David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

‘So how long were you in prison then?’

‘About six and a half years.’

‘In Kosuge? In Tokyo?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you were released under the Imperial Amnesty of 1940?’

‘Yes,’ says Kodaira. ‘By the mercy of the Emperor.’

‘And so what did you do upon your release?’

‘I went to the hot springs in Kusatsu.’

‘How long did you stay there?’

‘About half a year.’

‘Did you work?’

‘Not really,’ he says. ‘I was recuperating from prison.’

‘And then you came back to work in Tokyo?’

‘I worked as a boiler-man, yes.’

‘For which companies?’

‘Four or five,’ he says. ‘But I can’t remember the names of them all. This was before I went to Saipan.’

‘How did you get that job?’

‘I was recruited.’

‘Despite your criminal record.’

Kodaira Yoshio shrugs. Kodaira smiles. He says, ‘They never asked me and I never mentioned it.’

‘And so what kind of work did you do in Saipan?’

‘I worked in construction, building a runway.’

‘And how long did you work in Saipan?’

‘I was lucky again,’ he says. ‘I left in the April of 1942.’

‘And so you came back to work in Tokyo again?’

‘I worked for Nihon Steel in Kamata, yes.’

‘And for how long was that?’

‘About half a year.’

‘And then?’

‘I think it was then I worked for Suzuki Seihyo in Ōmori,’ says Kodaira. ‘Maintenance work on the refrigerators.’

‘And for how long was that job?’

‘Again about half a year.’

‘And then what?’

Now Kodaira pauses for a moment but then shrugs and says, ‘I was assigned to the Naval Clothing Department near Shinagawa.’

‘We’ve both seen this before, detective. Remember?’

‘Who assigned you to work in Naval Clothing?’ ‘Did you find that file, inspector…?’

‘I was assigned to the Naval Supplies Department by the local Labour Mobilization Office in Gotanda…’

‘And they assigned you as…?’

‘As a boiler technician.’

‘And when was this?’

‘August, 1944.’

‘And then?’

Kodaira shrugs again, then says, ‘I got married. I had a kid.’

‘This is with your present wife then?’ asks Kanehara.

‘Yes.’

‘How did you meet your new wife?’

‘Through a friend.’

‘And when did you get married?’

‘Last February.’

‘And you were still working for the Naval Supplies?’

‘I was then,’ he says. ‘Until June last year.’

‘What happened in June last year?’

‘Nothing,’ he says. ‘I just quit.’

‘Why?’

‘I had evacuated my wife and baby to her family home in Toyama and I was renting a house in Wakagi-chō in Shibuya…’

‘This is the same house that you’re in now?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘The old place we were renting burnt down in the May air raids, so that was when I decided to quit my job at the Naval Supplies and go live with my wife and kid in Toyama.’

‘And could you find any work in Toyama?’

‘We were staying with my wife’s older brother and he helped me get a job as a security guard.’

‘Where was that?’

‘At Fuji Seikō —zai in Higashi Toyama.’

‘So when did you come back here?’

‘About a week after the surrender.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘Well, I’d borrowed some money from a broker,’ he says. ‘To set myself up selling Toyama Medicine Boxes door to door.’

‘And so how long did that job last?’

‘Not very long,’ he laughs. ‘Just until I paid back the money to the broker. In November last year…’

‘And so when did you start working at the Shinchū Gun laundry, for the Occupation Army?’

‘Well, my wife and my kid came back to Tokyo in December last year,’ he says. ‘So then I must have started at the Shinchū Gun laundry in March this year.’

‘Thank you very much,’ says Chief Inspector Kanehara. ‘You’ve been very helpful. Very cooperative. Now we’re going to give you a little rest and some tea and then we’re going to come back in here and we’re going to ask you some more questions.’

Kodaira Yoshio smiles. Kodaira nods his head.

‘But these questions won’t be about your life,’ says Kanehara. These questions won’t be about your family. These questions won’t be about your work. These questions will be different questions –

‘Do you know what these different questions will be about?’

Kodaira has stopped smiling. Kodaira is shaking his head –

Kanehara is smiling now. ‘But I think you do know…’

Kodaira shaking his head again. Again and again –

‘These questions will be about Midorikawa…’

Again and again. He shakes his head –

‘Midorikawa Ryuko…?’

Again and again –

Now Kanehara says, ‘Take off your shirt and your trousers and we’ll be back soon.’

In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Adachi stares at the wall again; Kanehara reads back over the notes; Kai smokes –

Now Chief Inspector Adachi turns to me again and asks, ‘Does the Naval Clothing Department in Shinagawa ring any bells?’

‘Not for me,’ I say. ‘Why, does it ring any bells for you?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘But I’m deaf to all bells these days.’

*

It is dark now. The table has gone. The chairs have gone. The stenographer too. The cigarettes are all smoked. The tea all drunk. The room all shadows. Ten policemen file into the room. Ten policemen with bamboo sticks. Ten policemen opposite Kodaira Yoshio. Kodaira Yoshio stood in his underwear. Kodaira Yoshio with his head bowed. Kodaira Yoshio with his tears on the floor –

Chief Inspector Adachi steps towards him –

Adachi says, ‘In your own words…’

‘I met Midorikawa Ryuko in Shinagawa station about two months ago. There had been a train accident that day and so the platform was crowded with people waiting. I saw Midorikawa Ryuko walking along the platform. I had some bread with me from the Shinchū Gun. As she walked past, I offered her half of the bread and she took it and ate it there and then. I felt sorry for her and so I gave her the other half and she stayed near me…’

Inspector Adachi says, ‘So it was Midorikawa who followed you. You didn’t follow her…’

‘We got on the train for Meguro together and while we were on the train I put my hand up her skirt and stroked her cunt. Ryuko didn’t object and when we got off the train she copied down my address from my pass. She then visited my house three times…’

Adachi says, ‘So she obviously liked your hand up her skirt. She must have liked you playing with her cunt…’

‘I met Ryuko again on the sixth of August at ten o’clock at the east entrance of Shinagawa station. I’d told her I could help her find a job with the Shinchū Gun but that she would first need to take a written test at the barracks; that to enter the barracks we would have to get a letter of permission; that to get the letter we would have to go to the American Club in Marunouchi. This was all a lie. But I told her to follow me and I took her up the hill in Shiba…’

‘But once again it was Midorikawa who followed you, yeah? You didn’t drag her up there, did you?’

‘We found a quiet spot and we sat down together, side by side, and we began to eat our bentō lunches, side by side. But all the time we were eating, I couldn’t stop staring at her tits, smelling her woman’s smell and all the time we were eating, I really wanted to have her, to have her there and then, but she said she didn’t want to do it then, said she didn’t want to do it there. I was angry and I was frustrated now and so I slapped her face and then I stripped her underwear and I had her then and had her there, even though I knew it was wrong. I just lost control…’