David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

‘There are those that say, even many here in this hall today, both Japanese and Occupier, that labour should not be militant, that labour should not fight. But I ask you today, is it not our democratic right to organize and defend our jobs? Is it not our democratic right to teach our fellow workers to tell an enemy from a friend?’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

‘The Yoshida government and the American Occupiers declare that since Japan is now suffering from the consequences of defeat, all internal differences must be forgotten, all labour disputes postponed. But when have capitalists ever welcomed disputes?’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

‘The Yoshida government is a zaibatsu government. It is a government hostile to labour sponsored by an occupation hostile to labour. Things are the same now as they have always been –

‘New uniforms but the same old politics!’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

‘The tactics of the present campaign against members of the Communist Party by the Yoshida government and the American Occupiers are the same tactics that were used by the fascists and the militarists during the war years. It shows the meaninglessness of their words, words such as freedom, such as rights, such as democracy…’

‘The red flag, wraps the bodies of our dead…’

‘Labour gives capital everything. Capital gives labour nothing!’

‘Before the corpses turn cold, the blood dyes the flag…’

‘All workers must unite! All workers must fight!’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

I find the bathroom. The toilet. The sink –

I wash my face and I wash my hands –

In the warm, rust-coloured water –

I leave the building –

Ton-ton …

Outside the Hibiya Hall, a former communist is stood upon a soapbox. Ton-ton . First the man weeps as he recalls the political folly of his youth. Ton-ton . Then the man rails as he denounces birth control as the Victors’ way to sterilize and eradicate the Yamato race. Ton-ton . Now the man calls for three banzai cheers for the Emperor –

‘Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!’ he screams, stood upon his box against a wall still decorated with a mural of a Japanese bomber –

‘ Let’s Boost Plane Production for an All-out Attack!’

There are red flags in the trees of Hibiya Park –

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

I want to wash my face again –

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

I want to wash my hands –

In the Year of the Dog .

*

I am late, again. Chief Inspector Adachi is standing on the steps outside Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters. Inspector Adachi is looking for me. Adachi is waiting for me. He is asking me, ‘So where is Detective Fujita today then, Detective Inspector Minami?’

‘I just left Detective Fujita back at Atago,’ I tell him. ‘Detective Fujita is leading the Shiba investigation in my absence.’

Inspector Adachi asks, ‘So you say you’ve just come from Atago, have you? And you say you’ve just seen Detective Fujita?’

‘Yes,’ I say. ‘We’ve just finished our morning meeting.’

Adachi smiles. Adachi asks me, ‘And you saw Fujita?’

‘Yes,’ I tell him again. ‘Why are you asking me?’

Adachi smiles again. Adachi takes his time now. ‘Do you remember the body we pulled out of the Shiba Canal…?’

‘It was only yesterday,’ I say. ‘And I was there.’

‘Well, it was the body of a journalist,’ says Adachi. ‘A journalist who used different names for different papers, sometimes writing for Minpo , sometimes for Minshū Shimbun , even Akahata.’

‘Really?’ I ask him. ‘And so what was his name?’

‘You don’t know?’ asks Adachi. ‘Really? ’

I curse you. I curse you. I curse you …

‘Why would I know his name?’

I curse you and I curse myself …

‘Well, just how many journalists do you know who write for three different papers under three different names, inspector?’

I smile. I say, ‘I try not to know any journalists.’

‘Not one called Kato Kotaro of Akahata?’

I laugh. I say, ‘I’ve never heard of him.’

‘Or Suzuki Nobu of Minshū Shimbun?’

I shrug my shoulders. I say, ‘No.’

‘Or Hayashi Jo of Minpo?’

I swallow. I say, ‘No.’

I curse myself …

‘Well, that’s very strange,’ says Adachi. ‘Because late last night I went to the Minpo offices to ask them about this Hayashi Jo, about him being found in the Shiba Canal, about him being nailed and bound to a door, about him being drowned face down and why they think that might be and do you know what the first thing they said to me was? The first thing they said to me was, not again…’

‘Not again,’ I repeat. ‘What did they mean, not again?’

‘That’s exactly what I asked them,’ laughs Adachi. ‘And do you know what they told me? They told me I was the third policeman to have visited the Minpo offices in the last three days…’

I swallow again as Inspector Adachi says –

‘The third one asking after Hayashi Jo…’

I ask, ‘What do you want from me?’

Chief Inspector Adachi steps closer. Chief Inspector Adachi whispers, ‘I don’t want anything from you, inspector, except your gratitude that it was me who pulled this case and not anyone else. But when you do see your Detective Fujita, please send him to me…’

I nod then I ask, ‘But why do you want to see Fujita?’

‘Because Detective Fujita was the first policeman to have visited the Minpo offices in the last three days, that’s why…’

I curse him . I swallow. I curse myself . I ask –

‘And so who was the second policeman?’

Ishida. Ishida. Ishida. Ishida. Ishida …

‘You tell me, corporal,’ says Adachi. ‘You tell me.’

*

I need answers; I need to find Fujita and I need to see Ishida: I want to know how Adachi got this case; I want to know who identified Hayashi’s body. But today is not the day to ask the chief these questions. Today is not a day for talk; today there is no talk of fresh purges; today there is no talk of the Tokyo trials; today there is no talk of SCAP reforms; no talk of better guns; no talk of new uniforms. Because the chief has heard about last night’s party; the good food; their glasses raised; the songs sung; their songs of victory –

‘The suspect Kodaira Yoshio has confessed to the murder of Midorikawa Ryuko and I know many of you think that this means that the case is now closed,’ says the chief. ‘But that is not true. The statements in the confession need to be verified. The addresses of the places the suspect Kodaira claims to have lived and worked need to be checked. And we still have one unidentified body –

‘Inspector Minami, if you would please…’

‘The suspect Kodaira denies any knowledge of the second body found at Shiba. Dr. Nakadate, however, believes this crime to be the work of the same person responsible for the murder of Midorikawa Ryuko, that is to say that Dr. Nakadate believes Kodaira to have been responsible for both crimes…’

‘And you, Inspector Minami?’ asks Chief Inspector Adachi. ‘Do you agree with Dr. Nakadate?’

‘Yes,’ I tell him. ‘I believe that if we can find the evidence or, better still, if we can identify the body and then find witnesses or circumstances that can connect Kodaira to the victim or even to the time we know she was murdered then, faced with the evidence, I believe he will again confess.’