David Peace - Occupied City

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The Fourth Period (the fourth twenty days of the investigation; 26 March to 14 April, 1948) —

1948/3/26; 06.00:Clear / Meeting of Robbery Room Name-card Team / Request permission to visit Mikawashima Station kōban to re-check Hirasawa pickpocket story / Other detectives sceptical / Waste of time, they say / But Inspector Iki-i grants permission / Make a telephone call / Ask about the officer who took down Hirasawa’s statement about being pickpocketed in August last year / Find out when the officer will be on duty / 09.00: Go to the Mikawashima Station kōban / Meet the officer / Nervous / File in hand / Apologizes for lack of detail and discrepancies in original report / Failure to note Hirasawa’s date of birth / Age noted as forty-five years old etc. / Claims to have been mesmerized by the way Hirasawa spoke, his use of language, his reputation, connections to the Imperial Family etc. / Following the interview, admits he chased after Hirasawa to confirm age and date of birth / Hirasawa gone / Vanished / Officer and two colleagues agreed to write ‘forty-five years old’ in the report, based on their impressions / Tell officer that Hirasawa would have been fifty-six or fifty-seven years old in August 1947 / Note: survivors of the Teigin incident all stated that the perpetrator looked to be approximately ‘fifty years old’ / Note: Hirasawa appeared to be younger than he was to the Mikawashima Officers / Note: Hirasawa should not be eliminated on basis of age alone / Mikawashima officer then produces a fan from case file / Hirasawa had given the fan to the officer at the time of his statement / Hirasawa stated that the thief left the fan in his pocket when he stole his wallet / Fan is stamped with the name of an ice-vendor and his address / 10.00: Leave Mikawashima Station kōban / Follow the fan / Address of ice-vendor in the same neighbourhood as one of Hirasawa’s daughters / Speak with ice-vendor / Man sells coal and logs in the winter / Ice in the summer / Made fifty fans as a gift for regular customers last summer / Hirasawa’s daughter is a regular customer / Ice-vendor remembers giving fan to Hirasawa’s daughter / Story about pickpocket a lie / Kuro-kuro / Stand for a long time outside Hirasawa’s daughter’s house / Blacker and blacker / Do not enter / Guiltier and guiltier / 12.00: Return to Robbery Room Name-card Team HQ / 13.00: Meeting with Inspector Iki-i / Report on interviews with Mikawashima officer and ice-vendor / Told to write up report and attach to Hirasawa file / Told to move on to other files to re-check for re-interview / So re-check, re-check, re-check / To re-interview, re-interview, re-interview.

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The Fifth Period (the fifth twenty days of the investigation; 15 April to 4 May, 1948) —

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The Sixth Period (the sixth twenty days of the investigation; 5 May to 24 May, 1948) —

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The Seventh Period (the seventh twenty days of the investigation; 25 May to 13 June, 1948) —

1948/5/25; 06.00:Warm / Meeting of Robbery Room Name-card Team / Inspector Iki-i gives us the news we’ve all been waiting to hear / Permission granted and budget approved for travel to Tōhoku and Hokkaido to interview each individual with whom Matsui had exchanged name-cards / Ordered to confirm and detail situation in which each name-card was exchanged / Ordered to retrieve each Matsui name-card from each individual / 128 cards in total / Detectives liga and Fukushi assigned the seventy-seven cards exchanged in the Tōhoku area / Assigned with Inspector Iki-i to investigate the fifty-one cards exchanged in Hokkaido / Top of the list: Hirasawa Sadamichi / Told to expect to be away for one month / Return home to pack.

1948/5/26; 06.00:Warm / Leave Ueno Station for Hokkaido.

1948/5/27; 06.00:Cool, slight breeze / Sapporo, Hokkaido / Begin investigation.

