Seventeen

by Hideo Yokoyama

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  Table of Contents

  A Note About the Author and Translator

  Copyright Page

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  PREFACE

  Five hundred twenty dead, four survivors.

  The plot of Seventeen combines the real-life 1985 crash of a Japanese passenger plane with the fictional struggles of a local newspaper reporter.

  The scene of this crash of unprecedented proportions was a remote mountain range in Gunma Prefecture. At the time, I was working as an investigative/police beat reporter at a local Gunma newspaper. I arrived at the crash site after trekking for more than eight hours up a mountain with no routes or climbing trails. The terrain was steep and unimaginably narrow, and it was the rare lucky reporter who didn’t inadvertently step on a corpse. After sundown, I spent the night on the mountain, surrounded by body parts that no longer resembled anything human.

  For an extended period of time a huge volume of information was relayed from the ridge of Mount Osutaka by a huge number of reporters. And yet, despite the enormity of the accident, as time passed the interest of the public waned. The kind of information we call news will always eventually evaporate, fade from memory. That hollow sense of loss was one of the reasons I quit the newspaper industry, and turned my hand instead to writing fiction.

  News fades away, but stories stand the test of time. But in my case, even after my debut as a novelist, my mind was still possessed by that one shocking experience. My plan had been to write perfectly ordinary novels that relied on neither documented facts nor personal memory, but my fixation on the crash site got in the way of those ideals. Finally, seventeen years after the crash, the writing of this book enabled me to escape its curse … It took this novel’s main character the same length of time to be ready to revisit the events of August 1985. By finally letting go of the memories you cling to, you allow new doors to open. In Seventeen, in distancing the action from the crash site and allowing the drama to be played out in the newsroom, far from the immediate tragedy, a whole new story has come to life. I believe that by detailing every psychological shift the editorial team undergoes as they are inundated by one problem after another, I have shed some light on the workings of the Japanese media. I’m also confident that the reader will witness both the positive and the negative essence of human nature.

  —HIDEO YOKOYAMA

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Kyoichiro Anzai: Key member of the Circulation Department at the North Kanto Times (NKT), who has been in the job for just under ten years. In his mid-forties, three or four years older than Kazumasa Yuuki. An extremely enthusiastic character: fond of drink, laughter, talking, and shaking people heartily by the shoulder. A fanatical rock climber, who single-handedly started the NKT’s hiking club.

  Rintaro Anzai: Thirteen-year-old son of Kyoichiro and Sayuri Anzai. A shy boy by nature. (Rintaro is thirty years old when he climbs Tsuitate with Yuuki in 2002.)

  Sayuri Anzai: Anzai’s wife and Rintaro’s mother. A genuine and unassuming person.

  Aoki: Political correspondent at the North Kanto Times. Is away on an assignment in Tokyo at the time of the Japan Airlines (JAL) crash.

  Mitsugu Endo: Anzai’s previous climbing partner, who lost his life climbing Tsuitate in 1972.

  Kanae Fujinami: Head of the Ministry of Transport’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee, otherwise known as the JAL “crash investigation team.”

  Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda: A former Japanese prime minister, who left office in December 1978.

  Gunji: Works in the North Kanto Times’s General Affairs/Facilities Department. Has often recommended that its reporters upgrade to using word processors, but in vain. Joined the company at the same time as Yuuki. Loyal to Chairman Shirakawa, but also an advocate of neutrality in the workplace.

  Hanazawa: Junior police beat reporter at the North Kanto Times, and third in line at police headquarters behind Sayama and Wajima. A twenty-six-year-old with delicate features; has three years’ experience as a reporter. Accompanies Sayama up Mount Osutaka to the crash site on the first day.

  Harasawa: One of the members of the Ministry of Transport’s crash investigation team, who it transpires is a good friend of Tamaki’s university engineering professor. He implies that the cause of the JAL crash was likely the rear bulkhead.

