll let you know how that pans out.
In the meantime, we're going to run an article about the bloodstains.
Bloodstains Found Ahead of Where Train Entered Station
Train bound for Tokyo Station.
Mr. Yashiro, why is your arm bandaged?
The discovery of the bloodstains sent all the other newspapers into a frenzy.
Yashiro, last night, the First Division of the police department put together...
a dummy weighing the same as Shimoyama and carried it...
- as far as the bloodstains went. - What for?
The body was heavy and took quite a long time to carry.
Also, no one witnessed them do it.
Which is to say that it's really difficult to carry a body.
It was a demonstration, to support the theory that it was suicide.
There are rumors that the police are going to officially rule it a suicide.
Bullshit! It's not suicide!
It's too early. This case isn't even a month old!
I got a call from Tokyo University and from the prosecutor's office.
They want you to be a researcher at Tokyo University...
Office of Forensic Medicine,
while maintaining your employment at the paper.
You'd be a civil servant and unable to publish newspaper articles freely.
Are you going to take it?
I suppose I will, if they'll let me have an exclusive on anything they uncover.
Reasonable enough...
There's something else:
The bureau chief wanted to know if you'd be interested in a Managing Editor position.
Sir, I am not giving up the Shimoyama story.
It's about time that you...
I intend to see this story through to its bitter end.
Please, let me have that much.
Plus 22.
Yes, plus 22.
In this way, the bloodstains taken from...
the railroad ties were subject to basic tests to prove it was blood,
tests to prove that it was human blood, and to check the blood type.
Inspector, you summoned us.
Shimoyama came to this office two days before the incident.
That's true, sir.
The Chief Cabinet Secretary asked for a security detail to be provided to him,
but Shimoyama apparently turned down the offer,
because it made it difficult to read the moves of the labor union.
We shouldn't have given him a choice.
He was in tears that day.
He was receiving dozens of letters a day...
from the wives and children of his employees, begging him not to fire them.
He couldn't bear to read all of them.
That's how he felt... but I never thought it would end like this.
A month has gone by.
We need to announce a decision.
What do you think, Mr. Ichikawa?
Veteran detectives are saying it's a suicide.
But...
that would clash with Tokyo University's findings.
Decision on Shimoyama Incident Coming Police to Rule it Suicide
Sorry I'm late.
I tied one on last night with Inaba in Shinjuku...
This isn't a joke!
They've decided it's a suicide, when the results...
for the blood type tests haven't even come in yet!
It will be impossible to operate once the police have made a decision,
so we need some kind of a breakthrough before that happens.
Get down to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police HQ and find out what they're thinking.
They have to be joking... suicide?!
If I had been murdered then,
there would've likely been a leftist uprising.
Who would benefit the most from that?
Someone had put out a hit on me for that reason.
It's the only reason that makes sense.
Yashiro! Yashiro!
What is it?
The police canceled the suicide announcement!
They did?! What about the joint investigation committee meeting?
It was convened early this morning in Meguro by the office of Inspector Yamaguchi.
The First Division wants Tokyo University to retract its opinion...
that Shimoyama was run over after he died.
But Tokyo University says it will not bend the truth.
During this hullaballoo, a call came in from Chief Inspector Okuno.
Inspector Yamaguchi rushed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police HQ,
and they held the press conference together.
- What happened? - I don't know.
This case is extremely complicated, and the police are unable to determine...
whether Shimoyama's death was suicide or homicide at this point.
We intend to continue our investigation,
and we will focus on the background of the case and interviewing new witnesses,
and we will make every effort to get to the bottom of this case.
What happened to the determination that it was suicide?
Isn't it true that the joint investigation committee determined it to be suicide?
Was there material evidence pointing to the case being a homicide?
Why was the announcement canceled?
- I told you, I don't know. - Please, tell me!
Were you pressured to cancel the announcement?
Was it the Japanese government? GHQ?
- I don't know! - Tell me!
Was it the government?!
We've been faithfully covering the First Division...
this whole time, thinking it was suicide!
What's happened?!
You can go off the record, but we want to know the truth!
It's like the inspector said...
I don't know, and even if I did, I wouldn't say...
unless I was on my deathbed. Now, leave me alone.
It means...
the press has been reporting the story incorrectly all this time.
The managing editor, Shirata, is a good man.
He's going to be transferred for this.
