Chapter 53 first quarter

At around 7:30 p.m. on January 21st, the snow in Sapporo City was covered with snow, and was swallowed up by the night that had just fallen. Two bicycles were galloping along Minamirokujo West 16-chome when gunshots were heard suddenly, and one of them fell down on the snow.The other bicycle continued to run as usual, and disappeared into the darkness after about 300 meters.At this time, the radio was broadcasting "Three Songs". There are few pedestrians on this street, and only a few street lamps are lit here and there on the frozen road. After receiving the report from pedestrians, the police station's car arrived immediately, and the policeman picked up the shot man and was surprised.It was recognized from the face that it was Kazuo Shiratori, the chief of the police department of the Sapporo Central Police Station. The bicycle he was riding fell beside the bloody corpse.

Although there were few pedestrians, some people still saw the two bicycles speeding before the accident.One of them was an employee of the Hokkaido Agency. When he walked to the ruins of the burnt post office nearby, he saw a person riding a bicycle passing by his right at an ordinary speed; about six feet away, another person was also riding from behind. The bicycle galloped past the first bicycle. The clerk didn't pay special attention, so he couldn't recall what the cyclist was wearing afterward.He hummed a tune and walked unhurriedly.When approaching Nishi 16-chome Street, I heard a bang in front of me, almost like a bicycle tire blasting.

Following the sound, he saw the back of two bicycles, one of which was heading straight to the west, and the other fell there.He hurried over to see that the person lying on the snow was wearing a black coat, a ski cap, and glasses, lying prone, with a lot of blood flowing from his mouth and nostrils. Another witness was a fifty-two-year-old woman.As soon as she reached the middle of the sixteenth street, she saw two bicycles passing by.One of them was a little bit ahead, and the other was speeding to the right of it, as if trying to chase after it.The front wheel of the bike behind is almost touching the rear wheel of the previous one.Since the two bicycles were so close together, the woman thought they belonged together.

Two bicycles passed her by about six feet.At this time, only a crackling sound was heard, and in an instant, the person in the car in front had a small firecracker-like fire flashing from his waist, and then the person suddenly slid, and fell down as if he had slipped off a bicycle. on the way. Another witness was a twenty-six-year-old man who was also an employee of the city hall.Here is his testimony: "I walked to the middle of the 16th-chome, and inadvertently turned my head and looked to the left. I saw 20 to 30 meters behind me. On the road on the left, there were two parallel bicycles speeding towards me. I thought: Beware that the bicycle is coming, I have to drive away, so I turned my head around again and walked westward for five or six steps.

"After a while, I heard two bangs in succession. As I was walking, I turned my head and looked in the direction of the sound on the left. I saw the two cyclists just now, and the one on the left seemed to have fallen from the car. Falling on the road, the one on the right didn't care about the fallen person, and drove towards me at a normal speed. "I turned my face away again. When I got near the butcher's shop, I heard a slight hiss behind me—it was the sound of a bicycle going fairly fast. I turned my head and looked at the bicycle to the right. The man pedaled his bike with his back flat, and rode past me at a violent speed. He turned a ninety-degree turn at the corner of a pawn shop facing the street at Shiqiding, crossed the snowdrift, and ran forward to the south. Abducted.

"I heard the hiss of the bicycle behind me. I turned around and saw the face of the cyclist from the side. When he pedaled with his back flat, I saw his figure clearly again, so I roughly knew him. His face and attire. He was about 27, 8 to 30 years old, no hat, long hair, fluffy and not trimmed, duck face, no glasses, his face was white or black, but he couldn't see clearly. From behind It seems that he is not small, and although he is not fat, I think his physique is burly." (Records of circumstantial witnesses) In addition, there is an eyewitness.It was a housewife who lived near the scene. Her talk was published in "Hokkaido Daily News" (July 12, Showa 27):

"At seven o'clock in the afternoon on January 21st, I was standing in front of the bookstore in Minamirokujo Nishi 15chome. At this time, two bicycles came from the east. I walked into the middle of the road and looked at my side. He was very pale, wearing a black coat and black hat. I remember that the other person seemed to be wearing black clothes. At that time, the person on the right was facing the person on my side (white Bird) said something, but he didn't answer. There was an electric light nearby, and I remember it was quite bright. I asked the bookstore if they had the book I wanted, and when they said no, I went straight to the 11-chome bought.

