David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

Senju or Fujita? Fujita or Senju?

I am one of the lucky ones.

*

Two dead and eight injured down at Shimbashi; the body in the Shiba Canal; it has been a bad night and a bad morning. And the Victors want answers; the Victors have summoned the chief to the Public Safety Division. Now the chief wants answers; now the chief has summoned us all back to Metropolitan Police Headquarters –

The heads of all sections. The heads of all rooms…

‘There will be no gang wars,’ says the chief. ‘I’ll ask for the closure of all the markets. I’ll ask for Eighth Army reinforcements from GHQ. But there will be no gang wars in Tokyo…

‘They think they can do what they want,’ the chief continues. ‘But they don’t appreciate the help we give them. They don’t appreciate the protection we give them. They don’t appreciate the trouble we spare them. And all I ask for is peace.’

‘But it’s not our local gangs who started this,’ says Kanehara. ‘It’s the Formosans and the mainland Chinese muscling in…’

‘And the Koreans,’ adds Inspector Adachi –

‘And the Americans are protecting them,’ says Kanehara. ‘They let these immigrant people do what they want while they punish the ordinary tekiya who are just trying to run their stalls…’

‘And we can’t step in,’ says Adachi. ‘Because if the police are seen to step in on the side of the Japanese against the Formosans or the Koreans then we risk being purged for mistreating immigrants and reverting to our old Japanese ways, ignoring human rights and abandoning democratic freedoms but, if not us, if not the police, then who is there left but the gangs themselves to protect the human rights and democratic principles, the lives and livelihoods of the tekiya?’

‘Divide and conquer,’ says Kanehara. ‘Divide and rule.’

‘And I know all that and I will tell them that,’ says the chief. ‘But you tell your men in the gangs that they’ll have to choose…’

He is fighting for his rights, fighting for his freedoms…

‘Either open war,’ says the chief. ‘Or open markets.’

*

They will find Hayashi’s name. They will visit Hayashi’s address. They will talk to Hayashi’s family. They will visit Hayashi’s office. They will talk to Hayashi’s colleagues. They will find Hayashi’s stories. They will read Hayashi’s stories. They will talk to Hayashi’s contacts. They will find Hayashi’s notes. They will read Hayashi’s notes. They will talk to Hayashi’s snitches and they will tell them –

They will tell them my name and they will come for me –

Just like we have come today for Kodaira Yoshio –

Nothing moves on the streets of Shibuya. It is almost noon on the hottest day of the year. Nothing moves outside the house in Hanezawamachi. Ninety-one degrees in the shade now. Room #2 are here as back-up for Room #1. Pairs of men on every corner. Down every alleyway. In every doorway. Inspector Kai is in command. Inspector Kai has his whistle in his hand. Inspector Kai looks at his watch again. Chiku-taku . Inspector Kai puts his whistle to his lips –

Through the front door. Up the steps. Into the second floor room where Kodaira Yoshio is sleeping naked beneath a mosquito net, his wife covering her breasts, reaching for their child –

Kodaira Yoshio dragged out from under the net by his feet onto the mats and back down the stairs –

Kodaira pulling on his trousers. Kodaira pulling on his shirt. Kodaira buttoning up his trousers. Buttoning up his shirt as he goes, putting on his army boots –

In the back of the car. Another middle-aged man . Kodaira rubs the top of his skull. Kodaira scratches his balls. In the back of the car. Face gaunt . Kodaira blinks. Kodaira rubs his eyes. In the back of the car. Hair thinning . Kodaira grins. Kodaira laughs. In the back of the car. Kodaira looks like Kai, Kodaira looks like Kanehara and he looks like me…

Like me…

There are press all over the road and the steps outside the Atago police station. Kodaira accepts a cigarette . The car turns back onto Sakurada-dōri and then right onto Meguro-dori. Kodaira chats about the weather . The car turns right again onto Yamate-dōri and then follows the Meguro River along to the Meguro police station –

Kodaira speaks with maturity. He speaks with authority —

This is where Kodaira Yoshio will be interrogated –

Kodaira is grinning now. Kodaira laughing —

This is where Kodaira will confess.

But the Meguro police are angry. The Meguro police have been used for legwork since the two bodies were found in Shiba Park. Now the Meguro police are being kicked out of their own offices. In the dark and out of the loop, the Meguro police sulk and sweat –

Two men from Room #1 take Kodaira up the stairs –

They give him tea. They give him a cigarette –

Then they leave him to drink and to smoke –

They leave him to wait and to think.

Chief Inspector Kanehara, Inspector Kai and the rest of Room #1 take over another office down the corridor, clearing desks and emptying drawers, moving files and stealing pencils –

The Meguro police just watching and cursing, left sulking and sweating, in the dark and out of the loop –

I take an empty chair at the back by the window as Kanehara and Kai outline the strategy for the interview, the questions they will ask and the questions they won’t –

Then Adachi is back, back with a telegram in his hand and a smile on his lips. ‘This just got here from Nikkō. He’s killed before.’

‘And we’ve both seen this before, detective. Remember…?’

Kai is on his feet now. Kai saying, ‘Come on! Let’s go!’

‘Did you find that file, inspector? The Miyazaki file…’

‘Slowly, slowly,’ smiles Kanehara. ‘Step by step.’

*

I follow Adachi, Kanehara and Kai. Down the corridor. Into the interrogation room. No one invites me. No one refuses me. I sit by the door. I say nothing. The room is bright. Bare but for a table and six chairs. Adachi, Kanehara and Kai sit across the table from Kodaira, the stenographer to one side with a pen and some paper –

Kodaira Yoshio with his hands on the table, smiling –

Inspector Kai asks him, ‘When were you born?’

‘In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of the Emperor Meiji,’ says Kodaira. ‘In the first month, on the twenty-eighth day.’

That is the twenty-eighth of January, 1905 …

Kai asks, ‘And where were you born?’

‘Tochigi Prefecture,’ says Kodaira.

‘Where in Tochigi Prefecture?’

‘Kami Tsuga-gun, Nikkō-chō, Ōaza-Hosō.’

‘Are you the eldest son of your family?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘I’m the sixth son.’

‘Is your father still alive?’

‘No.’

‘How did your father die?’

‘Brain haemorrhage.’

‘And when did he die?’

‘Ten years ago.’

Kai nods. Kai asks, ‘What kind of work did your father do?’

‘Well, he used to have land, a farm and an inn,’ says Kodaira. ‘But he drank heavily, bought women and gambled and lost it all.’

‘So he was a bankrupt?’ asks Kai. ‘Unemployed?’

‘No,’ says Kodaira. ‘He always worked. His last job was working as an oil-feeder at an iron-railings factory…’

Kai asks, ‘What about your eldest brother?’

‘He’s dead too,’ says Kodaira.

‘When did he die?’

‘This year.’

‘And what was his job?’

‘Nothing steady,’ laughs Kodaira. ‘He used to work in the copper-smelting factory in Nikkō. Then he left that and came to Tokyo but I don’t know what he did here. I never saw him in Tokyo.’