＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Added March 30, 2024> I’m convinced that the “Shimoyama Incident” was most likely an assassination by GHQ.
After watching the NHK Special “Unsolved Cases File 10: The Shimoyama Incident, Parts 1 and 2,” broadcast on March 30, I became convinced that the “Shimoyama Incident” was most likely an assassination by GHQ.
This true-life drama depicts the struggles of a prosecutor as he tackles the “ultimate labyrinth” of the Shimoyama Incident. In 1949, during the occupation, JNR President Shimoyama suddenly disappeared and was found dead after being hit by a train. Was it suicide? Murder? An autopsy revealed that his blood had been drained. Prosecutor Ken Fuse (Mirai Moriyama) and reporter Kimio Yada (Ryuta Sato) track down the culprit. They discover a “mysterious man” (Reo Tamaki) who claims to be a Soviet spy and confesses to his involvement in the assassination. Behind this mysterious incident lies a conspiracy by a major power. What will be the outcome of this relentless investigation?
<Part 1: Drama>
“This case is shrouded in mystery. But after 10 years of investigation, something has become clear.”
In July 1949, President Shimoyama Sadanori suddenly disappeared while negotiating with the labor union regarding the dismissal of 100,000 Japanese National Railways (JNR) employees. He was later found dead, gruesomely hit by a train. An autopsy revealed that his body had been drained of blood. The case became embroiled in a fierce debate over whether it was suicide or murder. Fuse Ken (Moriyama Mirai), now in charge of the investigation as chief prosecutor of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, searches for clues to the possibility of murder in the case, which has many mysterious aspects that make it appear to be a suicide.
Asahi Shimbun reporter Yada Kimio (Sato Ryuta) pursues the core of the prosecutors’ investigation, clashing with Fuse, who is so secretive about information that he has earned the nickname “Hideken” (Ken Hide). While pursuing this complex, labyrinthine case, Fuse comes across a mysterious man, Lee Jung-hwan (Tamaki Reo), who claims to be a Soviet spy. Lee confesses his involvement in the assassination and begins to make shocking statements that only the culprit could know, revealing the conspiracy of the superpowers behind the incident.
<Part 2: Documentary>
Our reporting team obtained hundreds of pages of “top-secret” documents, revealing a previously unknown side of the Shimoyama case.
What were the investigative authorities really pursuing at the time? What were the suspected individuals involved in the case saying?
Of particular note are the documents on Soviet intelligence officer Lee Jung-hwan. The documents detail the path to Shimoyama’s death, including how he was abducted and where he was assassinated, a previously unknown mystery. It becomes clear that prosecutors were pursuing Lee’s testimony as the truth behind the case.
Subsequently, suspicions arose that Lee had access to the American intelligence agency CIC and received “secret orders.” Is his testimony true or false? The investigation is torn between these two lines. Through exclusive investigations, we discovered that someone who knew this mysterious “Lee” was living in the United States. A former American intelligence officer who was a member of GHQ’s anti-communist operations unit, Z Agency (commonly known as Cannon Agency), spoke on camera about what he had to say. It also revealed that behind the scenes, American intelligence units were working to weaken communism. Amid a succession of mysterious incidents, including the Shimoyama Incident, Mitaka Incident, and Matsukawa Incident, what was the existence of a “operation unit” that was operating in the shadows to turn Japan into a bulwark against communism?
When I originally wrote this article, I concluded that suicide was a likely possibility, despite many doubts.
However, after watching the NHK Special “Unsolved Cases File 10: The Shimoyama Incident,” which revealed investigative documents and interviews with people familiar with the case kept by Ken Fuse, the chief prosecutor in charge of the case at the time who continued the investigation in secret even after GHQ ordered it to be halted. He later became the Prosecutor General, and I became convinced that the “homicide theory” was correct.
More than 70 years ago, in 1949 (Showa 24), Japan was still under occupation by GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers), and post-war chaos was still ongoing. Food shortages and severe inflation forced the majority of the population to live off bamboo shoots.
From July to August of that year, three incidents occurred in succession, known as the “Three Great Japanese National Railway Mysteries”: the Shimoyama Incident, the Mitaka Incident, and the Matsukawa Incident. All of these incidents involve the Japanese National Railways (now JR), and all of them are mysterious incidents whose truth remains unclear.
This time, I would like to consider the Shimoyama Incident.
1. What is the “Shimoyama Incident”?
The “Shimoyama Incident” refers to the disappearance of JNR President Shimoyama Sadanori on his way to work on the morning of July 5, 1949, and his body being found early the following day on the 6th.