  Iikura: Managing director of the North Kanto Times, and the second most powerful figure at the company. Reportedly consolidating his support base in Circulation, ahead of making a play for the chairman’s position. His subtle politicking has earned him the nickname “the Clever Yakuza.” He is former Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda’s closest ally at the NKT.

  Inaoka: Veteran member of the North Kanto Times’s Editorial Department, in charge of the readers’ letters page, Heartfelt. Worked for the paper’s Arts and Culture page for many years. Is due to retire the following year.

  Yasuo Ito: Head of the Circulation Department at the North Kanto Times. Has a distinctively oily voice, a hooked nose, and a mustache. He is Anzai’s boss, and is politically sided with managing director Iikura.

  Jinbo: Member of the copy team at the North Kanto Times. Responsible for the second local news page. Up until the previous year he had been a reporter at the paper’s branch office in Tatebayashi City. He is viewed by senior management as a failed reporter. Between twenty-five and twenty-six years old, he often has a flushed expression on his face.

  Kaizuka: Deputy chief of the NKT’s Book Publishing Division. Prior to this post he worked in the paper’s Editorial Department. Yuuki contacts him to sound out the idea of a potential JAL crash book.

  Kamejima: Chief copy editor at the North Kanto Times. Has a round moon face, and a habitually cheerful disposition. Nicknamed “Kaku-san” by his colleagues.

  Kasuya: Editor in chief at the North Kanto Times. Has a very large physical frame. Is nonconfrontational, and as such has the nickname “the Conciliator.” Not politically aligned to either the chairman or the managing director.

  Kishi: Sub-editor on the NKT’s Political News Desk. Joined the company the same time as Yuuki. Has a long, narrow face. Has two daughters, named Kaz and Fumiko, who—despite having adored him as infants—now treat him, in his own words, like “some kind of germ.”

  Kudo: The North Kanto Times’s Maebashi branch chief. He is about to turn fifty; has a professional reputation for panicking and a personal one for gambling. Is often found at the keirin cycle track.

  Kurasaka: General manager of the North Kanto Times’s Advertising Department. Is a couple of years older than Yuuki and was previously a member of the Editorial Department. Described as having a square face, and falls out with Yuuki when his shopping mall ad is dropped without notice.

  Mina Kuroda: Previously personal assistant to Chairman Shirakawa, though she left her position three weeks prior to the JAL crash under a cloud of controversy.

  Miyata: A staff member in the North Kanto Times’s Advertising Department. Also member of the company’s hiking club and an enthusiastic rock cl
imber. Is heavily tanned, and wears glasses.

  Ayako Mochizuki: The female cousin of Ryota Mochizuki. Twenty years old and a second-year media studies and history of journalism student at Gunma Prefectural University.

  Ryota Mochizuki: Junior NKT reporter who died in August 1980, six days into his assignment with Yuuki. Death was classified as a traffic accident, though is widely believed to have been a suicide, driven by shame.

  Moriwaki: A first-year reporter at the North Kanto Times who only started going on assignments in the few months before the JAL crash.

  Moriya: Chief political news editor at the North Kanto Times, and Kishi’s and Aoki’s senior.

  Moro: Chief of the NKT’s Book Publishing Division. Has longish hair that falls below his ears. A smug, know-it-all type.

  Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone: Japan’s prime minister at the time of the JAL crash. When the story breaks, he is preparing to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

  Nozawa: Copy editor for the North Kanto Times’s local news section. Started at the paper the same time as Yuuki, but rarely talks to him, due to a grudge held about a joint murder case scoop in 1970, for which Yuuki alone received the Editor in Chief’s Award.

  Oimura: Managing editor at the North Kanto Times. Nicknamed “the Firecracker,” owing to his short fuse. Is loyal to Chairman Shirakawa, and was one of the main beneficiaries of the paper’s golden Okubo/Red Army era.

