死ぬのを待って42年
Reportaje:
42 años esperando la muerte
Álvaro Corcuera 23 ENE 2011
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News:
42 years waiting to die
Álvaro Corcuera 23 ENE 2011
Iwao Hakamada , 74 , is the longest serving person on death row worldwide . In 1968 he was blamed for killing four people. Many think that everything was a montage of the police. Every morning I wake up in his cell in Tokyo do not know if it will last. In your country, -668 executions since 1946 - arriving with an hour 's notice. She has gone mad and thinks about building a castle. We traveled to Japan to learn about its history .
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I do not understand how the other judges ignored evidence. The Major said : ' He's guilty . " That was enough . He ordered me to write the statement . For a week I was a mess . I put together 300 pages and condemn him to death. In an annex added that he did not agree , but I was forced to be silent , "recalls Norimichi Kumamoto, former Japanese magistrate. The court crime, the murder of four people from the same family in 1966 in Shimizu (Japan) . The defendant , Iwao Hakamada , a former professional boxer who takes proclaiming his innocence since his fate, hanging magistrates three : . . . two in favor and one against , the youngest , Kumamoto test weight , confession signed by Hakamada after examination 23 days 277 hours versus 37 minutes for his defense advice .
Hideko leads iwao visiting four decades , even during the 14 years he refused to see her
"We believe the police put the clothes in the miso and then cleared to incriminate Hakamada "
I do not know if I saw executions were cruel or rather if they were disgusting "
85 % of Japanese supported the death penalty, according to the latest government survey
"In the morning , when they came to tell who was next thought : ' I will touch me? "
For six days, the police tied me , kicked me and tortured me to confess "
moreSome 1,400 cities around the world illuminate buildings against the death penalty
Iwao Hakamada , 74 , is now the longest serving prisoner on death row around the world , over 42 years , according to Amnesty International . Japan is the other major industrialized democracy where the death penalty still applies , plus U.S.. But unlike here, in China secrecy prevails . Imprisoned alone, without communication with other inmates in a cell the size of three tatami (less than five square meters) which do not go more than 45 minutes a day , every sunrise is a psychological torture. Because most distinctive feature of the death penalty in Japan is that prisoners know when they will be executed. Are advised with an hour early in the morning , the day of the hanging, the only method used since 1873. No stag or last supper. Just a short stop in front of a Buddhist altar. Immediate family and lawyers, the only people who visit the prisoner during his sentence, are informed subsequent execution. It is " to prevent the prisoner Disturb " defend the Ministry of Justice , although ironically grab Otherwise, a terrifying stress.
In the early eighties came the turn of the companion cell next to Hakamada . When the guards took him shrieking , Iwao started going crazy . Stopped writing letters to his family for 14 years and refused visits . "I have no sister ," he said when approached Hideko Hakamada see the Tokyo Detention Center . Although negative , the woman , now 77, kept going once a month in jail , a complex gray concrete beside the Arakawa River , about ten plants and five main galleries, built in cross and organized around a central axis. When Hideko resumed meetings with his brother , the prisoner was broken . His talks today lack meaning . "I'm building a castle ," cried last August. She followed the stream : "Glad I hope you finish in time. " .
" 39 years ago I made a serious mistake ," wrote former judge Kumamoto in a book in 2007 , dynamiting a long silence. Left behind the secret , alcohol , guilt and what he lost : his career, his two wives, his two daughters. His words shocked the society. Found the man , punctual, Kazuko Shimauchi with his current partner , at a restaurant near the train station Fukuoka late last year. He , 74 , dress pants, shirt and tie. Ella, 70 , kimono. Like most Japanese do not shake hands let alone give two kisses . Just tilt the body in reverence Yorusko ( delighted ) . The former judge , leaning on a cane , speaks little . Look fearful. Just laugh when your choice of menu is praised : rice, vegetables , soup ... years ago, has a small voice , apologized to the mother and sister of convicted Iwao . He dropped to the ground, kneeling , bowing his head at the feet of the two women. They accepted the gesture, the greater the degree of repentance according to the customs . "Do not let the murder ," he told the mother.