"On the way back, as soon as I reached 15-chome, I heard "Sanzhige" being broadcast loudly on the radio in the tavern. After walking for a while, I saw a man lying on the ground, and the bicycle fell beside him. "There were two or three people there, saying: 'Probably drunk.' Aunt Mikami who lived in the third house on the corner came at this time and said that there were two bangs just now. There was a man in a black coat He put his hand on the man's shoulder and asked, 'What's the matter?' and the man replied 'Yeah'. He was alive then."

Here is a brief talk about the experience of the police department of Kazuo Shiratori who was killed. The police department was thirty-six years old at the time.Fifteen years ago, he became a policeman in Hokkaido and worked in the foreign affairs unit until the armistice. He was also sent to Harbin College to learn Russian during his tenure. After Japan's defeat, he worked in the security unit and was promoted to the chief of the security section of the Municipal Police Department, taking charge of the approval of the opening of the business. Shiratori has previously been engaged in the activities of the ultra-high police for the purpose of suppressing left-wing movements.From August to October of the 26th year of the Showa era, as soon as the Japanese Communist Party adopted the "military struggle" policy and made preparations, Shiratori, who served as the chief of the security section, arrested party members one by one and put them in prison.The Japanese Communists really hated Shiratori, seeing him as their worst enemy against them.

There are various legends about Shiratori.On the afternoon when he was murdered, his whereabouts were as follows: he only showed up at the police station, then went to the bar "Zilang" in the city's south four-jo west four-chome, and then went to two brothels.Because he is in charge of managing discipline, he is very comfortable in this area. The "White Bird Incident" published by the "'Shiratori Incident' Countermeasures Committee" contains the following passage: "Speaking of the 'Purple Wave' bar, until the first year of the incident, the office of the Communist Party's local committee was still located near this bar. This office of the Communist Party was attacked several times by gangs armed with pistols Attacks by bandits. 'Purple Waves' used to be a complex place, where bandit leaders often met with the second king of the 'counterintelligence team' to receive instructions. Shiratori probably not only got in touch with the US secret service every day, but wanted to come He also met with such bandits and right-wing agents that day, but the authorities concealed these circumstances to avoid prosecuting Shiratori's actions from this point."

Before the "White Bird Incident", there had been a series of sinister incidents caused by Communist Party members near Sapporo.On the eve of the Otaru Temple Fair, there was an incident where someone threw it at the police team that guarded the area.The so-called "red light incident" was also exposed.The plan was to stop the coal train with a red signal and let the citizens grab the coal on the train.Then another incident happened: due to the sit-in demonstration "Give us rice cakes!" Hundreds of threatening postcards were sent to the Shiratori police department, as well as the mayor of Sapporo and prosecutor Shioya in charge of public security. The authorities believe that this "violent behavior" by members of the Japanese Communist Party coincides with the "military struggle" proposed by the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party.Based on the series of activities of the party members, the authorities estimated that the shooting of the Shiratori police department was also done by some of them. The investigative authorities believe that the murderer who shot the Shiratori Police Department was a member of the Japanese Communist Party, and decided to take the free laborer branch first. A serving police chief was shot dead.Needless to say, the police authorities were extremely nervous.In order to search for the murderer, the investigative headquarters was in full swing.From the morning of the third day (23rd) after the incident, as if mocking them, the Communists also printed "Look, Heaven and Earth!" "Leaflets with such a title were distributed throughout the city. The first sentence of the leaflet is: "The vicious enemy of freedom, the shameful end of the police chief of Shiratori City is the fate that all fascist policemen are destined to suffer." Take this as an opportunity to rise up and engage in the revolutionary struggle.The flyer was signed "Sapporo Committee".This is the so-called "Tianzhu Leaflet". According to the bullets taken from the body, the cause of the death of the White Bird Police Department was found out.The bullet was determined to have been fired from a 1912 Model 1912 Browning revolver in thirty-two caliber.A bullet casing also lay near the scene where the body lay. It can also be inferred from the state of the bullet's penetration and the traces of gunpowder smoke on the clothes and skin that the murderer fired at the police station from a very close range. Judging from this situation, as eyewitnesses said, the two bicycles were almost running side by side; as soon as they rode to the scene, the person on the bicycle behind sniped the Shiratori Police Department riding on the front bicycle from behind. .

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