  Sayama: The chief police beat reporter at the North Kanto Times. Thirty-three years old, with ten years’ reporting experience. Orphaned young: his father committed suicide when he was a child, and his mother died in a traffic accident. Like a younger brother to Yuuki, and saved Yuuki’s career by coming to his rescue over the Ryota Mochizuki incident in 1980.

  Shimagawa: Detective within the prefectural police department, and currently head of its Forensics Division. An elegant dresser, with the outward appearance of a salaryman. Two or three years older than Yuuki, he and Yuuki have not seen one another for roughly five years prior to the JAL crash.

  Shirakawa: Chairman of the North Kanto Times, and holder of the most powerful position in the company. Was previously editor in chief at the paper. Is wheelchair-bound, having damaged his spinal cord in a traffic accident six months prior to the JAL crash. Has a notorious temper, which has earned him the nickname “the H-Bomb.”

  Suetsugu: An old climbing acquaintance of Anzai’s. In his mid-forties, and around the same age as Anzai. Deeply suntanned, with a wide, friendly face. His small shoes are a result of his losing his toes to frostbite.

  Suzumoto: Assistant manager of the Photography Department at the North Kanto Times. He points out his junior colleague Tono to Yuuki when Yuuki comes looking for him.

  Manami Takagi: Personal assistant to Chairman Shirakawa. Described as stunningly beautiful. Started in the role three weeks before the JAL crash.

  Tamaki: A reporter in his third year at the North Kanto Times, currently covering the Maebashi City Mayor’s Office. It transpires he is the only reporter at the company with a degree in engineering, and so is subsequently reassigned to follow the Ministry of Transport’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee. Has an earnest face, and wears his hair in a neat side-parting.

  Todoroki: Chief local news editor at the North Kanto Times. Wears gold-rimmed spectacles with dark lenses. Along with managing editor Oimura, he has profited most from the paper’s Okubo/Red Army era—to the extent that he still carries clippings from the period in his pocket diary.

  Tono: A young member of the North Kanto Times’s Photography Department, in his fourth year at the company. Sports a neat crew cut, and his wife is pregnant at the time of the JAL crash. Is the only NKT staff member to witness Hanazawa’s punching Kurasaka on Mount Osutaka.

  Totsuka: A reporter based remotely at the NKT’s Fujioka City branch office. In his fifth year with the company.

  Ukita: Chief of the Advertising Department at the North Kanto Times. The superior of Kurasaka and Miyata, who cameos when calling Yuuki’s bosses to register his indignation about the dropping of the mall opening advertisement.

  Wajima: Deputy police beat reporter at the North Kanto Times. Considered too timid to hold this role. Is first to reply to Yuuki once the JAL crash site is confirmed, but then fails to make it up Mount Osutaka.

  Yamada: Reporter working on the regional news desk at the North Kanto Times. His trademark is his tousled hair.

  Chizuko Yorita: Provides administrative support to the Editorial Department at the North Kanto Times. Treated like a tea lady by the reporters. Twenty-seven years old, she aspires to be the paper’s first female reporter.

  Yoshii: A veteran copy editor at the North Kanto Times. Although he’s in his mid-thirties, his slight build and childlike face give him a much younger appearance. Almost always seen with a ruler in his hand.

  Jun Yuuki: Teenage son of Kazumasa and Yumiko Yuuki. A gloomy thirteen-year-old who largely ignores his father.

  Kazumasa Yuuki: The novel’s main character, and a roving reporter at the North Kanto Times. Yuuki is forty years old, and the paper’s longest-serving reporter. Only staff member to hold the unusual title of “roving reporter,” having shunned managerial career development since the issue with Ryota Mochizuki five years previously. Made JAL crash desk chief when the crash is confirmed to be in Gunma Prefecture. (Yuuki is fifty-seven years old when he climbs Tsuitate with Rintaro Anzai in 2002.)

  Yuka Yuuki: The daughter and youngest child of Kazumasa and Yumiko Yuuki. An energetic, sweet-natured girl.