Yashiro,
the results for Shimoyama's Q-factor blood type tests are in.
I see.
There was a reaction.
The blood type of number 36 and 38...
is definitively AM-large Q.
It matches Shimoyama's blood type.
Yashiro!
Call the paper!
Yashiro, we can't!
You're right.
We can't publish this.
Only 2.1 in 100 people have AM-large Q blood.
The blood on the tracks has to be Shimoyama's.
Professor Hatano speculated that he severed an artery.
Ono, which artery did he sever?
- Here you go. - Thank you.
The ME who performed the autopsy said the body didn't have any lacerations.
It's frustrating that the opinions in the lab are all over the place.
That means that the ME overlooked a cut on the body,
or else that the blood tests were in error.
The determination that Shimoyama was run over after he died is dubious.
Why?
Tokyo University is asserting that the train ran over a dead man...
because none of the injuries sustained bled.
However, a Keio University professor...
told me that there are cases where live bodies are run over and don't bleed.
In addition, Tokyo University is saying that the subcutaneous bleeding...
in his eyelids and arms and legs are signs that he was beaten,
but Keio University says that such injuries are specific to being hit by a train.
- Is that correct? - Yes,
these were consistent with the findings of the autopsies of the six people...
killed in the Mitaka Incident, and other train accidents.
Then I guess we can't rule out suicide.
The government...
and US GHQ were leaning on him to announce layoffs.
Exhaustion and dependence on sleeping pills had left him a nervous wreck.
There's also speculation that he was suffering from elder depression.
This story is complicated and perplexing.
42 days after the incident, sometime after 03:00 on August 17,
a passenger train on the Tohoku line leaving Fukushima Stn. on time, heading to Tokyo...
overturned while negotiating a curve between Matsukawa and Kaneyagawa.
The engineer and two assistants died,
and nine passengers were injured.
It became known as the Matsukawa Incident.
Something caused the rail's fish plate to fly off,
the spikes to be pulled out...
and a one-ton rail to come loose.
This isn't just a simple train accident!
This incident was an unprecedented, heinous crime.
The Shimoyama Incident, the Mitaka Incident, and others like it...
all share the same underlying philosophy.
Rumors notwithstanding,
the First Division has never really been an active participant in this case.
And so our role as the district attorney will be...
to cooperate with the Second Division in their investigation.
We now know that leftist radicals in the NRLU...
were not involved in Shimoyama's death.
We have to abandon past assumptions...
and carefully reexamine the investigation with new eyes.
Individual assignments are as follows:
First, the oil and pigments that were...
found on Shimoyama's clothes and shoes.
For the first 51 days of the investigation,
the First Division assumed it was oil from the locomotive and left it at that,
but Professor Akuta petitioned for it to be scientifically examined.
Detective Oshima will lead this part of the investigation.
Yes, sir.
Tokyo University Forensic Chemistry Laboratory
Professor Akuta, good afternoon.
Look at this oil.
It's gooey...
- How did it get on his clothes? - Either where he was killed,
or if he was placed in a container after he was killed.
- What kind of oil is it? - We're looking into that now.
It's not just oil, but pigments.
Look at this.
Blue, green, purple, red, and brown.
This colorant on his handkerchief could've gotten here wherever he was being held,
when he was wiping himself down in a panic.
Which would imply that he was alive for a while after he was kidnapped.
He's stained with oil, too.
His shoes...
They're ripped apart, but his feet were unharmed.
He wasn't wearing them when the train hit him.
Someone placed the shoes on the rail.
This alone is evidence of a homicide.
The oil on Shimoyama's clothes was later found to mainly be vegetable oil,
but in order to identify the type of oil,
30 people from the DA's office and the First Division were dispatched...
to collect samples of various vegetable oils.
Here you go.
This is rapeseed.
- This is sesame oil. - Sesame oil.
In September, several labor union members of Toshiba, who were former NRWU members,
were arrested on manslaughter charges related to the overturned train.
Seven Arrested for Matsukawa Incident
Virtually all of them were members of the Japanese Communist Party.
This is mineral oil.
This, too.
You seem very busy; what do you make here?
Piano wire. Ordered directly from the US military.
We started production last month.
Why would the US military need that?
Apparently, it's essential for fighting in the mountains.
Are you all right?
Get a hold of yourself!
You're pushing yourself too hard.
They're producing pigment at this factory.
