Chapter 59 Section VII

It seems that even the Sapporo High Court could not let go of this point. It disagreed with the following two parts of the confession contained in the judgment of the first instance and denied it: "Two shots were fired with a pistol, but the casing of the second bullet Wrapped in a handkerchief wrapped with a pistol." "Hiroshi Sato said that after he committed the crime, he went to report to Murakami immediately. Murakami said: Thank you for your hard work. Let's have a glass of wine and go to sleep today, and give him money." ——The High Court rebutted these two points: "It's hard to believe."

However, although the High Court denied this specific fact, it concluded that: In terms of the overall atmosphere, it is "generally believed" that Hiroshi Sato was the prisoner who directly shot and killed the Shiratori police department. Why, then, were there two shots when only one bullet was fired? Is it because the nearby houses are densely populated, causing echoes, which sound like two gunshots, so the testimony has different versions of one and two shots?It made sense in this way: the newspapers took up the two-shot story and reported that two shots had been fired.The false name of chasing equals was heard from Zuo Tengbo, so I used this kind of saying.

In addition, there is circumstantial evidence enough to prove that the murderer is not Hiroshi Sato. That is the conversation of the eyewitnesses mentioned at the beginning of this article, one of whom was a woman who lived near Sato's home. She said: "At this time, two bicycles came from the east. I went to the middle of the road and looked at the face of the man on my side. He was very pale, wearing a black coat and a black hat. I remember that the other person seemed to be wearing black clothes. At that time, the person on the right side said something to the person next to me (Shiratori), but he didn't answer. There was an electric light nearby, and I remember Quite bright."

The eyewitness saw one of them clearly in a fairly bright place, and even saw that he was very pale.If the other person she saw was Hiroshi Sato, who had lived nearby since childhood, she should have recognized it right away.But she regarded that person as a complete stranger, and only said lightly, "I remember that the other person seemed to be wearing black clothes," which meant that he was actually not Hiroshi Sato. Furthermore, as far as the prisoner's psychology is concerned, would he commit murder near his own home?Even if you have the opportunity, you will think that the location is not suitable, and find another place farther away to attack-I think this is the normal criminal psychology.

In any case, this passage was not confessed by Hiroshi Sato himself, but was equal to "heard from Sato's mouth".According to this passage, Hiroshi Sato was regarded as the murderer of the shooting, and Kuniji Murakami was charged with murder because of "conspiracy". There is another strange thing about this note about tying.It is said that after he was arrested in Tokyo and escorted to Sapporo by investigators, he was not sent to a detention center immediately, but was detained in Yuehan Police Station for a month or so, and then transferred to the Daonong Club (hotel) in the urban area. , was released from detention and received generous treatment.Prosecutor Abe negotiated with the police department in charge and asked him to write a 550-page note titled "The Trend of the Sapporo Committee Up to the "Shiratori Incident"".

This note thus became his confession, verbatim, on which the published outline of the "White Bird Incident" is based.The Communist Party accused that this note was not written by Tingping himself, but was written with the help of the prosecutor in the name of Tingping. In short, in this case, there was only evidence of circumstances throughout. Neither the important murder weapon, the pistol, nor the bicycle the prisoner rode was found. For this bicycle, the investigating authorities probably also took great pains. Taihei said at the beginning that he had asked Sato Hiroshi: "Who did you borrow the bicycle from?" Sato replied that it was "borrowed from oto (sound)".But after being interrogated by the police, Taiping changed his words and said: "Maybe Sato said that oto did not refer to Otokawa-kun, but 'brother'." It was dilapidated and not at all like the "newer car with a quieter sound and faster speed" as described by eyewitnesses.The police interrogated Chaping again on this point, but he changed his words again: "Maybe what Sato said." omote refers to the open party, which means that it is the bicycle used by the Sapporo Committee of the Communist Party.This was also investigated, but no conclusive evidence was found.On that point, Tie's testimony was vague and has come under fire from the defense's side.