  Yumiko Yuuki: Wife of Kazumasa Yuuki, and mother of Jun and Yuka.

  1

  The wheels on the old-fashioned train clanked to a stop.

  Doai Station on the Japan Railways Joetsu Line was in the far north tip of Gunma Prefecture. The platform was in a deep underground tunnel, with 486 steps to climb to reach daylight. Perhaps “scale” would have been a better word than “climb,” given how much his legs were having to work. It was fair to say that the ascent of Mount Tanigawa began right here.

  Kazumasa Yuuki began to feel pain as the tips of his toes pressed against his climbing boots. Pain-free, it would have been enough of a challenge to get to the top of the steps in one go. He reached the landing at the three hundredth step (the number was painted on it) and took a breather. He was struck by the same thought he’d had all those years before. He was being tested; maybe this was what separated the men from the boys. But if climbing stairs was enough to leave him out of breath, perhaps he didn’t have what it took to make an assault on Devil’s Mountain. Seventeen years ago, the excesses of a newspaper reporter’s lifestyle had left him struggling for breath; now, his fifty-seven years on this earth were taking their toll on his heart rate.

  He was going to climb the Tsuitate rock face.

  He felt his determination beginning to waver, but Kyoichiro Anzai’s twinkling eyes were still there in the back of his mind. He could still hear him, too—particularly one phrase that the veteran rock climber had casually dropped into conversation: “I climb up to step down.”

  Yuuki raised his head and began once again to climb the stairs.

  “I climb up to step down.” He had always wondered about the meaning of this riddle. He believed he had the solution, but the only person who knew the definitive answer wasn’t around anymore to ask.

  Ground level at last. He stood a moment, bathed in the gentle early autumn sunshine. It had just turned two in the afternoon, and the wind felt a little cold on his cheek. Takasaki City, farther south in Gunma Prefecture, where Yuuki had lived most of his life, was nothing like this. The temperature and the way the air smelled were completely different here.

  He set off walking north along Route 291, leaving the red, pointed roof of the station building behind him. He passed over a level crossing, through a snow-break tunnel, and then, on his right, was a large swath of lawn. Doai Cemetery.

  He glanced
at the monument put up by the local people of the village of Minakami. It bore the names of all 779 climbers who had lost their lives on Mount Tanigawa. The nickname Devil’s Mountain only began to convey its gruesome history. Other popular nicknames were Gravestone Mountain or Man-Eating Mountain. It was part of a two-thousand-meter mountain range, and nowhere on earth was there a deadlier peak. One reason was its location. It marked the border between two prefectures, and the weather there was notorious for changing with no warning; the results were often fatal. But the real reasons for Mount Tanigawa’s reputation were its infamous vertical rock faces.

  It was all about being the first to conquer an unclimbed rock face, and rivalry was fierce. In the early days, the most extreme climbers poured into this area like a tsunami, craving the challenge and the kudos. When the underground station was first built, they used to run at full speed up all 486 steps. Every minute—every second—counted in the competition to scale the rock walls. They climbed with abandon, and fell with the same abandon. The more the word went around that Tanigawa was a treacherously difficult mountain, the more adrenaline-pumped these young, passionate climbers became, and the list of names on the monument grew longer.

  But one of the Ichinokurasawa rock faces, Tsuitate, remained unconquered; for years it had been among rock climbers a synonym for “impossible” or “the ultimate challenge.” As time passed, equipment was improved, climbing skills became more sophisticated, and a dozen or so climbing routes were marked out on the Tsuitate face. Needless to say, it took the sacrifice of many more lives to accomplish this.

  The Worst of the Worst—the nickname given to Tsuitate.

  “Hey, Yuu. Let’s take a shot at Tsuitate!”

  Anzai had brought Yuuki to check out the Tsuitate face. It was Anzai, too, who had taught Yuuki everything he knew about climbing. Seventeen years ago, Yuuki and Anzai were supposed to have attached their climbing ropes and made their assault on the mountain.