Chapter 48 Section Fourteen

The murder weapon in this case was a crowbar and a monkey wrench left at the scene.These two items are the only physical evidence left, and no fingerprints are left on them. Doubts were raised during all the appraisals as to whether the bolt caps on the rails could be loosened with the monkey wrench left at the scene; the debate surrounding the appraisals is still going on.But it seems to me absolutely impossible to work with a monkey wrench, so I don't think the work was done with a monkey wrench.Leaving aside the live wrench here, I would like to focus my research on the crowbar, which makes people imagine the figure of a prisoner.

This crowbar was engraved with marks like the English letters X·Y.It has already been mentioned that before the incident, no such mark had ever been engraved on the spare tools of the National Railways.There was a small amount of grass-green paint on the crowbar.Court records also bring up grass green paint as an issue. Having said that, I don't think the real sabotage squad just used a monkey wrench and a crowbar (fake one at that) left at the scene, I think they also used a hammer .It is said that the beating marks on the physical evidence fish plate show that someone had hit it hard with something like a hammer before removing it.

There is also a vertical stripe on this crowbar.According to the testimony of the National Railway, vertical stripes rarely appear on the crowbar, and horizontal stripes usually appear on the crowbar.Judging from the longitudinal lines of the crowbar left on the site, is this crowbar used for other work than the work of the National Railways? "Other" refers to uses other than the normal use of the crowbar.In other words, this alone makes people feel that this crowbar does not belong to the National Railways. This crowbar is made of gauge tie rods, which are thicker than the 30-kilogram rails of the national railway, and much thinner than the 37-kilogram rails, so people suspect that it is not of the national railway standard. Made of rail gauge tie rods.

The thickness of the crowbar, the X.Y mark that the National Railways does not have, and the suspicious color of the paint all make people naturally think of who the crowbar belongs to. However, with regard to the crowbar and the monkey wrench, at the symposium on "Views on the "Matsukawa Incident"" mentioned earlier, some people also made the following speeches.Masao Nomura, who attended the meeting, said: "Therefore, some people in the society asked whether this incident was done by the secret service of the occupying army? Did these things belong to them? Didn't the occupying army have a railway department (Transportation Command) at that time? I The strange thing is that I didn't hear that the agency brought any railway tools..."

He added: "I don't think the occupying soldiers brought locomotives, let alone crowbars and wrenches..." "I haven't heard of it" or "I think" is entirely the speaker's conjecture. I don't intend to comment on this point; Here are some transcripts of the symposium. Leaving aside the locomotive, the statement "not to mention crowbars and wrenches" is too much like the words of people who don't know the truth.The U.S. military is not stationed in Japan for sightseeing.It has always been in a posture that can fight at any time.It is the same in any country, the army always exists on the basis of being ready to fight at all times.During the period when the U.S. military was stationed in Japan, it was also prepared for all battles, and all combat tools were ready.Therefore, the tools used by engineers are also complete.In particular, the railway is the largest artery for transporting the army. Presumably, they have prepared better tools than those prepared by the Japanese railways in this regard.

If the United States were to go to war with Japan's neighbors, would the U.S. military rely entirely on Japanese railway employees for transportation?The U.S. military must have anticipated the possibility of a strike by railway workers, and has prepared a special force that can also carry out railway transportation on its own.As long as the U.S. military rules in the occupied area for a day, this posture and preparation will not be unplanned.Not to mention ordinary tools like crowbars and boards! In fact, when the United States first occupied Japan, it manufactured diesel electric locomotives for combat (the same type as Japan's DD50 and DF50) according to Japan's gauge, and shipped more than a dozen of them when it was stationed.During the occupation period, this locomotive was used all over Japan. The repair work was performed by the most frequently used Shinagawa locomotive, and the major repairs were performed by the Omiya Works and Hamamatsu Works of the National Railways.After the occupation situation ended, they allocated some of them (mostly those with a relatively recent manufacturing year) to the National Railways. The National Railways named them DD12, and now there are about five units in use.This type is the forerunner of the Japanese DD13 and DD11 types, and from the appearance point of view, they are almost the same.However, DD13 and DD11 are unique to Japan. The way of transmitting power is exactly the same as that of internal combustion locomotives, and they also use hydraulic torque converters.

But it is worth noting that the U.S. military has shipped a large number of parts and a large number of tools for disassembly and assembly that are unimaginable in Japan for repairing internal combustion electric locomotives.Some of these tools are probably still in some locomotive depot.It is said that when the locomotive technicians in the factory saw this locomotive for the first time, they were taken aback by knowing the careful battle plan of the United States. Given the fact that the naive suspicion raised by Nomura: "The soldiers of the occupying army did not bring locomotives, let alone crowbars and wrenches" is meaningless.