Tokyo Year Zero
Page 14
Their stomachs empty, their dreams lost…
Up until this June, the Demobilization Bureaus also received a grant of fifteen yen for taking care of each individual urn. However, since June, these institutions have been deprived of this grant. Lack of these finances has made it impossible for the institutions to order the construction of new boxes for depositing the ashes. Presently, new boxes are still being made out of lumber in stock but the day will soon come when the ashes of the war dead will have to be returned to their relatives in ordinary plain brown wrapping paper –
They are hungry, they are starving…
Men talk about the dead in their sleep. Men remember the dead in their sleep; their fathers, their mothers, their wives and their lovers; their family and friends, their colleagues and comrades. Men talk about ghosts and demons in their sleep –
Their masters gone…
I have sat in this borrowed chair with my head on this borrowed desk through the rest of the night. I have closed my eyes but I have not slept. I open my eyes but I do not wake. I read their reports. I read old newspapers. Now the dawn is coming up but it still feels old. Dead. Like the last light at the beginning of a long night. Lost and dead. Not a new morning. No new mornings here. I sit up in my borrowed chair. I look around. No Fujita. I close my eyes again –
Tonight I will sleep. Tonight I will sleep. Tonight I will…
I open them. I look up at the uniform standing over me –
The uniformed officer has a telegram in his hand.
*
Four officers from Takanawa are unbuttoning their uniforms. The mosquitoes circle. The four officers strip down to their underwear. The mosquitoes attack. The four officers jump into the Shiba Canal. The water stinks. The four officers swim over to the wooden door floating in the canal. The water black. The four officers guide the door towards the side of the canal where we are all stood. In the sun. The chief nods. In the heat. The four officers turn over the door. I curse. The body of a drowned man, naked and bound to the door –
Hayashi Jo naked and bound to the back of the door…
Bound with his hands and feet nailed to the door –
His hands and feet then nailed to the door…
The door then thrown into the canal –
Hayashi face down in the water…
His mouth and lungs full –
He drowns as he floats…
Bound and nailed –
I kneel before him. I say, ‘Hayashi Jo of the Minpo paper.’
*
Was it Senju or Fujita? Nobody knows his name. Everybody knows his name. Fujita or Senju? Nobody cares. Everybody cares. Senju or Fujita? The day is night. The night is day. Fujita or Senju? Black is white. White is black. Senju or Fujita? The men are the women. The women are the men. Fujita or Senju? The brave are the frightened. The frightened are the brave. Senju or Fujita? The strong are the weak. The weak are the strong. Fujita or Senju? The good are the bad. The bad are the good. Senju or Fujita? Communists should be set free. Communists should be locked up. Fujita or Senju? Strikes are legal. Strikes are illegal. Senju or Fujita? Democracy is good. Democracy is bad. Fujita or Senju? The aggressor is the victim. The victim is the aggressor. Senju or Fujita? The winners are the losers. The losers are the winners. Fujita or Senju? Japan lost the war. Japan won the war. Senju or Fujita? The living are the dead. The dead are the living. Fujita or Senju? I am alive. I am dead –
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.’
Kai asks, ‘So who is the head of your family now?’
‘It’ll be my other elder brother, I suppose,’ shrugs Kodaira. ‘But I never see them. I never really go back there now.’
‘But you still have family in Nikkō-chō ?’
Kodaira nods. Kodaira says, ‘Yes.’
‘Let’s talk a little bit about you,’ says Inspector Kai now. ‘You were born in Nikkō–chō? Is that where you went to school?’
‘I graduated from school in Nikkō,’ says Kodaira. ‘Yes.’
‘And then what did you do?’ asks Kai. ‘After school?’
‘I left home and I moved down here to Tokyo.’
‘And so when was that? How old were you?’
‘I was about fourteen years old, I think.’
‘So that would be when?’ calculates Inspector Kai. ‘About the seventh year of Taishō. Does that sound about right?’
‘It sounds right,’ agrees Kodaira. ‘But I can’t remember exactly. I know I was about fourteen though.’
‘And so where did you work?’
‘At a steel works in Ikebukuro,’ he says. ‘The Toyo Metals Corporation. But I didn’t work there for very long…’
‘Why was that?’ asks Kai. ‘Were you fired?’
‘No,’ he laughs. ‘I’d found a better job.’