"The government is just waiting for Hakamada die , not kill him ," thinks Nobuto Hosaka , a Social Democrat MP who receives us in his ramshackle office away from central Tokyo . In a country where the rules are gold, this policy (which believes in the innocence of the defendant ) got dodge . The March 10, 2003 had an unusual face to face with the prisoner, " quietly, but with a robust body " which offers us a transcript :
Hakamada Sir , today is her birthday .
'I have no age. I was born before the world .
- You know who you are ?
'I am God Almighty . Iwao not exist.
- Do you get along with the officials ?
- No guards . I command here .
- Do you exercise ?
- Way. I think of the harmful bacteria.
- You want to see him again?
'I'm very busy.
Thank you for having me.
'I have brought cheated.
The convicted , the youngest of six children, was born in 1936. When I was eight , the family fled from Yuto to Hamakita in Shizuoka Prefecture , to shelter from the bombs of World War II . Today, the two cities have been swallowed by another : Hamamatsu. From Tokyo by bullet train arrives in an hour and a half of shinkansen , . By the way Mount Fuji, snow in December, comes breaking the monotony of a boring grid cityscape. Iwao 's sister hails from the third floor . When climbing shoes off and we step on the tatami . There they wait thousands of letters and photographs.
At 16 , Iwao went to work in a car factory , while leaving judo for boxing . Business in the ring, turned professional , and in 1957 , at 21, was the sixth best ranking Japanese featherweight . He met a cabaret dancer and married . They had one son , Akira . In 1962 , an injury to the knee glared his career. He opened a bar and then closed it , his marriage broke up and the child was under his tutelage.
Beset by debt, in 1965 met Fumio Hashiguchi , owner of a factory - miso soybean paste used to make soup Shimizu , across the province. The master wanted someone strong to remove the pasty liquid. Iwao accepted and moved to a pavilion for employees, while his son remained in Hamakita with grandparents . A year later, on June 30, 1966 , the owner , his wife , Chizuko , and two of her three children , Machiko and Yuichiro , stabbed appeared : their bodies and housing in flames. Missing 200,000 yen (about 1,900 euros).
Police said Hakamada from the start. Because it was the only visitor . Because he had been a boxer . Because I was divorced. Because owed money . Because he had a cut on a finger ... And because his pajamas had a small drop of blood. He said the wound had made working. After two interrogation they let him go. But on August 18, 1966 , Hakamada is arrested again. And until today. He had two months to run, but he did not, even when the newspapers began to report , to the dictates of the police, the suspect was " H., Hamakita .": " I knew it was Iwao But why I was going to escape?she was innocent! "cries his sister. According to her, several agents tortured him until 9 September at days 11, 14 and 16 hours.
Japanese police still have disproportionate power . The law allows you to retain any suspect for 23 days for kangoku daiyo , cells within police stations where interrogations are performed without time limit , without counsel and without the guarantee of a camera to record it all. The federation that unites the country's lawyers spent years denouncing the method, which , they say, promotes false confessions . United Nations, Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights they are right and have reported harsh reports thereon , which listed Hakamada . As indicated, it was a victim of coercive system .
In the witness who signed the September 9, 1966 , former boxer autoinculpa theft , killing and burning . Ensures, among other things , wearing my pajamas to commit the crime. Recognizes also stabbing his victims with a ( fragile ) paring knife soy beans .
When a crime is admitted in Japan , the accused may be sentenced for . If it is a multiple murder or rape and robbery one , judges , and juries since 2009 also popular - will condemn him to death with ease. In an overwhelming 99.7 % of cases , the court will dictate the guilty verdict . Yugi Ogawara- lawyer famous for representing Shoko Asahara , spiritual leader of the sect who attacked with sarin gas in Tokyo's subway in 1995 - smiles when stresses that 0.3 % margin for success: " In 26 years I have only attained freedom from two customers , "says a small room in his office in Tokyo. With this brand, it is not considered an incompetent : "The problem is also the judges , not just prosecutors or police interrogation think the truth comes out if you think you never will amount dictate innocence. . ." A pressure that Ishii and Takami gave the judges, two former fellow judge Hakamada repentant the case.