This incident occurred just before JNR was scheduled to implement “mass layoffs” under orders from GHQ. The day of his disappearance was a tense one, with personnel reductions at JNR and an important directors’ meeting scheduled for 9:00 AM. However, after leaving his home in a government car, the president instructed the driver to go to Mitsukoshi Department Store rather than directly to JNR headquarters. However, since the store was not yet open, he returned to Tokyo Station, where JNR headquarters was located, and took a complicated route that included a stop at Chiyoda Bank (now Mitsubishi UFJ Bank). He then returned to Mitsukoshi, told the driver to wait for about five minutes, hurried into the department store, and disappeared without a trace.
After his disappearance, he was first spotted inside Mitsukoshi and then on a Tokyo Metro Ginza Line train bound for Asakusa. Shortly after 1:40 PM, he spoke with a ticket gate attendant at Gotanno Station on the Tobu Isesaki Line, near the point where the car was hit. He then stayed at the Suehiro Ryokan, a hotel near the station, for approximately three hours, from 2:00 PM to just after 5:00 PM. Furthermore, between around 6:00 PM and just after 8:00 PM, there have been numerous eyewitness accounts of a person resembling the President along the railway line from Gotanno Station to the point where the car was hit.
The statute of limitations for prosecution as a murder case expired on July 6, 1964, and the case became an unsolved mystery (a case that has since gone cold).
2. Was it suicide? Or murder?
(1) Suicide Theory
Professor Hisahei Nakadate of Keio University has proposed the suicide theory, based on numerous testimonies of people seeing Shimoyama near the scene. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division, which was in charge of the investigation, and the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper also have proposed the “(impulsive) suicide theory.”
In addition, medical examiner Shinnosuke Yasoshima, who examined the body at the scene, determined it to be a suicide.
The Mainichi Shimbun appears to have adopted the “suicide theory” based on numerous eyewitness testimonies from the area. It is rare for a newspaper to clearly state the cause of a crime.
(2) Murder Theory
Professor Tanemoto Furuhata of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, who performed the autopsy, determined the body to have been run over after death. Professor Furuhata has not yet determined whether it was suicide or murder.
The “government” has expressed the view that it was a “murder by leftists,” implicating the involvement of the Communist Party, which was then gaining influence.
Because family and friends stated that there was “no reason for suicide,” the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Second Investigative Division and the Asahi Shimbun also adopted the murder theory.
The Asahi Shimbun announced its murder theory based on the above testimony from family and friends. It is rare for a newspaper to clearly state the truth about a case, but perhaps they were feeling competitive with the Mainichi Shimbun.
(3) My personal speculation
The truth remains a mystery, but there are stories that at the time, President Yamashita was worried about the mass layoffs, was diagnosed with neurasthenia and gastritis on June 1st, and was taking sleeping pills. His puzzling behavior on the day of his death leads me to suspect it was suicide. In modern terms, he was pressured by SCAP to impose mass layoffs while also facing harsh criticism from the labor union, which led to a neurosis. He refused to come to work that day, wandered around, and then impulsively committed suicide by jumping in front of a train.
However, given the autopsy results, which showed the body was run over after death, and the historical context described below, it’s easy to see why some people would try to use this incident to their advantage and propose a murder theory (or a premeditated assassination theory).
Even with eyewitness testimony, the murder theory is fully plausible if we consider it to have been cleverly orchestrated by a double.
Furthermore, since he disappeared after stopping by Mitsukoshi, it’s also possible that he was lured out by someone, abducted, murdered, and left on the train tracks.
Another puzzling story is that as the investigation into the Shimoyama Incident progressed, it was halted by instructions (pressure?) from GHQ.
When you consider the situation in the United States at the time, which feared the communist spread of Japan due to the influence of the communist Soviet Union, the absolute power of GHQ as the occupying power over Japan, and the existence of people connected to the former Japanese military who cooperated with GHQ, the “murder theory” seems to have some merit.
3.Historical Background
1949 was the “early days of the Cold War,” and in mainland China, the Soviet-backed Communist Party defeated the Kuomintang, resulting in the founding of the People’s Republic of China that October. On the Korean Peninsula, a communist regime and a pro-American government faced off across the 38th parallel. Amid this international situation, GHQ shifted its policy toward Japan from “democratization” to “anti-communism.”
GHQ also implemented an “austerity policy” based on the “Dodge Line,” forcing the mass layoffs of approximately 280,000 civil servants and approximately 100,000 Japanese National Railways employees.
4. Novels and Memoirs Dealing with the “Shimoyama Incident”
Yasushi Inoue, a former reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun, wrote “Black Tide” based on his company’s claim that the incident was a suicide.
Seicho Matsumoto wrote his novel “Japan’s Black Fog” based on the theory that the crime was committed by a U.S. military counterintelligence unit.
Kimio Yada, a former reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, wrote “Murder: The Shimoyama Incident.”
Additionally, a memoir titled “Shadow of the Shimoyama Incident” written by Norio Kagayama, who was the president of Japan National Railways and succeeded Shimoyama Sadanori, was published in a special issue of Bungeishunju in 1955.