The only physical evidence is a bullet found at the practice range in Horomi Pass.Although there is only a one-in-a-trillion chance that the rifling marks were different on these two bullets and the one taken from White Bird, presumably from the same pistol, yet scientifically the bullets In any case, it was not the bullet used in the original exercise.Controversy in this regard has already been explained above. But during the second search with Gao An present, that is to say, when the second bullet appeared—the police who followed Gao An picked it up at the scene one by one.Gao An looked at it and said, "That's it, that's it, it's nickel-plated like this."

Seeing the bullets I found, I deliberately said, "Hey, that's it, it is indeed silver-plated like this"-this kind of excuse-like statement seems a bit unnatural.This feels like a ploy to emphasize this point on the record after the fact.Gao An said to Prosecutor Takagi on August 16, Showa 28: "I do remember that we assembled at Murate's house and went to practice shooting together. When we assembled, Hanai brought a Browning pistol Show you guys--that was the first time I saw this pistol. I remember the bullets were about three centimeters long and were brass-coloured, like rifle bullets." (Third Confession Record) The two bullets were shot in full found in different directions.According to the testimony of Gao An and Tingping, it was "a slope with a big linden tree growing. The team members shot each of the fallen leaves on the snow."Then the bullet should have landed in one place, but it was picked up far away.The confession also said that "targeting the fallen leaves on the snow", but the snow on the Horomi Ridge is very deep. Could it be that there are still leaves that fell on the snow from the previous autumn?

Besides, the bullets taken from Shiratori were made of brass, while the bullets taken from the practice range in Horomi Pass were nickel-plated.Regarding this point, the prosecutorial authority said that since the bullets were collected from all over the place, it is not surprising that they are different. But during this exercise, "the team members each fired a shot."Only "fired one shot", can it really be said to be a "strict" exercise?Moreover, the tied note did not state what kind of pistol was used when shooting. He also said that the training was "very strict" and "an act of terror" at the same time, but how strict was it?What exactly does the so-called "terrorist act" refer to? ——He never mentioned specific content like this.

It is said that this kind of shooting exercise was proposed by Shishido and that Murakami instructed the team members to hold it.It is said that Murakami often told the party members in the Sapporo area before: "Shiratori must be killed." It was originally Taihei, Gao An and Sato Naomichi who mentioned Murakami in their testimony.It is worth noting that all of them are people who left the party in prison. Who exactly prompted Murakami to take this step?Is there someone behind him to guide him in this direction? In this case, it was Murakami's statement that became the key evidence of the situation.Especially in cases where there is no physical evidence, the weight of situational evidence will inevitably increase greatly.