The defendant , as with most Japanese today , I had no idea these percentages as unfavorable . Believed the police and the prosecutor when he promised , after more than three weeks of beatings, he signed the indictment, not to worry because at trial, if he was innocent , he would know . An agent wrote what they wanted to hear , and Hakamada , exhausted , slammed his footsteps.
In 1967, during the conclusion of the hearing, a laboratory specialist testified that the drop of blood found on the pajamas Iwao was insufficient for analysis. The test was used to detain him for 23 days was discarded. But the prosecutor, who is not required to show all the evidence under Japanese law , introduced new ones. The police , he said, had found six items of bloodstained Iwao in a tank factory in miso. The defendant did not recognize as his clothes .
Kumamoto, the repentant judge , remember that flew into a rage . " Why are there more blood in underpants pants?Should be reversed " , asked his colleagues . But Ishii and Takami had already decided . He confessed , he recalled . Lied in pajamas , but the rest he signed it is true , they said. He committed the crime with the trousers which is now stained with blood, insisted . Guilty , settled Ishii , who commanded Kumamoto write the sentence . The September 11, 1968 , two years after his arrest, Hakamada was hanged . "I could not look at him ," recalls former judge at the restaurant of Fukuoka. A year later, he has resigned from his career.
When Hakamada lawyer appealed , in 1976, the Tokyo High Court asked the prisoner pants stained with blood and miso is proved . Interestingly , they were not her size : " I am not the murderer ," he repeated . Dio the same. "They have shrunk because of miso or Mr. Hakamada has gained in prison ," reasoned the judges. "They confessed to the crime," he recalled . And confirmed the sentence. In parallel, the former judge and Kumamoto, flooded with guilt , entered into a process of self-destruction. " I never said anything to my family ," he admits now .
Obsessed , traveled to Shimizu to investigate on their own. Bought similar to that found in miso clothes and got into the barrels , and took umbrage with knives with a piece of animal flesh . He saw that the fabric is not shrinking , it became dark and the blood was indistinguishable . And knives wimps could not stand the amount of crime in the stabbing occurred . Anonymously sent the information to the attorney Hakamada .
Iwao is innocent and that the police not only test rode it today think his sister and the judge who sentenced him . I also believe the former Justice Minister Keiko Chiba or bar association in Japan, 22 of whom selflessly fighting for a new trial . Katsuhiko Nishijima , team leader, brings more than 30 years battling . We served in a huge glass area of Tokyo's skyscraper, along with two colleagues . Lists previous failures -1976 , 1980 , 1994, 2004 and 2008 - and expects to appeal the sixth time lucky : "We believe the police put the clothes in the miso to incriminate Iwao " .
If Nishijima and his team get the freedom to Hakamada , it is almost a miracle. Since the end of World War II and the signing of the new constitution in 1946 , 668 people have been executed in Japan (USA takes 1,236 since 1976) , regardless of their age or mental condition , and another 111 await their hour. Only four have come exonerated convicted runner in history, all in the eighties . Since then , no more . Because admit an error, clear it , the system falter . Hirotami Murakoshi , parliamentary - social democrat, progressive, liberal, in power since 2009 Democratic Party ( PD) - thinks that remain imprisoned innocent as Hakamada .
The idea the politicians share , but few dare to question the guidelines in a country where the Liberal Party ( PLD) - of - rights has ruled almost without interruption since 1955. In its modern , large and clean office of the National Diet (composed of Lower and Upper House ) , Murakoshi explains the difficulties of his position as Secretary General of the Parliamentary League against the Death Penalty and laughs when he remembers that all who have preceded in office have since lost the election . About 80 ( 722 ) Diet representatives belong to the League. Only ten have recognized in public. There are two reasons : the fear of losing the votes of a very favorable capital punishment population ( 85 % of Japanese support it, according to a survey conducted in February 2010 by the Government) and the fear of bureaucrats , ministerial officials they have, in practice, the baton of Japanese democracy.