Could it be that his clothes were stained with pigment and oil...
at the same time, and not separately?
It was at the same time?
This is a big break!
Saponification is 180-192, and...
The oxidation is 5-40.
It's definitely rice bran oil.
We have therefor narrowed down...
the location of the crime to factories producing cosmetics, textiles,
steel, leather, paint,
toys, rubber, synthetic paper,
and other industries handling rice bran oil.
According to a reliable source,
there are roughly 1,000 factories in the 23 wards of Tokyo...
that receive shipments of rice bran oil.
In Gotano, where the crime was committed,
the Adachi and Arakawa wards are on the other side of the Ara River.
Downstream of it are the Sumida and Katsushika wards.
Upstream of the river is the Kita ward.
We are lucky to have narrowed it to five wards.
Any report on the pigment?
The pigments have been found to be alkaline dyes.
The factories are concentrated in roughly the same areas as rice bran oil.
There are over 30 factories that use these dyes together with rice bran oil.
This should allow us to pinpoint the location of the crime.
Who do you want to dispatch to do this?
We're finally moving toward the end.
Yoshikawa, I want every man on the job.
This will run for 100 days, from December 15 through to next March.
I want all 50 of you to leave no stone unturned.
Yoshikawa, draw up an itinerary, based on the list of factories.
I'll get it done by tomorrow.
- Shall we wrap up? - That's all.
It's time for the year-end party!
Thank you for dinner.
- Driver, be gone! - No, I have to go home.
That won't do. Kawase, tie this man up!
Please, it's a special occasion.
My wife is waiting up.
Forget her! I have some brandy with your name on it.
Inspector Yamaguchi of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police is waiting for you.
Inspector Yamaguchi? Great, we can all have a drink together.
Please, this way.
I'm sorry it's so late.
- Please sit down. - I'll bring it right away.
Don't put yourself out.
What?! You're talking nonsense!
Don't try to pass it off as a promotion!
Yoshikawa is leading the Second Division in this investigation,
and you suddenly moving him to the Ueno precinct...
is a ploy to halt the investigation!
I don't want you to think that.
Who made this idiotic decision?
The Inspector, of course.
Why didn't you stop him?!
It's his decision and, as his subordinate, I couldn't stop him.
- Mr. Yashiro! - This is an outrage!
Does the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have any intent to solve this case?!
- Who are you? - I'm a reporter from Showa News!
- Yashiro. - Let me speak.
You used detectives' gut instincts and the testimony of unreliable witnesses...
to dismiss a major case as a suicide in under a month,
despite the total absence of physical evidence!
Despite the discovery of blood traces,
you were ready to ignore the blood type investigation and declare it a suicide!
Now that we're on the verge of figuring out...
the scene of the crime from oil and colorants,
you decide to take Yoshikawa off the case under the ruse of a personnel transfer,
even though he is in charge of this part of the investigation!
You're clearly obstructing this homicide investigation!
In fact, you clearly want this investigation to fail!
What the hell are you up to?! Give me a reason I can understand!
Say something! If you can't answer a reporter's question,
tell me as a citizen of this nation!
You're leading this investigation!
Second Division detectives are working so hard that they are going days...
without eating and one is receiving treatment for a collapsed lung!
Are you even listening?!
Yashiro! Yashiro!
I delivered the message, so I'm leaving.
Goodbye.
- Sir! - I know.
We have to do what we can with our remaining staff,
until Japan regains its independence.
Even if we can't find the culprit,
we have to assemble as much evidence as we can.
Goddammit!
Shimoyama Incident Investigation HQ
In March of the following year, 1950,
many of the seasoned detectives working the case...
were transferred to departments in Tokyo.
The remaining detectives of the Second Division numbered five,
and they continued as best they could,
but in time the investigation was halted.
Sadanori Shimoyama
I find it difficult to believe...
He wasn't the type of weak man...
who would take his own life.
The subordinates who knew him best all say the same thing.
Can I ask you a few questions?
Can you tell me...
anything about a man named Itoga?
I know this is difficult.
I haven't spoken about it to anyone.
I was too frightened.
I was informed of Shimoyama's death...
on July 4, at around 04:00.
At around 07:00, someone named Itoga...
came to give his condolences. He said he was a politician.
At such an early hour?
I'm Shimoyama's brother, Yoshio.
- I'm Itoga. - Come inside.
Did you know him?