‘Which was what? Where?’
‘The Kameya Grocery.’
‘The one in Ginza?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s a very famous store,’ says Inspector Kai. ‘And so how long did you work there?’
‘Just two years.’
‘Why?’
‘I just got bored of working at the Grocery,’ says Kodaira. ‘The hours were too long, the pay was too poor and the work itself was just fetching and carrying, lifting boxes and so on…’
Kai asks, ‘And so what did you do then?’
‘I went back to Nikkō.’
‘Back home?’
‘Yes.’
‘And so what year is this now?’ calculates Kai again. ‘When you left Tokyo? Three years later? Tenth year of Taishō?’
‘Round about then,’ agrees Kodaira. ‘Yes.’
‘And did you have a job back home?’
‘Yes,’ he says again. ‘I worked for the Furukawa Company.’
‘This is the big copper-smelting works, yes?’
‘Where my brother had worked, yes.’
‘How long did you work there?’
‘I’ve worked there twice now,’ says Kodaira. ‘The first time I worked there until I enlisted.’
‘When was that?’
‘That was the sixth month of the twelfth year of Taishō.’
‘1923 then,’ says Kai. ‘Before the Great Earthquake.’
‘Yes,’ laughs Kodaira. ‘I had a lucky escape.’
‘Were you in the army or the navy?’
‘I volunteered for the navy,’ he says. ‘And I enlisted in the Marine Corps at Yokosuka.’
‘As what?’
‘First I was trained as an engineer on the Yakumo training ship, then I was stationed on the warships Yamashiro, Kongō and Manshu and I was also on the I-Gō submarine.’
‘You were always an engineer?’
‘No, no, no,’ he says. ‘Later I was an actual fighting marine. I was a member of the Ryojun Defence Force and then with the Rikusen Tai marines stationed in Shandong.’
‘And so you saw combat then?’
‘Of course,’ he laughs.
‘So you must have fought during the Jinan Incident?’
‘Of course,’ he says again. ‘During the Jinan Incident itself I was part of the initial assault on the Northern Railway Depot and then I was part of the defence of the Nissei Bōseki Company…’
‘And so you must have made a number of kills?’
‘Naturally,’ he smiles. ‘In Jinan I bayoneted six Chinese soldiers to death and then there were others…’
‘How long did you serve?’
‘I served my six years and then I was discharged as a petty officer, first class, and I received the White Paulownia medal of the Order of the Rising Sun.’
Inspector Kai says, ‘Congratulations.’
Kodaira bows his head.
Inspector Kai hands Kodaira a cigarette and then we all stand up and leave him to smoke –
In peace…
In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Adachi stares at the wall; Kanehara reads the telegram from Nikkō; Kai smokes –
Then Chief Inspector Adachi turns to me and smiles and asks, ‘You served in China too, didn’t you, inspector?’
‘Yes,’ I tell him. ‘I was in the army.’
‘And how old are you now?
’
‘I’m forty-one years old.’
‘The same age then.’
*
The light is already beginning to fade now. The shadows falling from the wall to the floor. Kodaira has finished his cigarette. Kodaira is looking at his fingernails. I sit back down by the door again. I say nothing again. Adachi, Kanehara and Kai sit back opposite Kodaira –
Inspector Kanehara leans forward in his chair and asks him, ‘So when you were discharged, you went back to Nikkō again?’
‘Yes,’ he says. ‘I went back to work for Furukawa.’
‘And how was civilian life after the navy?’
‘It was good for a time…’
‘And why was that?’
‘I got a wife.’
Kanehara asks, ‘And so this was your first wife?’
‘Yes. My first.’
‘Not your present wife?’
‘No,’ says Kodaira.
‘So how did you meet your first wife?’
‘The manager of the factory introduced her to me,’ he says. ‘She was his sister’s child, his niece.’
‘How old were you both?’
‘She was twenty-one and I was maybe twenty-eight.’
‘And so what happened?’
‘We lived together for about six months,’ he says. ‘But then she went back to her parents.’
‘Why was that?’
‘She went to help them plant rice but she never came back.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because her family wanted me to divorce her.’
‘Because?’
‘Because I’d had an affair with another woman and this woman had become pregnant.’
‘So you must have been happy then to divorce your wife?’
There is something now, something in his eyes…