When the PD won the elections of 2009 and Yukio Hatoyama became prime minister in September, lawyer Keiko Chiba- contrary to the death penalty , became Minister of Justice. The abolitionist minority esperanzó for months and there were no executions . But the July 11, 2010 , Japan held elections to the Lower House and Chiba lost his seat . Not to sharpen the already unstable Japanese politics , the new prime minister , Naoto Kan , kept in office until September of the internal elections in the PD .
For two months, Chiba, weakened , took three controversial decisions . First, he signed the executions of Kazuo Shinozawa and Hidenori Ogata, convicted of six murders and two persons respectively. Under the law, his signature was needed to be carried out . "I had no pressure from anyone ," argues now , five months later. While acknowledging : " The power itself has the Minister In practice , decisions are inclined side of the bureaucrats . " . On July 28 , the two men were executed in Tokyo, in the same prison where Hakamada lives and on the minister could do little during his tenure. Second, after the signing , Chiba decided to attend the hangings , the first time that a minister did. And third, a month after it opened to journalists (none abroad) tokiota execution room , one of the seven that are scattered around the country . From north to south : Sapporo, Sendai , Nagoya , Osaka , Hiroshima and Fukuoka are the other . Before the public had never seen one. Chiba and dynamited part of the railroad opacity that surrounds the death penalty in Japan , inconveniencing the civil service ministry .
Decided Chiba executions and then take the other two measures, thereby stirring the debate? Or rather was forced to sign the hangings and from there embarked on at least two decisions that attract attention of society before the end of his term ? " It would not be appropriate to use executions only as a means to stoke the debate. Carry you All my life with many contradictions , but I just had a responsibility to enforce the law. In order to comply with it, thought it was important to be present end "ditch now when we ask , in one of the few interviews he has granted since July.
It's dark and raining in Kobe. In a dimly lit , empty street is the office of Yoshikuni Noguchi, lawyer and former official of the Tokyo Detention Center . As Chiba Kumamoto or former judge , this man believes that the Japanese were deliberately hidden matters relating to the death penalty . He is determined to raise his voice , but it banned in 1974. As head of one of the halls of the prison - not physically there is a death row , but there condemned mixed in different rooms - he had to escort a prisoner to the execution chamber : "I had to stay But . wanted to see him . they blindfolded and tied her hands . at the center was the rope and the floor had a trap door. he was placed just above and tied the knot at the neck. three officers shot three strings ( now tightened three buttons , not knowing which one opens the trap door) and the floor was opened. prisoner gave a little jump up and immediately fell and disappeared from view to a lower floor. went down and there were a representative of the prosecutor's office and a doctor. opened his shirt to the man and his heart auscultated . still beating. For fifteen minutes I saw him move . When it stopped , I left . " The method is the same today . With less detail, Chiba adjectival what he witnessed half a year ago : "To date I have not found an appropriate expression for what I saw ... I do not know if it is right to say that was cruel or if I can rather be described as disgusting " .
" Is it possible to know who told you that? " Interrogate Masayuki Shirakawa Hidefumi Shou and the forced smile. The new building of the Ministry of Justice is a mole near the grounds of the Imperial Palace and the headquarters of the Japanese police. NGOs say is another demonstration of their coexistence . Shou and Shirakawa , two senior prison the Japanese do not seem happy to know , much less someone has cracked the silence and detailed how a hanging. "Executions are not unconstitutional ," says Shou with the elusive look while not spending sheets for the Penal Code. True, the Supreme Court so established in 1948 , two years after the Constitution , which prohibits cruel practices against the Japanese was signed. " We have never executed , right? So nobody knows how hard it is " ironic . Have you seen any? , Asked . " I can not answer personal experiences ," he says . Do you know if Iwao Hakamada ? , Continue . "We can not discuss individual cases," he decided . Meanwhile, Shirakawa says the question-answer in a notebook , obedient .