I had never even heard of him.
He immediately said that it was suicide.
I find suicide highly improbable.
There must be a note.
No, there isn't.
Then you should write one.
He didn't want to fire 95,000 employees.
He killed himself as an apology.
Write that and send it to the newspapers.
Radical union members will pity him,
and strikes will come to an end.
I hope you understand.
It was then that I understood Shimoyama had been murdered.
Itoga
Yes, I said it was suicide.
Police Inspector Okuno said the same thing.
Why did he think so?
That's what you say when the nation is grieving.
The war laid ruin to this country,
and strikes have no place in its restoration.
The layoffs were unavoidable.
If we hadn't done something,
there would've been a revolution.
He might have played a role in the coverup,
but he didn't strike me as a killer.
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea
In the early summer of 1950,
Yashiro received critical information substantiating the case for homicide...
from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea.
An informant named Junghan Lee...
visited Secretary Ito Kim, to warn him of the incident.
Are you sure it was on July 2?
Yes, it was three days before the incident occurred.
However, Junghan Lee was arrested by...
the US Counterintelligence Corps for peddling false information and...
he was being held at the Hario Center in Nagasaki, pending deportation.
I'm Yashiro. I've been friends with Secretary Kim since university.
I'm also a reporter from Showa News.
I want to ask you about what you told Mr. Kim...
on July 2 of last year.
I can't speak freely while he's here.
I'll tell you what I can.
The Japanese have taken good care of me,
- and I might die. - You might die?
I vomited blood recently, and I just got here,
so I may not be long for this world, even if I am deported.
First, where did you get the information?
There's no time, so we'll move on.
You sold the information that you gave to Mr. Kim...
to the US Counterintelligence Corps?
But the CIC said the information was bogus, and that landed me here.
Because it was too close to the truth?
- Probably. - When did you tell the CIC?
Five days after the incident.
What did you tell them?
That the plot to kill Shimoyama was a conspiracy by a certain...
communist country to foment unrest in Japan.
The plot was put into action from April.
There were four participants in the kidnapping at Mitsukoshi Dept. Store,
which includes the driver. Shimoyama was taken somewhere in Tokyo.
He was beaten until he passed out and then stripped naked.
Naked?
They put the clothes on a man of roughly 50 years of age...
- and sent him away. - That would be...
- the imposter who showed up in Gotano? - Yes.
And then?
They cut him on the upper arm and let him bleed to death.
What was the time of death?
I don't know.
The body was transported to the site by automobile.
But they took him down the road from Kosuge Police Station,
stopped the car at the Joban Line railway bridge,
and brought the body down to the tracks.
They laid his body so that his injured arm would be run over.
The train that ran him over was the 23:30 freight train.
Just a second... He was hit by the 00:19 train.
I heard it was the 23:30.
- When did you hear that? - Five days before the incident occurred.
Who from?
Tell me who from! Who told you?
I'll be killed if I say.
My neck's on the line too.
Tell me, I just want to know the truth! Please!
- I can't. - Give me a hint, then!
Tell me!
- The raspy voice. - The raspy voice?
I'll send you a detailed letter if I get home safely!
All right!
Not so rough!
The Korean War broke out in June 1950.
The loss of WWII crushed Japanese industry,
but Japan soon became a supplier of arms to the US military, thus triggering...
the so-called "special procurement boom" in the economy.
So Shimoyama's murder...
was an international plot by a certain Communist country?
That's an interesting revelation.
It's hard to tell how much of that story is true.
The DA sent Public Prosecutor Kawase to the detention center in Kyushu...
twice to question Junghan Lee,
but he ultimately couldn't substantiate anything Lee said.
The part about "a plot by a certain Communist country" is of course malarkey,
but before the incident even occurred,
he said that Shimoyama was going to be killed...
and that it would be made to look like a suicide. Can you dismiss that?
Could he have heard it from someone in the task force?
Editor!
Next, I want to retrace his steps before the incident.
Forget about this story.
They'll rub you out, like they did the other fella.
Your report piqued my interest, so I checked with the Western office.
They sent Junghan Lee home in a helicopter.
In a helicopter?
They almost certainly threw him in the ocean.
He knew too much.
Be careful... Give up this story.
Sir.
What's the verdict?
Death, five; life sentence, five;
15 years, one; 12 years, three;
10 years, two; seven years, three; and three years and six months, one.
