It seemed to be lunch time. Two rolls of bread and sweet juice was served. I drank juice, but bread didn’t pass my lips.
“Now it’s time to start investigation.”
There were two interrogators. I noticed that they were different from those who had come to my house. The detectives offered a “List of criminal facts” to me. A total of 15 alleged criminal facts were listed with dates and locations. In the seven cases of them I found my name. I thought, “So many names of mine!”
I read the first description, but it was far beyond my recollection. I was believed to be an assailant to Mr. Y. How could I inflict pain on my fellow? As Mr. Y. was one of my coworkers, I saw him every time. If I was asked when I saw him, it was difficult for me to answer the question.
“Are you a Kakumaru member?” asked one of the detectives.
“No!” I answered with anger.
I am not its member from the beginning. I have never written an application for admission. The Kakumaru faction is an extremists’ group, but that’s all I knew. I felt displeased to be assumed that I was a Kakumaru member.
Then the detective wrote a “suspect’s statement” whose contents were “I wasn’t involved in what the interrogator had explained,” and “I’d like to call a legal advisor of the union.” I didn’t think of these contents. When the interrogator asked me if I wanted to call a lawyer, I said, “Yes, please. Then he wrote it in the statement. To say the truth, I didn’t know what a legal advisor of the union meant, and I secretly asked myself what that was.
I was ordered to sign and seal the document with my finger. I used my left forefinger and ink-pad. I did as told, but I didn’t know it would matter in the trial later. At that time I didn’t hesitate to seal the document as I stamped my private seal when I received a home-delivered parcel. Without explanation of its importance in the trial, the interrogator ordered me to do so.
I didn’t ask every detail because I was messed-up. I felt as if I had been walking on air. I thought it was nightmare for me to be cuffed before my wife and son. It seemed to me that I was drifting around.
After writing the statement, the interrogator engaged in chitchat. I found it was deeply unpleasant to be there with him. I repeated to ask me in my mind why I needed to be there. I was sitting on the seat situated away from the door, and the detector sat near the door, which was a little open. Then I got a fleeting view of my elder coworker through the gap. “Is that him? Why? What has happened?”
Friday, August 22, 2008
No.5 Interrogation room
Franked by the police officer, I was sitting in the car. The car got off the motor-way. “We are arriving soon. So I’ll cuff you,” said one of them. The handcuffs were heavy and cold.
“Oguro, reporters are gathering,” said the officer sitting on the assistant driver’s seat. He was talking with someone over his mobile phone.
“Oh, no!”
When I heard the word “reporter”, I soon visualized TV shows that covered a wide variety of topics. The idea of a rush of TV cameras came into my mind. I imagined the scene where reporters were confronting me with microphones and mobbed me. My mind was occupied by letters “Ka-ku-ma-ru” which I had seen in the warrant to search a house. “Am I a member of Kakumaru? Do the media come to report on the arrest of the Kakumaru member?” My car was running around the same place. It seemed that the police were taking stock of the situation.
The police officer sitting on my left took off his own jacket and said, “Wear this, because there are reporters.” I accepted it. Now that I think about it, I behaved as if I had been a true culprit. In addition, I don’t know if the media were there. I wonder if the reporters come to collect such a news material even though Kakumaru members are arrested. However, at that time I didn’t have such doubts.
The car arrived at an underground motor park. We went up from there by a small elevator. I came to a place like a school with a beige wall. But the building was different from schools. It had a cold and dull atmosphere.
My brain stopped working. I felt unsteady. I had almost no room to think about anything. From the very beginning I did nothing to be considered a crime. I didn’t have a feeling like “Finally the police found me.” Instead I was unsteady from severe shock caused by the fact that I was arrested. I repeated in my mind “I will be released in a few days!” In a few days! That was my only comfort.
After getting out of the lift, we walked to the left, then turned right at the end of the corridor and once again turned right. I saw silver-colored duralumin doors in a row. I entered one of them. The room was as small as a four-tatami (mat) room, and was a bleak room with only a desk and chairs. I knew this was an interrogation room. I was ordered to sit down on the chair far from the door.
