1948/8/16; 06.00: Very hot, very humid / Meeting of Robbery Room Name-card Team / Divide into ji-dōri teams to question Nakano neighbourhood about Hirasawa family / 08.00: Begin questioning of Nakano area / Street by street, house by house, door to door / All day / 22.00: Meeting of Robbery Room Name-card Team / Chief Kita present / Each ji-dōri team reports day’s questioning / Inspector Iki-i then details information gathered about Hirasawa’s finances / In December last year, Hirasawa was in considerable debt; for example, he did not have the cash to purchase a small wardrobe priced at ¥2,500 / Kuro-kuro / Hirasawa and his wife forced to borrow variously ¥500 and ¥1,000 from friends and relatives / Blacker and blacker / However, following the Teigin incident, the Higashi Nakano branch of the Mitsubishi Bank shows ¥20,000 in his wife’s account and ¥44,500 in Hirasawa’s own account / Guiltier and guiltier / Sudden deposits unexplained / Re-state statement by Hirasawa’s eldest daughter concerning ¥80,000 given to his wife at the end of January / Chief Kita states he will present all evidence and information to the Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office tomorrow morning / Kita confident arrest warrant will be granted / Told to prepare to travel to Hokkaido to arrest Hirasawa and bring him back to Tokyo for formal interrogation / Elation.
1948/8/17; 08.00: Hot / Gather at Inspector Iki-i’s residence in Ōmori / Collate all evidence and information on Hirasawa / Prepare request for arrest warrant for Hirasawa Sadamichi / Prepare requests for search warrants for houses of Hirasawa’s family and relatives in Tokyo / No sleep.
1948/8/18; 13.00: Hot / Robbery Room Name-card Team HQ / Receive telephone call from Hirasawa’s eldest daughter / Frantic, desperate / Asks for meeting / Claim to be too busy / Desperate, persists / Daughter says family worried / Her mother’s younger brother, her uncle, accusing her of selling her own father to the cops for a box of fruit / Speak to Inspector Iki-i / Agree to meeting / 16.00: Meet Hirasawa’s eldest daughter with Iki-i on second floor of Marufuku coffee shop / Daughter requests we visit her mother at family home to ease her fears and worries / Promise to visit in next few days / Daughter persists / Asks exactly which day at exactly what time / Promise to visit her mother in three days / 17.00: Meeting with daughter ends / Return to Iki-i residence in Ōmori / Detective [NAME DELETED] of First Investigative Division waiting / States that imminent arrest of Hirasawa now common knowledge / Newspapers already sniffing around / Requests that he arrest Hirasawa on our behalf / Argument, fight / Table upturned, punches thrown / Detective [NAME DELETED] says, ‘You Name-card guys are all crazy.’ / Detective [NAME DELETED] leaves / 20.00: Telephone call from Investigation HQ / All expenses and funding for Name-card Team suspended until further notice / Obvious attempt to stop Name-card Team travelling to Hokkaido to arrest Hirasawa / 21.00: Inspector Iki-i calls his bank manager at home / Arranges mortgage of Ōmori house and telephone line to cover cost of travel to Hokkaido if arrest warrant granted / All anxious, all nervous / No sleep.
1948/8/19; 17.00: Very hot, very humid / Meeting of Robbery Room Name-card Team at HQ / Police Chief Kita present / Arrest warrant for Hirasawa Sadamichi granted / Elation / Chief Kita cautions that news of arrest warrant has already been leaked to newspapers / Suspects detectives from First Investigative Division / Anger / Kita states that Chief Inspector Suzuki has requested presence of First Investigative Division Detective Tomitsuka at arrest of Hirasawa / Fury / Kita notes Detective Tomitsuka has already left Tokyo for Otaru / Resignation / No sleep.
1948/8/20; 06.00: Hot / Leave Tokyo for Otaru, Hokkaido via Niigata and Akita / Travelling with Inspector Iki-i, and Detectives liga and Fukushi / Very slow train, very hot train / No conversation, no sleep / Very anxious, very nervous.
1948/8/21; 10.00: Arrive in Otaru, Hokkaido / Meet First Investigative Division Detective Tomitsuka / Go to Hirasawa’s father’s residence / Hirasawa’s father and younger brother greet us formally / Shown upstairs / Hirasawa dressed and waiting, seated before same canvas / Arrest Hirasawa on suspicion of the murder by poison of the twelve employees of the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank on 26 January this year, and the attempted murder of four other employees at the same place on the same day / 11.00: Take Hirasawa to Otaru Police Station / Telephone calls to Tokyo HQ / Warned of press reports / Make necessary travel arrangements / Spend rest of day and night at Otaru Police Station / No sleep.
1948/8/22; 06.00: Hot / Return to Tokyo on Tōhoku Honsen Line / News of arrest leaked to press / Crowds at every station en route to see Hirasawa / Newspapermen and cameramen board the train at Morioka, Sendai and Taira / Train repeatedly delayed by crowds / Spend journey keeping press at bay / Hirasawa crouched on floor / Blanket over his head / Does not speak, sleep, eat or drink.
1948/8/23; 05.45: Hot, humid / Arrive Ueno Station / Chaos, crowds / Time of arrival leaked to press / Members of First Investigative Division and Officials of Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office waiting / Hand Hirasawa over to members of First Investigative Division and officials of Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office / Lose sight of Hirasawa Sadamichi in the chaos and the crowds –
[THE NOTEBOOK ENDS HERE]
Beneath the Black Gate, in its upper chamber, in the occult circle, the detective now says, ‘That was me finished. And the rest you know. The interrogation and the confession. The recantation and the trial. The conviction and the sentence. The appeals and the campaigns.