They were all found guilty.
Matsukawa Incident: Five Sentenced to Death, Five Sentenced to Life
All of the Accused Found Guilty Death for Five, Life Imprisonment for Five
Come in.
The gang's all here.
I've come to tender my resignation.
You're resigning?
Here's my report.
I'm sorry it's late.
You discovered the bloodstains and found the source of the oil and the dyes.
It was impressive work.
- There you go. - I accept your resignation.
I'm just sorry that all of your hard work...
didn't pay off.
As a consolation prize, will you tell me who gave...
the order to cancel the announcement that it was a suicide?
I thought you resigned.
I won't publish it, even if I do return to the paper.
The order evidently came from G2.
G2... the Second Division of the US General Staff Office.
Anyone can tell that the stench of murder...
is still on this unsolved case.
That was the idea the whole time, wasn't it?
And it was the US military that was behind...
the results of the homicide investigation.
There are rumors that the US military...
was also involved with the results of the Matsukawa Incident.
Word has it that the Shimoyama Incident and the Matsukawa Incident are unrelated.
It all makes sense...
Shimoyama's death and the train derailment were...
pinned on the labor union and the leftists, which kept the labor offensive at bay.
With the radical element removed from the national railway,
it secured necessary transport capabilities.
Then, the public and private sector combined made for one million layoffs.
The Dodge line was a success.
It also made the country ready for the impending war in Korea.
That makes both the Shimoyama Incident and the Matsukawa Incident...
major conspiracies. Doesn't it, Mr. Iba?
People are saying that the ruling on the Matsukawa Incident was...
a set up by the government administration and the public prosecutor.
The large number of people who were sentenced to death...
marks a low point for Japan's justice system.
Please don't tell me that this was caused by US military pressure.
In September of 1951, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida...
signed both the Treaty of San Francisco and the US-Japan Security Treaty.
Bloody May Day occurred in May 1952. Two people died.
In July 1953, a truce for the Korean War was signed in Panmunjom.
In March 1954, the US conducted H-bomb tests in the Marshall Islands.
23 of the crew aboard the Dai Go Fukuryu Maru were exposed to radiation.
One died.
Opposition was rising against the US military presence in...
Okinawa, Uchinada, Myogi, Asama, Kita Fuji, and Sunagawa.
In 1957, eight years had passed since the Shimoyama Incident.
Yashiro received a letter from a stranger in the autumn.
"Death is the only course open to me.
"But I am obligated to inform you of something before I die.
"My name is Kazuo Horiuchi,
"born in 1923 in Otaru City, Hokkaido.
"After the war, I was discharged from the army on Sakhalin Island...
"and was hired by Japanese National Railways.
"In June 1948,
"a spy that had penetrated the company ranks warned us that the revolution was near,
"and I, along with union radicals from around the country,
"left our jobs and went to Tokyo.
"Once in Tokyo, Shiomi, Kato, and I were taken...
"by a leader named Komoto, who was around 50 years old,
"to a small factory called 'Kunihara Steel' in Arakawa Ward.
Kunihara Steel Office
"They gave us lodging and three square meals a day.
"The next year, collective bargaining over headcount reductions...
"at Japanese National Railways began.
"Komoto met frequently with President Shimoyama.
Mitsukoshi Department Store
"On the morning of July 5,
"the NRLU and the US had an agreement to share information,
"and Komoto and two other men...
"met with President Shimoyama at Mitsukoshi Department Store."
Komoto, what's going on?
Are we involved in a kidnapping?
What are you going to do with Shimoyama?
How should I know?
But I was told it's for the good of Japan.
By the Americans?
And you believed it?!
I heard you were a spy from the Imperial Japanese Army Nakano School..
Now I know it's true.
You son of a bitch!
There's nothing you can do about it!
Tonight, we're going to Taiwan.
Taiwan...? You can't!
This wasn't the deal! Let us go!
"I was in fear for my life, so I ran once night came.
"I feared for my family,
so I couldn't go back to Hokkaido.
"So I lived hand-to-mouth on the lam...
"in Tokyo for seven years.
"My conscience tortured me,
"and I became addicted to drugs.
"So I have no choice now but to die."
Kunihara Steel
I don't see them.
I don't remember anyone with those four names.
Really?
Excuse me.
He'll be leaving soon. Please see him off.
- You'll have to excuse me. - Of course.