“Oguro, reporters are gathering,” said the officer sitting on the assistant driver’s seat. He was talking with someone over his mobile phone.
“Oh, no!”
When I heard the word “reporter”, I soon visualized TV shows that covered a wide variety of topics. The idea of a rush of TV cameras came into my mind. I imagined the scene where reporters were confronting me with microphones and mobbed me. My mind was occupied by letters “Ka-ku-ma-ru” which I had seen in the warrant to search a house. “Am I a member of Kakumaru? Do the media come to report on the arrest of the Kakumaru member?” My car was running around the same place. It seemed that the police were taking stock of the situation.
The police officer sitting on my left took off his own jacket and said, “Wear this, because there are reporters.” I accepted it. Now that I think about it, I behaved as if I had been a true culprit. In addition, I don’t know if the media were there. I wonder if the reporters come to collect such a news material even though Kakumaru members are arrested. However, at that time I didn’t have such doubts.
The car arrived at an underground motor park. We went up from there by a small elevator. I came to a place like a school with a beige wall. But the building was different from schools. It had a cold and dull atmosphere.
My brain stopped working. I felt unsteady. I had almost no room to think about anything. From the very beginning I did nothing to be considered a crime. I didn’t have a feeling like “Finally the police found me.” Instead I was unsteady from severe shock caused by the fact that I was arrested. I repeated in my mind “I will be released in a few days!” In a few days! That was my only comfort.
After getting out of the lift, we walked to the left, then turned right at the end of the corridor and once again turned right. I saw silver-colored duralumin doors in a row. I entered one of them. The room was as small as a four-tatami (mat) room, and was a bleak room with only a desk and chairs. I knew this was an interrogation room. I was ordered to sit down on the chair far from the door.
No.4 It was a drizzling, cold day.
The police officer removed handcuffs when I got out of my house. I don’t know the reason. My house is on the 4th floor of the company condominium. As I went down to the 1st floor, I saw an acquainted woman living close to us. I didn’t want her to see me. I asked the police officer and went back to my house on the 4th floor. My wife was still there, but she couldn’t afford to say a word. I went out of the condominium at the proper time after the woman went away. The sky was gray, and it was drizzling and cold. In addition to the groundless arrest, I was further afflicted by the gloomy weather.
I was walking franked by policemen. Another officer walked before me. I hate anyone to see me walking with the police in handcuffs. I didn’t like it. I really hate it. I was looking down as I walked. After walking nearly 200m, I saw a silver sedan on the road. I got in the car. I sat on the backseat. Four police officers were with me, on the driver’s seat, on the assistant driver’s seat and on both sides of me. I had seen a total of six officers at the beginning, but in the car there were four of them.
“My car” entered the Metropolitan Expressway Omiya Line from local way. I had been uncuffed since leaving home. The officer repeated, “We should have handcuffed on you.” Now I come to think of it, I may have been considered by the police to know nothing at all because I didn’t resist the police on the occasion of domiciliary search. So I was released from my handcuffs.
I saw the windshield wipers brush away raindrops which hit the windscreen. Sitting in the center of the backseat, I was looking at a monotonous move of the wipers.
I was walking franked by policemen. Another officer walked before me. I hate anyone to see me walking with the police in handcuffs. I didn’t like it. I really hate it. I was looking down as I walked. After walking nearly 200m, I saw a silver sedan on the road. I got in the car. I sat on the backseat. Four police officers were with me, on the driver’s seat, on the assistant driver’s seat and on both sides of me. I had seen a total of six officers at the beginning, but in the car there were four of them.
“My car” entered the Metropolitan Expressway Omiya Line from local way. I had been uncuffed since leaving home. The officer repeated, “We should have handcuffed on you.” Now I come to think of it, I may have been considered by the police to know nothing at all because I didn’t resist the police on the occasion of domiciliary search. So I was released from my handcuffs.