Sakae Menda , 85 , is the closest person to Hakamada there . During 35 was in prison , unjustly sentenced to death for a double murder . He lives near where they arrested him in Omuta, near Nagasaki , in a modest building surrounded by gardens which he works . During World War II , he recalls, he worked in an aircraft factory in the army. Apparatus which would then be piloted " by kamikazes , the wings of God."
The divine being worshiped was none other than Emperor Hirohito, who listened to the same radio Menda declare the surrender of Japan in August 1945 , days after the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. " . . Came a massive sound and light We went outside and saw the mushroom cloud as we be 40 kilometers from the city ," he recalls , "It was a terrible war ." Three years later , Menda suffered a brutal arrest. Your case looks like a carbon copy of Iwao : " They tied me they beat me kicked hit me I was dragged by the feet I was tortured for six days would not let me sleep, eat or drink I smashed his face was bleeding . . . . . . . . . cops , judo or kendo black belt , attacking me one after another, like snakes with a frog . "
Sitting on a carpet , Menda hands rubbed against her legs nervously : " At eight in the morning, when they came to tell who was the next , you could hear them coming all thought . Would I be playing to me if you did not give ? the envelope , you could breathe. " In a box of melons keeps her memories as a treasure. It still retains the original of his confession shows us his signature returned when he was released in 1983. It was the first runner came alive in Japanese history after grant him a new trial , which also seek attorneys Hakamada . "When I left prison , the first thing I did was go to drink 10 beers . Well, actually it was three ," she laughs . He lay by alcohol , which for years had not tasted , drank the night in a karaoke, where he recorded some songs. A dusty tape starts rolling . Tokyo blues sounds , a melancholic melody Japanese heartbreak and loneliness ...
In Japan, the harmony and the benefit of the group are important. While harming oneself - as - suicide is socially accepted , harming others , breaking the harmonious atmosphere , is frowned upon . That is why the Japanese are so polite mostly , although some accept that sometimes it is just a front. In the case of the death penalty when a person is convicted , his family usually abandon , by shame and dishonor.
Menda lost his family forever. Kumamoto former judge , also , in its way , is life apart : only recently , after publicly acknowledging what happened , one of his daughters called him after years without it. For Hakamada was no different: " . . . . Could not go out were discriminated against and we felt ashamed Iwao was in the newspapers did not matter that it was true or not People pointed us like criminals," recalls his sister. The situation was so untenable that sent Akira , the son of Iwao , an institution : . . "Grandparents preferred out of the family was best for the child to live out and remove the label for the rest of his life had two or three years. " Today , Akira , which still retains the name Hakamada , is married and has children. Never been told who Iwao . "He knows the situation of his father. But just want to live your life. Wants not involved ," explains cold , sister prisoner.
If one day Hakamada is declared innocent, as happened to Menda , and justice admits error, Hashiguchi crime family in the factory miso be unresolved . A film called Box , designed in Japanese theaters last year, could also be seen at festivals in Rome and Toronto in 2010 - try to give some clues about who or who were the real culprits . The theory , also mentioned by Iwao 's sister , is it could have been a montage of the only surviving daughter of the murder, facing his family and lover accounting company . Supposedly, only she knew the existence of life insurance and where were 200,000 yen . Perhaps the film adventure , they compincharon . Apparently she took the policy, while the man immediately fled to Japan 's northernmost island , Hokkaido cold . This place is listed in the last scene of Box when an enigmatic former judge convicted Hakamada Kumamoto and share a snowy landscape. Tatsunori Natsui , screenwriter , explained , as night fell in Tokyo , subtle intentions . "Hopefully that person in Hokkaido , no need to fuck the police , see the film and understand the wish to understand that damage must die for what he did . wish I stop writing that Hakamada is innocent. Hopefully then suicide . that's what would make a good Japanese . "
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