＜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 about the Shimoyama Incident and the Mitaka Incident, two of the “Three Great Mysteries of the Japanese National Railways.” This time, I’d like to consider the Matsukawa Incident.
1. What is the Matsukawa Incident?
The Matsukawa Incident refers to a train traffic obstruction incident that occurred on August 17, 1949, on the Japanese National Railways Tohoku Main Line in Fukushima Prefecture.
Approximately one month after the Mitaka Incident, at approximately 3:09 AM on August 17, 1949, a passenger train (hauled by a C51 steam locomotive) traveling from Aomori to Ueno suddenly derailed and overturned while passing through Kanayagawa Village, Shinobu District, Fukushima Prefecture (now Fukushima City).
The incident occurred at the entrance to a curve between Matsukawa Station and Kanayagawa Station on the Tohoku Main Line. The leading steam locomotive derailed and overturned, and two following baggage cars, a mail car, and two passenger cars also derailed, killing three locomotive crew members.
Investigations at the scene revealed that bolts and nuts at the track joint near the point where the train overturned had been loosened and the joint plate had been removed. Furthermore, many of the spikes securing the rails to the sleepers had been removed, and one 25m long, 925kg rail had been removed and moved 13m. A search of the area revealed a crowbar and a wrench in a nearby rice paddy.
This can only be considered the work of a large group of people, including those familiar with railway tracks.
The “Matsukawa Incident” is a mysterious incident that struck the Japan National Railway Workers’ Union, whose fighting spirit against mass layoffs had been dampened by two other mysterious incidents, the “Shimoyama Incident” and the “Mitaka Incident.”
The Toshiba Labor Union was planning to go on strike at the Matsukawa Plant.
2. Is the “Matsukawa Incident” a false accusation?
This case has been called “the largest case of wrongful conviction since the war.” Although suspects were arrested, all were found not guilty in subsequent trials. The true perpetrators were never identified or arrested, leaving the case “unsolved” (so-called “dead end”).
(1) Investigation
The day after the incident, Chief Cabinet Secretary Koshichi Masuda issued a statement stating, “This incident is an unprecedentedly heinous crime. It was a planned act of sabotage by an organized group, and the Mitaka Incident and other incidents share the same ideological undercurrent.” Public opinion appears to have shared this view.
The investigative authorities investigated the case, suspecting it to be a joint conspiracy between the Toshiba Matsukawa Plant labor union and the Japan National Railway Workers’ Union (Kokuro), which opposed the mass layoffs at the time.
On September 10, a former JNR trackworker was arrested and confessed to the Matsukawa Incident. Based on his confession, accomplices were arrested one after another, most of whom were members of the Communist Party.
By October 21, a total of 20 people, including 10 Kokuro workers and 10 Toshiba union members, had been arrested and indicted one after the other.
(2) Trial
① First Trial
On December 6, 1950, the Fukushima District Court found all 20 defendants guilty (five of whom were sentenced to death).
② Second Trial
On December 22, 1950, the Sendai High Court found 17 defendants guilty (four of whom were sentenced to death) and three not guilty.
However, as the trial progressed, the defendants’ innocence became clear, and author Kazuo Hirotsu argued for their acquittal in the Chuokoron magazine.
In addition, writers and intellectuals such as Koji Uno, Eiji Yoshikawa, Yasunari Kawabata, Naoya Shiga, Saneatsu Mushanokoji, Seicho Matsumoto, Ineko Sata, and Sakae Tsuboi launched a support movement.
③ Supreme Court
On August 10, 1959, the Supreme Court overturned the second trial ruling and remanded the case to the Sendai High Court.
④ Retrial
On August 8, 1961, the Sendai High Court acquitted all defendants.
⑤ Prosecutors’ Appeal Rejected
On September 12, 1963, the Supreme Court rejected the prosecution’s second appeal, and all defendants were found not guilty.
3. Who was the real culprit in the Matsukawa Incident?
(1) Tatsujiro Nakajima’s Confession
In July 1970, Tatsujiro Nakajima confessed in the magazine “Asahi Geino” that he was the “real culprit.” He was a former Imperial Japanese Army special agent and, after the war, collaborated with the “Cannon Agency” and the “Public Security Police.”
The “Cannon Agency” was a secret intelligence agency directly under the Second Department of the General Staff of GHQ. Nakajima, together with members of the “Cannon Agency,” recounted in detail the operation to remove the rails.
(2) Letter from the “Real Culprit”
In November 1958, a letter was sent to attorney Yoshiaki Matsumoto, a member of the defense team, stating, “We are the real culprits.”
The letter reportedly read, “We, the actual perpetrators of the Fukushima train derailment incident, and the defendants currently on trial, are truly sorry,” and added, “Seven people were involved in the incident, located in Nagoya, Maebashi, and Okayama,” and “Two members of the Communist Party (sic) at the time were involved in the incident.”
At the time of the incident, nine tall men were seen walking from the direction of Matsukawa Station, and as the letter closely matches the description of the “letter from the real culprit,” lawyer Matsumoto Yoshiaki felt that “the letter was genuine.”
(3) Theory of US Military Plot
This theory claims that the incident was a plot orchestrated by SCAP and the police to suppress the labor movement of Toshiba employees who were supporters of the Japanese Communist Party.
This theory seems to be based on a number of puzzling points, including the cancellation of a freight train scheduled to pass through the site just before the accident, the police’s early arrival at the scene, and the suspicious death of a man who “saw a suspicious person near the scene” after the incident. This also coincides with Nakajima Tatsujiro’s confession in (1).
In addition to the Matsukawa Incident, we often see cases where defendants are found not guilty after requesting a retrial. When this happens, I always wonder, “Who is the real culprit?” and “It’s unacceptable that the real culprit is living comfortably without being arrested or sentenced to death.”
In 2010, the statute of limitations for serious crimes such as murder and robbery-murder was abolished. (Abolition of the statute of limitations)
However, I’m not confident that the investigative authorities will take the investigation seriously enough. Even in the Matsukawa Incident, I don’t think we can just be happy and say, “I’m glad all the defendants were found not guilty and the false accusations were cleared.”
4. Novels and other works dealing with the Matsukawa Incident
“The Matsukawa Incident” (by Seicho Matsumoto)
“The Matsukawa Trial” (by Kazuo Hirotsu)
“The World’s Most Mysterious Stories: The Matsukawa Incident as Seen” (by Koji Uno)
“The Matsukawa Incident” (director: Satsuo Yamamoto)