I saw the windshield wipers brush away raindrops which hit the windscreen. Sitting in the center of the backseat, I was looking at a monotonous move of the wipers.
This is the place where I was put into the car. You can see a manhole on the yellow line of the road. A police car stopped ahead. After I got in, the cars turned right at the end of the road. This is a picture as of now. In those days there was a wire netting on the right side like the one you can see on the left, and the road looked like a silent back street. My condominium was once on the right, and then it was removed. [You can enlarge the picture by clicking.]
Monday, August 18, 2008
No.3 Handcuffs
“We arrest you,” the police officer said. However I couldn’t understand.
“Is that me? Am I a suspect?”
I felt as if had been dreaming a dream of nightmare. It was difficult to understand what the matter was going. My mind went blank. At the same time I was violently-disturbed.
But it was unimaginable for me to resist because, as I wrote yesterday, I thought the police was a friend of just causes. I noticed I was in a flood of a flashlight from the right hand. It was another police officer. The flash was so uncommon for my 2 year-old son that he innocently asked him, “What’s this?” “It’s a camera,” answered the officer.
“Are you ready to leave? We are taking you.”
“How long will it take?”
“A couple of days.”
“I can come back in only a few days,” I accepted his words. I was upset due to a baseless arrest at that time, but I calmed myself to hear this.
“How much money is needed?” I asked.
“Twenty-thirty thousand yen is good enough.”
As the day was right after my pay day, I had such amount in my wallet. When I was preparing for departure, my mobile phone started ringing. The police officer stopped me from answering the call. Later, after release on bail, the telephone message informed me that they were from my coworkers. I heard their repeated voices, “It’s an emergency, Oguro-san.” “What are you doing? Why don’t you answer me?” My friends thought I had gone out to have a fun because I took a paid holiday on 1 November. Later I told my coworkers that it was me who was in trouble then. No one could imagine what was going on with me. And little did I consider that my comrades were also arrested.
When I got ready and was hauled by the police, the officer said, “I’ll clap handcuffs on you, OK?” In the police dramas I had seen on TV, the police officer snap handcuffs violently with a big noise. It was different. He handcuffed my right wrist, and then, left wrist gently. However they were so heavy. I was surprised to find them terribly heavy.
“Why am I handcuffed?” I was seized by a depressed feeling which was as heavy as lead due to the weight of the handcuffs and pressure. In my life till now, I have never experienced such a feeling. At that time I was so full of my own affairs that I couldn’t think much of my wife and little son who were watching an entire scene. When I think back, I always feel sorry for them as her husband and his father.I got out, speaking to my wife, ”I’ll eat pork cutlet on rice before coming back.” But my wife said nothing. Her face looked pale.
“Is that me? Am I a suspect?”
I felt as if had been dreaming a dream of nightmare. It was difficult to understand what the matter was going. My mind went blank. At the same time I was violently-disturbed.
But it was unimaginable for me to resist because, as I wrote yesterday, I thought the police was a friend of just causes. I noticed I was in a flood of a flashlight from the right hand. It was another police officer. The flash was so uncommon for my 2 year-old son that he innocently asked him, “What’s this?” “It’s a camera,” answered the officer.
“Are you ready to leave? We are taking you.”
“How long will it take?”
“A couple of days.”
“I can come back in only a few days,” I accepted his words. I was upset due to a baseless arrest at that time, but I calmed myself to hear this.
“How much money is needed?” I asked.
“Twenty-thirty thousand yen is good enough.”
As the day was right after my pay day, I had such amount in my wallet. When I was preparing for departure, my mobile phone started ringing. The police officer stopped me from answering the call. Later, after release on bail, the telephone message informed me that they were from my coworkers. I heard their repeated voices, “It’s an emergency, Oguro-san.” “What are you doing? Why don’t you answer me?” My friends thought I had gone out to have a fun because I took a paid holiday on 1 November. Later I told my coworkers that it was me who was in trouble then. No one could imagine what was going on with me. And little did I consider that my comrades were also arrested.