Horiuchi might not be his real name.
Kunihara Steel, Arakawa Factory 1948
Kunihara Steel...
We collected an oil sample from that factory...
The wind was wicked that day.
Really?
The building is completely different...
They were supplying the US military with piano wire.
That's right.
He said it was for "fighting in the mountains".
I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Fighting in the mountains" meant the Korean War.
We came here around November 1949,
so the US military was already preparing for it.
And they were housing the four men who would kidnap Shimoyama.
Yashiro, this can't be a coincidence.
Look at it...
Eight years ago, this was a piddling little factory...
and now it's a major company.
This is fishy...
That man...
- He looks like Karasawa. - Who?
Hideo Karasawa! The Asian Welfare Association.
It was widely rumored to be an arm of US intelligence.
He was the secretary general.
What do you know about him?
During the war, he was a sometimes-MP in Shanghai,
and he was active as a spy.
Three months after the incident,
he demanded a million yen from a business leader...
who was a friend of Shimoyama, to reveal the truth about the Shimoyama Incident.
- A million yen? - Yes.
- Unbelievable. - But true.
The DA had him immediately arrested, under suspicion of fraud.
He was questioned in Kosuge Prison.
Who supervised the kidnapping?
I heard it was a captain in the US military...
who had an office in Washington Heights.
By "office" you mean a special espionage organization?
Yes, he was the director and he used former operatives to carry out the incident.
You're making that up.
If you don't trust me, I won't speak.
Give me the name of the captain.
I'm not giving you any more information for free.
You have to pay people for information.
You've sure got balls. Is this a shakedown?
I said I would cooperate with the investigation if you pay me. Why...
Shut up!
- Tell me what you know! - Why?
Either you're feeding us lies, or it was you who committed the crime!
You want to set me up as the perpetrator?
Don't play dumb!
Explain the details of the operation.
I won't tell you that, unless we go to war with the Americans again.
It was shortly after that...
The US military came to Kosuge Prison...
and said that he was essential to the occupation effort...
and sprung him from jail.
I wonder why Horiuchi sent you that letter.
Who's to say?
He might not be still be alive.
Otaru Chikko Train Depot
- Here's a Horiuchi. - Yoshiro Horiuchi. What year is that?
- 1947. - 1947?
- This is 1948. - 1948.
I'll take a look.
Employee Resignations (1948)
Horiuchi... Horiuchi...
Takashi Horiuchi Kiyotoshi Horiuchi Takashi Horiuchi Horiuchi Horiuchi Horiuchi
This Horiuchi went to Tokyo, in summer 1948.
- Do you know him? - No, I couldn't say.
Takayoshi Horiuchi
It's about 100 meters that way.
- 100 meters? - Thank you.
He died two or three years ago.
Takejiro Horiuchi
You mean Kazuo?
Yeah, I know him.
Kazuo Horiuchi? How do you write Kazuo?
The number one and man.
Kazuo Horiuchi.
- The age matches too. - That has to be him.
If we can find out who this guy is,
we'll also be able to find Komoto, the leader who took them to Tokyo,
as well as the intelligence agency who's behind all of this.
Excuse me.
A man dropped by and asked me to give you this letter.
Oh, thank you.
"You might wind up disappearing too."
Horiuchi... don't know him.
I see, thank you.
Horiuchi... maybe it's a fake name.
Even if it is a fake name,
we've checked everywhere and found nothing.
We came all the way for nothing.
So the letter was a sham too?
No, I think he wrote it.
I think he felt guilty about his past...
and feared for himself and his friends,
so he might have embellished it.
The real question is where Shimoyama was held.
Roughly two hours after he was kidnapped at 13:45,
someone pretending to be Shimoyama showed up around Gotano Station.
Which is to say that Shimoyama was held somewhere...
with rice bran oil, or with the US military, at around noon.
Some time past 23:00, Shimoyama was killed.
The floor was covered in rice bran oil.
That much we know, but after that,
we don't know what they did with him and when,
and whether he was carried up the embankment to the Joban Line.
In the history of popular movements,
the 1960 protests against the revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty...
became a massive and unprecedented political dispute in Japan.
On May 19, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party dispatched police squads...
and forced the bill through, in the absence of other parties.
On June 4, a general strike began in three waves.
In each case, six million workers were arranged to participate.
On June 10, the Hagerty Incident.
