＜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
I previously wrote an article about the Shimoyama Incident, one of the “Three Great Mysteries of the Japanese National Railways.” This time, I’d like to consider the Mitaka Incident.
1. What is the Mitaka Incident?
The Mitaka Incident refers to the runaway unmanned train incident that occurred on July 15, 1949, at Mitaka Station on the JNR (now JR) Chuo Line.
At 9:23 PM on July 15, 1949 (now 8:23 PM due to daylight saving time at the time), during the GHQ occupation, a seven-car train, including four unmanned 63-series electric trains, left the JNR Mitaka Depot (now JR East Mitaka Rolling Stock Center) and entered Mitaka Station’s outbound platform 1. It crashed into a buffer stop at a speed of approximately 60 km/h, broke through the buffer stop, and derailed and overturned.
The derailment and overturning caused a major disaster, killing six people and injuring 20 in the shopping district and other areas adjacent to the tracks.
This incident dealt a major blow to the National Railway Workers’ Union (Kokuro)’s “struggle against mass layoffs,” resulting in the Kokuro Central Committee withdrawing its policy of using force, including strikes, while layoffs proceeded smoothly.
2. Was it a “single perpetrator”? Or was it a “conspiracy with the Communist Party”?
(1) Investigation
The next day, Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru stated that “certain unions and the Communist Party are provoking and inciting social unrest.”
Investigating authorities also assumed “the possibility of an organized crime by Communist forces.” The motive was a planned strike by the National Railway Workers’ Union (Kokuro) in September of that year.
Ten Communist Party members who were members of Kokuro and a former driver, a non-Communist, were arrested for “a crime committed as part of a political conspiracy aimed at communist revolution.” All ten were indicted, except for one Communist Party member who had an alibi. Takeuchi was given a life sentence rather than the death penalty because he rebelled against his dismissal, there was no planning, and he did not anticipate the resulting loss of life.
(2) Trial
① First Trial
In 1950, the Tokyo District Court sentenced non-Communist Takeuchi to life imprisonment for the crime of causing death by derailing a streetcar, which was deemed a solo crime, while acquitting all nine Communist Party members, dismissing the conspiracy as a “castle in the air.”
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, and other media outlets criticized the verdict, which handed down life imprisonment rather than the death penalty, by publishing the opinions of victims and their families. The Asahi Shimbun favored a life imprisonment. Unlike today, at the time, newspapers seemed to express opinions and criticism of court decisions.
② Second Trial
The prosecution appealed, seeking a “consent verdict.” In 1951, the Tokyo High Court, after a written hearing alone, overturned the first trial verdict, sentencing Takeuchi to death and acquitting the other nine. The innocence of all nine was thus upheld.
③ Supreme Court
His defense lawyer appealed, but in 1955 the Supreme Court rejected the appeal without even holding oral arguments, and Takeuchi’s death sentence was finalized. However, the vote, 8-7, by a single vote, caused controversy. Perhaps for this reason, it became customary for the Supreme Court to hold oral arguments in subsequent appeal hearings.
Takeuchi died in prison at the age of 45 due to a brain tumor. His testimony apparently changed seven times before reaching the Supreme Court, going through various changes including “innocent,” “single perpetrator,” and “multiple perpetrators.”
In his “Supplementary Request for Retrial,” Takeuchi claims, “My lawyers persuaded me that even if I admitted my guilt, the sentence would not be severe. A people’s government would surely be established soon. If I admitted my guilt alone and helped other Communist Party members, I would become a hero.”
Furthermore, Kaga Otohiko, who met Takeuchi, quoted him as saying, “I’m a weak person, after all. And because I’m weak, I trust people easily. When so many people, from the party and the labor union, told me they trusted me completely, I was so happy that I trusted them. (Omitted) In the end, it’s practically like I was executed by the party.”
I believe that the perpetrator, Takeuchi, was “instiguished by a Kokuro union member who was a Communist Party member to commit his crime,” just like “the Muslim boy who committed a suicide bombing because he was tempted to become a hero of holy war (jihad)” and “the perpetrator who assassinated presidents and other important people because he was tempted to become famous and go down in history,” and I feel there is something sad about him.
3. Novels and other works dealing with the Mitaka Incident
Norio Katajima: “The Mitaka Incident – What Happened in the Summer of 1949?”
Shoji Takamizawa: “The Innocent Death Row Prisoner: Keisuke Takeuchi in the Mitaka Incident”
Ryoro Komatsu: “The Mitaka Incident”