When I got ready and was hauled by the police, the officer said, “I’ll clap handcuffs on you, OK?” In the police dramas I had seen on TV, the police officer snap handcuffs violently with a big noise. It was different. He handcuffed my right wrist, and then, left wrist gently. However they were so heavy. I was surprised to find them terribly heavy.
“Why am I handcuffed?” I was seized by a depressed feeling which was as heavy as lead due to the weight of the handcuffs and pressure. In my life till now, I have never experienced such a feeling. At that time I was so full of my own affairs that I couldn’t think much of my wife and little son who were watching an entire scene. When I think back, I always feel sorry for them as her husband and his father.I got out, speaking to my wife, ”I’ll eat pork cutlet on rice before coming back.” But my wife said nothing. Her face looked pale.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
No.2 Arrest
The first thing I thought when the police came to my house was that I would work with them. In the dramas I had seen on TV such as “Bark toward the Sun” or “The Western Police”, I had an image of the white-hat police as an actor Yujiro Ishihara performed. I thought it was no doubt an obligation of a citizen to help them. And I’m ashamed to say it, but the union meant nothing to me then. On the day of the union executive meeting, I went to play in the Tokyo Disney Land. Every time when I attended the meeting, I didn’t note down, and I threw away the documents. I didn’t dedicate myself to union activities.
The police officers who came into my house asked me, “Where is your datebook?” or “Where is your mobile phone?” I handed them to the officers saying “Here it is.” My phone was an old type with a sticker of Disney characters.
The domiciliary search was carried out first in “the room with a TV set”, next the “bedroom” and then the “third room”. They requested my presence everywhere. The officers asked me, “We want to see here,” or “Can we examine this?” Every time I answered “Yes”. One of the officers wore white gloves and took photos.
The time to be interviewed for enrollment was coming. Parent and child had to go together. We got a numbered ticket after waiting through cold night. We couldn’t cancel the interview. So I asked.
“It is time to go to the kindergarten for interview.”
“No. Wait here. You need to stay here.”
“How about my wife and son?”
“They can go.”
After that I saw them off, saying, “Sorry.” After some time they came back. When I asked my wife how the interview was going, my wife said, “We did it successfully.” I was relieved to hear that.
Finally the police officer made a catalog of confiscated goods. He confirmed one by one at the table. He seized my secret money of 856.570 yen which I had saved before marriage. 35 items were seized. In the trials afterwards they were not given in evidence. All were useless for the police. The officer said, “I’ve finished writing.” Then standing up from the table, the police officer added, “There is one more paper there. Could you come here?”
“What is it?” I stood in front of the police officer. He pulled another paper from his breast pocket and opened it, saying, “Warrant of arrest has been issued. We will arrest you.”
The police officers who came into my house asked me, “Where is your datebook?” or “Where is your mobile phone?” I handed them to the officers saying “Here it is.” My phone was an old type with a sticker of Disney characters.
The domiciliary search was carried out first in “the room with a TV set”, next the “bedroom” and then the “third room”. They requested my presence everywhere. The officers asked me, “We want to see here,” or “Can we examine this?” Every time I answered “Yes”. One of the officers wore white gloves and took photos.
The time to be interviewed for enrollment was coming. Parent and child had to go together. We got a numbered ticket after waiting through cold night. We couldn’t cancel the interview. So I asked.
“It is time to go to the kindergarten for interview.”
“No. Wait here. You need to stay here.”
“How about my wife and son?”
“They can go.”
After that I saw them off, saying, “Sorry.” After some time they came back. When I asked my wife how the interview was going, my wife said, “We did it successfully.” I was relieved to hear that.
Finally the police officer made a catalog of confiscated goods. He confirmed one by one at the table. He seized my secret money of 856.570 yen which I had saved before marriage. 35 items were seized. In the trials afterwards they were not given in evidence. All were useless for the police. The officer said, “I’ve finished writing.” Then standing up from the table, the police officer added, “There is one more paper there. Could you come here?”