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Every day a different bus or a different train to a different town and a different interview / Every interview, a different high-ranking local government official / Every official produces the card Dr Matsui gave them in exchange for their own / Every day, another name crossed off the list / Another report to write up, another call back to Tokyo / Every night, a different inn or the floor of a different police station or kōban / Every night, the same dream, the same name / Kuro-kuro / Hirasawa Sadamichi / Blacker and blacker / Every day, nearer and nearer / Guiltier and guiltier…

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1948/6/6; 08.00:Humid / Shikinai-chō, Otaru, Hokkaido / Residence of Hirasawa Sadamichi’s father / The second floor of the house / Hirasawa’s father sat before the unlit stove in the first room, smoking a pipe / Hirasawa sat in a kimono in the next room, before a canvas of poppies / ‘You start painting very early…’ / ‘It is my habit to start early every day. Today is no exception.’ / Note: paint on the canvas is dry and hard / ‘Do you only paint flowers?’ / ‘I went to an exhibition at the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo on the day of the Teigin incident. I am not the killer.’ / ‘We didn’t say you were. We are only here to ask you about Dr Matsui’s name-card.’ / ‘I am not the man you are looking for.’ / ‘Well then, that day on the ferry, did you exchange cards with anyone else other than Dr Matsui?’ / ‘I do not remember.’ / ‘Can you tell us why you stay here, even though your wife and children live in Tokyo?’ / ‘My father could pass away soon. So this is my last obligation as a good son to his aged father.’ / Note: Hirasawa’s father is a former colonel in the Kempeitai and appears in good health / Conversation continues in circles / Hirasawa claims forgetfulness, pleads ignorance / Evasive / Ask Hirasawa for a photograph to take back to Tokyo to show eye-witnesses for purposes of elimination / ‘I do not have any photographs.’ / Conclude interview / In the genkan , canvas shoulder bag hanging from a peg / Note: Teigin killer reported to have carried a canvas shoulder bag / ‘Is that your bag?’ / ‘No.’ / 09.00: Leave Hirasawa residence / Stand for a long time outside Hirasawa’s house / Kuro-kuro / Inspector Iki-i agrees Hirasawa’s behaviour and statements suspicious / Blacker and blacker / Iki-i agrees Hirasawa strongly resembles composite drawing of Teigin suspect / Guiltier and guiltier .

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1948/6/12; 18.00:Hot, rainy / Investigation of fifty-one name-cards complete / Return to Tokyo via Otaru / Hatch plan to take photograph of Hirasawa / Re-visit Hirasawa residence / Invite Hirasawa to local restaurant for dinner / Hirasawa readily accepts invitation / ‘But please remember, I am not the killer. I am not the man you are looking for.’ / Casual conversation in local restaurant / Again Hirasawa suddenly says, ‘On January 26th, I spent the morning and the early afternoon with my daughter and son-in-law in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo. There we visited the shipping firm of my nephew. His name is Yamaguchi. Then, at a little after 2 p.m., I took a train to Nippori to see my nephew’s daughter, Hanako. I also bought some charcoal briquettes. At about 5 p.m. I returned to my house in Nakano. My other daughter had invited a guest, an American GI named Wayne Ely, I think. I spent the evening speaking English and playing cards with her guest.’ / Steer conversation on to casual topics; food, weather etc. / Hirasawa repeatedly mentions his connections to the Imperial Family, his good reputation as a painter and as a man / Restaurant photographer asks if we are ready for traditional dinner-table portrait / Hirasawa reluctant / Puts on his spectacles, sticks out his chin / Portrait taken / Then, without prompting, Hirasawa suddenly says again, ‘I regret having lost Dr Matsui’s card. I enjoyed meeting him and talking with him. I would like to see him again. Unfortunately, a thief picked my pocket last August. He stole my wallet which contained ¥10,000 and all the name-cards I had received, including the card Dr Matsui gave me.’ / Meal finishes / Inspector Iki-i pays for dinner-table portrait / Bid farewell to Hirasawa / Iki-i places portrait in Hirasawa file / Return to Otaru Police Station / No sleep.