David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

‘And if not?’

‘The murders and rapes of two young women would bring Kodaira the death sentence,’ I say. ‘And he knows it. But only one, in the circumstances in which he has confessed, probably not…’

‘Kodaira murdered his father-in-law,’ says Kai. ‘Midorikawa will be his second murder conviction. Kodaira will hang this time.’

‘Kodaira is an old hand at this,’ I say. ‘If he thinks he can still escape the rope, he has no reason to confess to anything else.’

The chief asks, ‘Do you have any new leads at all on the identity of the second body, Inspector Minami?’

‘A newspaper advertisement seeking staff for a Salon Matsu in Kanda was found in one of the pockets of her dress,’ I tell them. ‘It was clipped from the Asahi of the nineteenth of July and this obviously led us to visit this Salon Matsu in Kanda. Unfortunately, because we had only her clothing to describe, the staff were unable to identify her or confirm whether or not she had been to the salon. However, they suggested we go out to the International Palace…’

Better off dead. Better off dead. Better off dead …

‘The International Palace?’ repeats the chief. ‘Out near Funabashi? Why did they suggest that you ask after her out there?’

‘Ninety per cent of their applicants used to work there.’

‘But that doesn’t mean that this one did,’ says Kai.

I shrug. ‘And it doesn’t mean that she didn’t.’

‘Haven’t the Shinchū Gun placed it off-limits?’ asks Chief Inspector Adachi. ‘Won’t we need clearance…?’

The chief nods. The chief looks at his watch. The chief says, ‘Report back here in three hours, inspector.’

*

I need answers; I need to find Fujita and I need to see Ishida. Chiku-taku . I have to go back to Atago. Chiku-taku . I have to find Fujita. Chiku-taku . I have to see Ishida. Chiku-taku . I have three hours before I have to go out to the International Palace. Chiku-taku . But I need to find Fujita. Chiku-taku . I need to speak to Ishida. Chiku-taku . But first I have to have a drink. Chiku-taku . First I need a drink –

Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …

The bar is in the basement of a three-storey reinforced concrete shell. Chiku-taku . Each room above the bar has been blown out so now only exposed steel girders dangle where once there were walls and floors. Chiku-taku . The bar itself was once one of the government-run People’s Bars; bars that opened just once or twice a week during the war to sell cheap domestic whisky, bottles of beer and the low-grade sake known as bakudan; bars where people queued for hours and hours; bars that were meant to lift our morale –

Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …

This bar is now back in private hands, now open twenty-four hours a day but it still sells only cheap domestic whisky, bottles of beer and bakudan sake and people still queue for hours to have their morale lifted. Chiku-taku . But this morning there are only two other customers at the counter; a middle-aged woman dressed in red, smelling of strong perfume and smoking Lucky Strikes and an old man in a shabby dark suit who keeps taking out his pocket watch and winding it up and putting it away again, then taking it out and winding it up and putting it away again, taking it out –

Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku …

There are ugly sores on the skin of the old man’s hands. Chiku-taku . He has had no vitamins and now he has beriberi. Chiku-taku . I down my glass of clouded bakudan. Chiku-taku . I feel it explode in my throat and in my belly. Chiku-taku . I cough and now I ask the old man, ‘Is your watch broken, sir?’

‘I was on the train,’ he says. ‘On the day of the surrender, when a woman standing in the aisle ahead of me lost her balance and the large box tied to her back hit me right here in my chest and stopped this watch in my pocket dead…’

Now he shows me the watch –

It says twelve o’clock.

*

I need to find Fujita. I need to see Ishida. I need to speak to Ishida. Detectives Nishi and Kimura are back at their borrowed desks. Detectives Nishi and Kimura are writing up statements –

I ask them, ‘Did you get anything at all?’

They shake their heads. They bow –

‘Have you seen Detective Ishida?’

They shake their heads again –

‘Right then,’ I tell them. ‘Nishi, I want you to come with me out to the International Palace and Kimura, I want you to find Ishida and, when you do, bring him back here and keep him here but don’t let him speak to Chief Inspector Adachi until I’ve spoken to him first. And the same goes for Detective Fujita if he comes back at all…’

*

On the fifteenth of August last year, minutes after the Emperor had surrendered, the Metropolitan Police Board summoned the presidents of the seven major entertainment guilds in Tokyo. These included the heads of the restaurant, cabaret, geisha and brothel associations. The chief of the Metropolitan Police Board feared the Victors would soon be upon Japan, here to rape our wives and our daughters, our mothers and our sisters. The chief wanted a ‘shock absorber’ and so the chief had a proposal. The chief suggested that the heads of the restaurant, cabaret, geisha and brothel associations form one central association to cater for all the needs and amusement of the Victors. The chief promised this new association that it would not lack for funds –

The Recreation and Amusement Association was born.

Recruits were found or bought among the ruins of the cities and the countryside. Dancehalls and houses of entertainment were reopened or created overnight, the biggest and most infamous of them all being the International Palace, a former munitions factory out beyond the eastern boundaries of Tokyo. Five of the workers’ dormitories were converted into brothels. Some of the old management stayed on to administer the new business, some of the prettier girls stayed on to service the new customers, the Victors –

Because only the Victors are welcome at the Palace –

Only Victors allowed to make the Willow Run –

But the toll is heavy and the turnover high –

Most of the first girls were hospitalized –

Many of the rest committed suicide –

Better off dead …

The second set of girls were geishas and prostitutes, barmaids and waitresses, frequent adulterers and sexual deviants, girls built of stronger stuff, too strong for some because the International Palace was placed off-limits this spring –

Supposedly .

Our chief has got the clearance for Detective Nishi and me to go out to the International Palace. Our chief has even found Nishi and me a ride out there in the back of a Victors’ truck. In the back with Larry, Moe and Curly, three well-fed and well-scrubbed GI Joes –

They offer us chewing gum and Nishi chews their gum. They offer us cigarettes and Nishi smokes their cigarettes. They talk about their lucky days and Nishi nods and laughs along. They talk about hitting the jackpot, about kids in candy stores, about Christmases that come early and Christmases that all come at once, and Nishi is nodding and laughing along, shouting out, ‘Merry Christmas!’

He is a good Jap, a good monkey. He is a tame Jap …

I do not chew their gum. I do not smoke their cigarettes. I do not nod or laugh along. I do not shout, ‘Merry Christmas! ’

Because I am the bad Jap. Bad monkey .

The Victors’ truck drives southeast, out towards Funabashi, out of the city until the ruins become fields, the burnt black earth now barren brown soil, until we can see the series of two-storey barrack buildings rising up ahead, until we can read the signs in English: