People Who Eat Darkness (53 page)

Christabel Mackenzie had come to Tokyo
: As well as her name, biographical details about Christabel Mackenzie have been altered to conceal her identity.

On the face of it, they are astonishingly and uniquely successful
: On Japanese crime rates, see Johnson,
Japanese Way of Justice
, pp. 22–23.

the Japanese police were facing their most vociferous criticism
: Quotations from Naoki Inose, “Japanese Police Must Lift Shroud of Secrecy,”
Daily Yomiuri,
September 20, 1999; and Doug Struck, “Japan’s Police Wear Tarnished Badge of Honor: Reputation of Once-Admired Constables Plummets with the Rise of Scandals and Corruption,”
Washington Post
, March 3, 2000.

“
There are so many
,
though
”: Jonathan Watts,
Guardian,
July 11, 2000.

Almost two weeks after Lucie’s disappearance
: Interview with Superintendent Toshihiko Mii, Azabu Police Station; and Richard Lloyd Parry, “Free Her Now, Father Urges Tokyo Captor,”
Independent on Sunday,
July 16, 2000.

THE PALM TREES BY THE SEA

Clara, Isobel, Charmaine, Ronia, Katie, Lana, and Tanya are all references to actual women, based on interviews and court documents. All names, and in some cases nationalities, have been changed.

a young American woman named Katie Vickers
: The account of “Katie Vickers” is based on an interview with “Kai Miyazawa”; opening statement by Tokyo Public Prosecutors, December 2000; and correspondence with “Katie Vickers.”

there was only a single sex offender
: Interview with Toshiaki Udo; “Alleged Rapist of Foreigners Fined for Obscenity in 1998,” Kyodo News, October 30, 2000; Rushii jiken shinritsu kyumeihan,
Rushii jiken shinritsu
[Team seeking the truth about the Lucie case,
The Truth About the Lucie Case
] (Tokyo: Asaka Shinsha, 2007), p. 757.

he had been arrested for peeping
: Opening statement of supplementary indictment submitted to the Tokyo District Court by the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office, April 27, 2001. The relevant section reads, “In addition to having a previous record of violating the Minor Offenses Act for peeping into a ladies’ toilet, the defendant also has a previous record of violating the Minor Offenses Act and being subject to a 9,000-yen fine for peeping at a woman going to the toilet in a public lavatory, using a handy camera on October 12, 1998.”

“
He was half naked
”: Testimony by Naoki Harada in the Tokyo District Court, December 25, 2003; Richard Lloyd Parry, “Blackman Suspect Had Her Severed Head, Say Police,”
The Times,
December 26, 2003.

THE WEAK AND THE STRONG

His elderly mother was said to possess
: Information from a source close to the Kim/Hoshiyama family, Osaka, July 2006.

Obara shunned photographers
: “Cops: Obara Hid Identity with Dozens of Aliases,”
Daily Yomiuri
, November 20, 2000.

As far back as the sixteenth century
: My account of Japan’s colonization of Korea, the lives of Koreans in Japan, and the postwar period draws on Changsoo Lee and George De Vos, eds.,
Koreans in Japan: Ethnic Conflict and Accommodation
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981); Yasunori Fukuoka,
Lives of Young Koreans in Japan
(Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000); John W. Dower,
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
(New York: Norton, 1999); Peter B. E. Hill,
The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), and David Kaplan and Alec Dubro,
Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan’s Criminal Underworld
(Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1986).

“
they shouted, ‘Korean!
’”: Quoted in Lee and de Vos,
Koreans in Japan
, p. 22.

near the port city of Pusan
: Information from a source close to the Kim/Hoshiyama family, Osaka, July 2006.

They came to Japan before the war
: Ibid.

According to one of his sons
: Conversation with Eisho Kin, Osaka, July 4, 2007.

He had no criminal record
: According to a Japanese newspaper reporter in Osaka, who received the information from contacts in the Osaka police.

a bizarre book
:
The Truth About the Lucie Case
. See p. 385 and pp. 448–49 for a fuller account of this book and its origins.

founded in emulation of a British public school
: Interview with Shingo Nishimura.

a short story of his was published
: Eisho Kin, “Aru Hi no Koto” (It Happened One Day),
Sanzenri,
Tokyo/Osaka, Winter 1977.

Koji Akimoto is a pseudonym.

an account commissioned by Joji Obara’s lawyer
: From
The Truth About the Lucie Case
, p. 753.

GEORGE O’HARA

“
Confession is king
”: Johnson,
Japanese Way of Justice
, p. 158. The chapter (pp. 243–75) on the role of confessions in Japanese justice, and the ways they are obtained, is fascinating and chilling.

“
We require proof beyond an unreasonable doubt
”: Ibid., p. 237.

“
confessions are the heart—the pump
”: Ibid., p. 243.

“
To us Japanese, hitting in the head is not serious
”: Ibid., p. 255.

Udo was reluctant to go into detail
: Superintendent Udo was not personally present during Obara’s interrogation, which was supervised by Detective Yamashiro.

Obara himself would insist:
Letter to the author from Shinya Sakane, lawyer representing Joji Obara, September 14, 2005.

But other people sensed something mysterious
: Information about the death, funeral, and disposal of the estate of Kim Kyo Hak is drawn from public documents on the Kim/Hoshiyama family companies; interviews with neighbors of the Kim/Hoshiyama family in Kitabatake, July 2007; interviews with a source close to the Kim/Hoshiyama family, Osaka, May 2006; articles in the magazines
Shukan Bunshun
, February 22, 2001, and
Shukan Josei,
November 21, 2001; and Tokyo Public Prosecutors’ indictment of Joji Obara, December 14, 2000.

Japanese magazines
: The suggestion that Obara’s father’s death was connected in any way with the underworld was denied by Shinya Sakane in his letter on behalf of Joji Obara.

“
Glass pieces were taken out around his eyes,
”: From
The Truth About the Lucie Case
, p. 753.

He may have studied architecture
: Interview with a person close to the Kim family.

another explanation
: Interview with a person close to the Kim family.

With one of his Osaka car parks as collateral
: Information on Obara’s business activities comes from a list of companies provided to the media by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police; from public documents on those companies; from interviews with people close to the case; and from “Obara Hid Identity with Dozens of Aliases,”
Daily Yomiuri
, November 20, 2000, and “Blackman Suspect Obara Threw Nothing Away, Even Evidence,” Kyodo News, February 16, 2001.

not all of those listed on these company documents
: “Obara Hid Identity with Dozens of Aliases,”
Daily Yomiuri
, November 20, 2000.

Later, Obara would claim that Hamaguchi
: From
The Truth About the Lucie Case
, p. 758. He is referred to there as “Lawyer H.”

CONQUEST PLAY

Joji Obara kept meticulous records of his sexual encounters
: “Statement of Reasons for Appeal,” Number 1294, 2007, Tokyo Public Prosecutors, pp. 68–69.

He referred to the flat at Zushi Marina as his
kyoten: Ibid., p. 71.

a list of about sixty women’s names
: “Obara Hid Identity with Dozens of Aliases,”
Daily Yomiuri,
November 20, 2000.

“
Is it for a big dog that’s passed away?
”: Interview with Wataru Fujisaki.

“
The defendant lists the names of the women”
: “Statement of Reasons for Appeal,” Number 1294, pp. 69–70.

“
He does various things
”: Based on interviews with Toshiaki Udo and two other people who had seen the dossier of still images.

Off camera there were two television monitors
: Testimony of Joji Obara in the Tokyo District Court, March 8, 2006.

One report said that the police had recovered a thousand of them
: “Obara Indicted over 1992 Death of Australian Woman,” Kyodo News, February 16, 2001, and “Police View 4,800 Videos from Obara’s Condominium,”
Daily Yomiuri,
April 10, 2001.

“
With a Japanese girl, my preference
”: Testimony of Joji Obara in the Tokyo District Court, March 8, 2006.

“
Foreign hostesses are all ugly
”: Ibid.

“
Before his ‘play’ the accused pours into a small shot glass
”: From the website The Truth of Lucie’s Case,
http://lucies-case.to.cx/case1_e.html
, accessed June 2010.

Fusako Yoshimoto, Itsuko Oshihara, and Megumi Mori are pseudonyms.

“
Something serious has happened
”: “Photograph Links Obara to Blackman,”
Daily Yomiuri,
February 17, 2001.

CARITA

“
Fears of More Missing Women
”:
Sydney Morning Herald,
October 27, 2000.

IN THE CAVE

“
We go after him relentlessly
”:
Mainichi Daily News
, February 20, 2001.

Mr. Hirokawa, the caretaker’s boyfriend
”: The judge in the first trial discounted his testimony as unreliable.

They were immediately identifiable as a human arm
: The details of the exhumation are from personal observation, contemporary press reports, and notes provided to me of a briefing to members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency reporters’ club on February 9, 2001.

Six times that weekend
: These details come from notes provided to me from Tokyo Metropolitan Police briefings on February 9, 10, and 11, 2001, and an interview with a former member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency reporters’ club.

The most memorable explanation of all
: Notes on a briefing to members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police reporters’ club by a detective of the First Investigation Division, April 9, 2001.

“
The detectives had been to Blue Sea Aburatsubo
”: Interview, 2007.

“
the postmortem changes were extreme
”: Assessment by Dr. Masahiko Ueno, February 7, 2006, on the postmortem conducted on February 10, 2001, by Dr. Masahiko Kobayashi.

CEREMONIES

Lucie’s funeral was at the end of April 2001
: Accounts of Lucie’s funeral are from interviews with her family and friends, and from contemporary press reports, including William Hollingworth, “Family, Friends Say Goodbye to Murdered British Hostess Lucie,” Kyodo News, March 29, 2001.

One thing stands out above all
: Data on Japanese conviction rates are from Johnson,
Japanese Way of Justice
, pp. 62, 216. Johnson writes, “Even in an unusually ‘good’ year for defendants, only one in 265 cases ended in acquittal. Typically the proportion is closer to one in 800 … It would take Japanese judges 175 years to acquit as many defendants as American courts acquit in one year.”

“
Prosecutors, like just about everyone in Japan
”: Ibid., p. 165.

“
The vast majority of Japan’s criminal trials
”: Ibid., p. 47.

“
I’ve done something terrible
”: “Photograph Links Obara to Blackman,”
Daily Yomiuri,
February 17, 2001; “50th Hearing of Joji OBARA,” English summary of court proceedings prepared by Tokyo Metropolitan Police, December 24, 2006.

a doctor gave evidence on the poisonous effects of chloroform
: Trial of Joji Obara, 13th hearing, Tokyo District Court, January 22, 2003.

In April, an expert on anesthesia
: 17th hearing, April 16, 2003.

The caretaker of Blue Sea Aburatsubo
: 25th hearing, November 27, 2003.

the police inspector who had responded to her call
: 26th hearing, December 25, 2003.

A police chemist testified
: 28th and 29th hearings, January 30 and February 17, 2004.

A woman named Yuka Takino
: 31st hearing, March 26, 2004.

This experiment, a bizarre and gory operation
: 32nd hearing, May 25, 2004.

“
I like the Obara hearings very much
”: Yuki Takahashi, Miki Takigawa, Rei Hasegawa, and Haruko Kagami,
Kasumikko Kurabu: Musume-tachi no Saiban B
ō
ch
ō
ki
(
Kasumi Kids’ Club: Girls’ Diary of Court Watching
) (Tokyo, 2006).

He treated his defense as a war
: Information on Joji Obara in the Tokyo Detention Center, on his relations with his lawyers, and on his legal affairs are from interviews with members of his defense team and people close to the case. See also Richard Lloyd Parry, “How the Bubble Burst for Lucie’s Alleged Killer,”
The Times,
August 17, 2005.

His first legal team resigned en masse
: “All Defense Lawyers for Obara in Blackman Case Resign,” Kyodo News, October 12, 2001.

THE WHATEVERER

“
There are many fundamentals
”: Letter to the author from Tomonori Sugo, lawyer representing Joji Obara, received July 8, 2005.