June 15
Even though it's almost 01:30,
rain keeps falling at the National Diet Building,
but nothing has changed. We will keep you posted...
Who is this? What?
Just a second... Hey, get over here!
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Just a second.
OK, got it.
Come back to the office.
We got the identity of the dead female student...
Michiko Kamba, History Department of the College of Literature...
at Tokyo University, fourth year student, age 22.
- Editor! - What? - There's violence!
The police are hurting people!
The police are using extreme violence!
This is happening on the scene! This is happening in Japan!
There's no law or order!
There's only animosity!
Between the Diet press club and south service entrance,
the police are firing riot guns at the demonstrators...
and fully armed police are chasing them down.
I have absolutely no idea what's going on.
What? Yeah, it's me. What?
I see. I got it. OK. OK.
OK. I got it. Good work.
The autopsy of Michiko Kamba is to be performed by...
Dr. Tateno at the office of forensic medicine at Keio University.
He's the one who said that Shimoyama committed suicide.
I finally found him!
- OK, what are you up to? - I met that guy Maruyama.
- Maruyama? - Meijiro... - Yashiro!
Dr. Nakadate of Yoyogi Hospital and Socialist Party MP and physician Sakamoto...
are saying the cause of death of Michiko Kamba was strangulation.
Keio University is saying she was crushed by the crowd.
- So she was crushed? - There stories are completely different.
- Chase down the cause of death. - I'm on it.
Tell me about Maruyama.
He was arrested for larceny by the Mejiro police,
and while in holding, he inadvertently said,
"I didn't kill anyone important like Shimoyama,"
which really put the DA in a bind.
Where?
I just happened to run into him when I was at the US Yokota Air Base.
Hell if I know! Stop asking me!
Hey, wait!
- Maruyama! - Piss off!
La-la, I want to die
The night closes
The sun rises
In the light of the morning
Find me now cold, that person...
Yashiro, the guy got married about a month ago.
Yeah... His wife...
doesn't seem to know he has a criminal record.
We can use that for leverage.
If you tell my wife about my criminal record, I'll get you!
I don't want to ruin your marriage...
But you're so headstrong that you're on the verge of losing your temper right now.
- I'm not involved in murder! - Then what did you do?
That's...
If it wasn't murder, it probably isn't a serious crime.
Spit it out.
Loudmouth... stop following me around!
Why don't you give this up?
You chased after me all the way out here.
This is partly for work.
Liar!
You've left your wife alone for six months.
Why don't you go back to Tokyo every once in a while?
You shit heel, you've been following my wife around!
I know you're not so stupid as to tell her about my criminal record.
If you do...
Just go home!
She said you're having a baby.
So what?
Something to get you started.
I can't accept this.
Take it, it's not that much.
I'll see you later.
September 1963,
the Supreme Court hands over its final verdict on the Matsukawa trial.
Not guilty
Daddy! Daddy!
Look, he's eating all the food!
These people have long memories. They'll kill me if I talk.
Who will kill you?
The statute of limitations is set to expire on the Shimoyama Incident soon.
If that happens,
the truth behind this monumental incident will never come to light.
It will be unresolved as to whether it was homicide or suicide.
Are we to say that it's all right to abandon this incident...
that the government has left unsettled?
You've lived through this age too.
And you have the power to reveal the truth of the matter.
I'll talk... But I want 500,000 yen.
500,000?
If I talk, me and my family might have to run.
You might think it's exorbitant. I don't.
500,000... I understand.
Did you really quit the Tokyo Metropolitan Police?
I'm working as the clerical supervisor at a friend's hospital.
I'm not a detective anymore.
Well, then...
It was two days before the incident,
so it was the evening of July 3.
A guy named Kawasaki, who I knew from the POW camp...
in Siberia offered me a job out of the blue.
What part of the military did he serve in?
I understood him to have been in special ops, in the Kwangtung Army...
We're suddenly short one man. We need your help.
What's the job?
You'll be well paid for hauling cargo.
- What's the cargo? - Don't ask questions.
OK.
Be at Café Metro in Kyobashi Station...
the day after tomorrow,
July 5, at 10:00.
I arrived at the Café Metro the morning of July 5,
where the boss in his 50s, with a raspy voice, was waiting.
What... "raspy voice"?
The raspy voice! The man with the raspy voice!