“What is it?” I stood in front of the police officer. He pulled another paper from his breast pocket and opened it, saying, “Warrant of arrest has been issued. We will arrest you.”
This is my datebook. “Kindergarten” was written as a schedule of 1 November. However, “arrest” was not there. Paper of the book was tainted by red color. Maybe that was a kind of chemicals used for detecting my fingerprint. That must be changed back.
No.1 On the morning of 1 November, 2002
I was dozing on the morning of 1 November 2002 in my bed room when I heard the chime of my entrance. I heard my wife answering, “Yes”.
After a while my wife came to me and said, “The police are at the door.”
I was going to the kindergarten to submit a written application for my son on that day. My wife and I had taken our turn lining up in front of the kindergarten since the previous night because the application would be accepted in the order of arrival.
On the previous day I ran the JR Keihin-Tohoku line trains. I came to work at 9:37, left Minami-Urawa at 10:12 and returned there at 17:56 after driving about 215 km. The clock-out time was 18:24. This service is called in the worksite “diagram 11” or “schedule 11”.
I came home around 19:00 on 31 October. As my wife was waiting in line in front of the kindergarten, I went there to get my son home for dinner. Then I switched with her. Thanks to her effort our number was No.4. I remember it was very cold that night and I stood in line putting on warm clothes. As morning dawned, people from the kindergarten gave us numbered tickets, so I went home to sleep.
When I was waiting in front of the kindergarten, I heard some young men making noise. So when I learned that the police came, at first I thought they came to investigate something about the young men.
I went to see the police at the entrance in a jersey. I saw a man wearing a jacket when I opened the door a little.
“What has happened?”
“Do you know Mr. Y?”
Mr. Y is my coworker. “Yes.”
“I have a warrant to search a house. Will you have a look?”
I received the paper named warrant to search a house and looked at it. It was the first time for me to look at the warrant. I had never thought that I could have a chance to see such a paper. Then I found the words such as “Kakumaru member” (Kakumaru is a name of a faction which is known as a group of extremely leftists in Japan), a name “Y”, “East Japan Railway Workers’ Union (JREU) and my own name. What happened? I didn’t know what was what. I felt my brains muddled due to lack of sleep from the night earlier. Saying “What?”, I returned the “warrant” and opened the door. I saw six or more men standing outside the door.
After a while my wife came to me and said, “The police are at the door.”
I was going to the kindergarten to submit a written application for my son on that day. My wife and I had taken our turn lining up in front of the kindergarten since the previous night because the application would be accepted in the order of arrival.
On the previous day I ran the JR Keihin-Tohoku line trains. I came to work at 9:37, left Minami-Urawa at 10:12 and returned there at 17:56 after driving about 215 km. The clock-out time was 18:24. This service is called in the worksite “diagram 11” or “schedule 11”.
I came home around 19:00 on 31 October. As my wife was waiting in line in front of the kindergarten, I went there to get my son home for dinner. Then I switched with her. Thanks to her effort our number was No.4. I remember it was very cold that night and I stood in line putting on warm clothes. As morning dawned, people from the kindergarten gave us numbered tickets, so I went home to sleep.
When I was waiting in front of the kindergarten, I heard some young men making noise. So when I learned that the police came, at first I thought they came to investigate something about the young men.
I went to see the police at the entrance in a jersey. I saw a man wearing a jacket when I opened the door a little.
“What has happened?”
“Do you know Mr. Y?”
Mr. Y is my coworker. “Yes.”
“I have a warrant to search a house. Will you have a look?”
I received the paper named warrant to search a house and looked at it. It was the first time for me to look at the warrant. I had never thought that I could have a chance to see such a paper. Then I found the words such as “Kakumaru member” (Kakumaru is a name of a faction which is known as a group of extremely leftists in Japan), a name “Y”, “East Japan Railway Workers’ Union (JREU) and my own name. What happened? I didn’t know what was what. I felt my brains muddled due to lack of sleep from the night earlier. Saying “What?”, I returned the “warrant” and opened the door. I saw six or more men standing outside the door.
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