It is said that Shiro Yoshida, who was specially sent to "Hokkaido" by the Japanese Communist Party and known as Shida Shigeo's right-hand man, once criticized Murakami after the "Shiratori Incident", saying that he was a "petty bourgeois, hooligan gangster-style impatience," but was Murakami instigated by someone else to take this step? Yoshida is the top leader of the local party organization. He was in Sapporo with Murakami. It is inconceivable that he did not notice Murakami's actions and criticized him afterwards. Here, I inadvertently remembered an episode of the Naomi agent M (Noboru Matsumura) who infiltrated the Japanese Communist Party around 1967. Takekichi Kazama wrote in his book "The Underground Work of the Japanese Communist Party": "It is said that there were spies in Japan as early as the 'March 15 Incident' in the third year of Showa. Around the year of Showa 67, M (or Matsumura) occupied the most important position in the party. The party's finances, real estate , secret work, international liaison, etc., but all the keys to underground activities are in his hands. This shows how ignorant the Central Committee members at that time—especially me. He worked under the leadership of others. After Tanaka and other members of the Party Central Committee were arrested, he became the backbone of the Party's leadership. I was arrested at around 11:20 am on October 30, Showa 7, and he went into hiding immediately. stand up." This man surnamed Matsumura became the executive member of the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party as soon as he returned from Moscow, and was in charge of the work of the International Department. In the second year (Showa 5th year), 1,500 people were arrested across the country, and almost all the central government agencies were destroyed. This time, Matsumura escaped again. In August of Showa 6, Matsumura established the Organization Department, and after the establishment, he gave up the position of head of the Organization Department to Konno and Tsiro.Matsumura himself served successively as the minister of the International Department, the Military Department, the Finance Department, and other ministries, and also served as the director of the Real Estate Fund Bureau.At this moment, he sent people to attack the Omori Kawasaki 100th Bank. As a result of holding such a position, he is well aware of the internal situation of the Japanese Communist Party.And because of his status, he never told anyone about his secret residence.But on the other hand, he knew the secret residence of all party members.When the leaders of the Japanese Communist Party came to meet him somewhere, he informed the police that they were arrested.As a result, the Japanese Communist Party was destroyed to such an extent that there was almost no room for other activities except prisons. The Japanese Communist Party was so passionate that it demanded a public trial of Matsumura, but even though the lawsuit went on until then, Matsumura's name never appeared. What is the purpose of Matsumura?Not only did he want to destroy the organization of the Japanese Communist Party, he also sent people to attack Omori's bank under the pretext of raising funds and robbed 30,000 yen at that time.It can also be seen from this incident that one of his goals is to keep newspapers silent on the purpose and program of the Communist Party, and to publicize to the people that the Communist Party is a terrorist conspiracy organization that specializes in murder, robbery, fraud, and beauties. Counting bandit-like means, running frantically in order to obtain funds.Through the robbery incident, the common people had a terrible impression of the Communist Party.No matter how the Communist Party mentions the name of Matsumura who has been hiding without a trace afterwards, it cannot be denied that the group of people who committed robbery in the "Omori Incident" is the Communist Party.Therefore, from the perspective of spy work, this incident can be said to be well-manufactured. I can't assert that there are people like Matsumura in the "Shiratori Incident", but this possibility is conceivable. As mentioned above, in this case, the defender will ask Yoshida Shiro to testify in court, but he suddenly left his residence and his whereabouts are unknown.Judging from common sense, the prosecutors did not touch this important witness at all. This is a bit strange. The cases of Otokawa and Narita have been disclosed so far. The situation in Narita is as follows: just when the investigative headquarters of the "Shiratori Incident" had no idea about the underground organization of the Japanese Communist Party, and the work of the investigative team was in trouble and distressed, Narita suddenly appeared in the west.If this was accidental, then he appeared too timely, as if "the kamikaze has arrived". When Narita collapsed on the streets of Ito and was taken in by the police, "the first person to get this information was the National Police in Sapporo" (according to Taiping's notes), but how did the National Police in Sapporo finally get this information? , but there is no explanation in the notes.The notes also said that when Narita returned from the detention center after being arrested for distributing leaflets about robbing coal, "what he encountered was not warm embrace and respect from his comrades, but suspicion, indifference and contempt."The notes also read: "The higher authorities also think he is abnormal." This article is written very implicitly.Maybe Narita became "abnormal" because of his arrest, because of someone's suggestion, he wandered around Nimura, where suicides often occur in Shizuoka Prefecture, and "fell down" on the streets of Ito! Fortunately, Narita was taken in by a kind-hearted policeman, and he was rescued by a kind owner of a vinegar fish rice roll shop, who taught him the skill of making rice rolls for three years.So has Narita become the master of the rice roll shop?No.Three years later, he returned to his hometown to farm.It can't help but make people feel that during those three years, someone had asked him to leave Hokkaido alone and isolate him in Ito Onsen. I'm not saying, however, that Yoshida, Narita, and Otokawa are "Matsumura-like characters"—they're not that "big people" yet.Especially Narita and Otokawa, I think they can't stand the severe test of party members' life, and they are victims of grassroots party organizations.

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