The boss with the raspy voice said to pick up the cargo that would be...
dropped off by a car at the embankment of the north end...
of the Arakawa floodway, with Kawasaki at 23:30.
Hey! Hey!
It was a dead, but still warm body.
Still warm?
So not much time had elapsed from the time of death?
I had the feeling he might have still been alive.
Still alive?
I thought so.
OK, and then?
We followed man with the raspy voice...
on a road through rice paddies and fields to a railway underpass.
I remember that my hand kept slipping from the bundle.
- It was oily. - It was rice bran oil.
And then?
When we got near the trestle, we climbed a steep hill to the train tracks,
and when we got to the overpass...
Then, the next day I shuddered when I learned...
from the radio that the body was President Shimoyama's.
I thought it too dangerous to remain free,
so I purposely got caught stealing,
and was thrown into a holding cell at the Mejiro Police Station.
Is there anything else you want to know?
Thank you for speaking with us.
OK, I'm leaving.
Wait, we still have a couple more questions.
You said that when you approached the overpass,
there was a steep hill that led to the train tracks.
How far did you walk on the tracks until you got to the overpass?
Maybe 7-8 meters.
7-8 meters?
- Are you sure? - Yes.
Really?
What happened?
- Yes, I'm sure! - Maruyama...
That would mean you climbed onto the railroad tracks here.
Blood traces were found on the railroad ties from where the train hit Shimoyama...
47 meters away from the overpass.
Look at it!
In your version of the story, you didn't walk in this area.
You just cooked up this story because you wanted the money.
You imbecile, I stand to be killed over this!
Who would take such risks?!
It happened a long time ago; maybe I forgot!
What happened to Kawasaki and Yokoo, who were also there at the time?
- I never saw them again. - Liar!
- Fuck you! - Enough.
That's enough for today.
We're going to have additional questions at some point.
Hey...
Don't you want it?
He screwed up a crucial piece of the story.
It's too bad.
But he didn't fabricate the raspy voice.
Maybe he heard it from the guy who actually carried the body.
His story matches several points that we learned from Junghan Lee.
From looking at him out there, he's behaving as if his story is true.
Shimoyama was beaten about the head and body,
and died at around 23:00.
Then, he was rushed to the site, where he was hit by a train.
Or he was possibly hit when he was near death, as Maruyama said.
I believe that the criminals considered...
the route that Shimoyama would be carried in advance.
The course from both the east and the west...
are out of the question because of the large number of residences in the area.
Any other course is acceptable.
This police box is a concern.
The police do not necessarily oppose criminals.
In the Matsukawa Incident,
the police let the actual criminals who sabotaged the train go...
and framed the 20 employees and Toshiba union members.
The Mitaka Incident was the same.
Even if we do find people who saw Shimoyama being carried,
it would be easy to keep them quiet.
By the way, this is...
the schedule for all trains...
passing through the station from 22:00 onward.
As you can see, the traffic on this rail...
is congested until 00:06, so carrying a body along the tracks...
would be absolutely impossible.
Carrying the body under the trestle...
will take at least 10 minutes if you count...
putting on his jacket and his shoes.
We can carry the body up to the tracks...
after the 869 freight train passes away from Tokyo.
If anything happens, we wait 40 minutes for the 515.
We won't wait 40 minutes. We'll stick with the original plan.
At 00:06, a freight train on the Joban Line...
bound for Tokyo passed through the station.
That would have given them 12 minutes until...
the next freight train traveling away from Tokyo would arrive.
Yashiro, telephone.
For me?
Hello. Yes, this is Yashiro.
Yes, that's right.
Yes, I know him.
Yashiro of Showa News says he really wants to talk to you.
Yes. Yes.
Please come immediately.
Straight ahead and then turn left.
Are you Mr. Yashiro?
He was breathing just a second ago.
How did he fall?
I couldn't say.
Did his wife say anything?
He fell when he was at the station kiosk...
to buy something, and the train came.
She didn't see anything.
What did the engineer who hit him say?
He said that the fella stumbled off the platform and on to the tracks.
I imagine he had been drinking.
No, he doesn't smell of alcohol.
Then, I guess he just fell by accident.
Somebody take her to the infirmary!
Screenplay by Ryuzo Kikushima
Based on The Killing: The Shimoyama Incident by Kimio Yada
English translation: Scannon Timing: lordretsudo
Directed by Kei Kumai
The End