IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I write a story, half-a-story:
Well-Known Artist Held As Poison Holdup Suspect
The latest Teikoku Bank ‘mass murder’ suspect arrested in Otaru, Hokkaido, arrived at Heno Station yesterday morning under the custody of seven policemen.
The suspect, Hirasawa Sadamichi, 57, spent most of the trip from Hokkaido hiding under a blanket as crowds gathered at every major railway station along the route to get a glimpse of the man suspected of the ‘poison holdup’ which resulted in the death of 12 bank employees.
Metropolitan police authorities, however, warned that it was too early to jump to premature conclusions and said that Hirasawa’s connection with the case would most likely be cleared up within 48 hours.
Hirasawa is a well-known water-colour artist and left for Hokkaido soon after the Teigin mass murder.
Police said there was only circumstantial evidence against him. He was slated to be interviewed by the survivors of the mass murder.
Bearing a close resemblance to the murderer, Hirasawa had been under suspicion before but was released for lack of evidence. His testimony concerning the name-card he admitted receiving from Dr Matsui Shigeru differed from that given by the latter.
Mrs Hirasawa Masako, wife of the suspect, yesterday denied as ‘ridiculous’ the reports that her husband was the long-sought mass murderer. While the general description may fit that of the wanted man, she said that it was unbelievable that he should commit such a diabolic crime.
In the Fictional City, this city of millions, millions will read my newspaper, millions will half-read my half-a-story, and then some of these people will form mobs and these mobs will attack the house of Mrs Hirasawa and her daughters, with sticks and with stones, Mrs Hirasawa and her daughters in hiding now, now and for ever in the Fictional City.
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, in a restaurant far from Shiinamachi, far from the scene of the crime, I look up from the table, the glass jar of toothpicks, the white bottle of soy sauce, and I ask her, ‘So what happened? Did you see Hirasawa? Was Hirasawa the man who …’
‘They took me to the Sakuradamon Police Station,’ she says. ‘And they took me into an interrogation room, and this man, this Hirasawa Sadamichi looked up from the table at me and I stared back at him, looked him in his face, hoping and praying that I had seen his face before, that this was the man who had murdered my colleagues and my friends, the man who had tried to kill me …’
‘And was it?’ I ask her. ‘Was it him?’
‘When the killer began to distribute the poison,’ she whispers, ‘I looked him in his face. I will never forget that face.’
‘I know,’ I say.
‘I would know it anywhere.’
‘I know,’ I say again. ‘And was his face that face?’
‘No,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘It was not the face I saw that day. The face I saw that day was round. Very round, like an egg. This man Hirasawa has a square face. Very square, like a box. He’s also too old. He’s not that man. Hirasawa is not the killer.’
I look back down at the table, the glass jar of toothpicks, the white bottle of soy sauce, and I say, ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Me too,’ she says. ‘Me too.’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, a telephone rings again, a voice speaks, along the wires again, down the cables, with a time and with a place –
Down an alley, in a room, another room of shadows, another room of stares, a man I know is sitting with a man I don’t –
The man I know gestures at the man I don’t and he says, ‘This gentleman here works for the Free People’s Rights League and this gentleman has something for you, don’t you?’
The man hands me an envelope.
I open it. I start to read –
The man I know says, ‘You don’t need to read it all now. It’s for you. You can keep it. But, as you can see, the document details the many ways in which the arrest of Hirasawa violated his civil rights under our new constitution …’
I put the document back in its envelope. I take out my wallet. I take out my cash. The man I know points to the man I don’t –
He smiles and he says, ‘Give it to him. Not me.’
The man I don’t know, this man from the Free People’s Rights League, counts my cash. The man puts it in his jacket pocket. This man smiles now and says, ‘Thank you.’
In this Fictional City, this city of inclement weather, this city of demonstrations, the man I know says, ‘But don’t forget, everything’s a set-up …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I write a new story for a new day:
Mass Murder Suspect Cleared; Police Baffled; Suspect’s Arrest Raises Civil Rights Issue
Horizaki Shigeki of the First Criminal Investigative Section of the Metropolitan Police Board yesterday expressed the hope of releasing Hirasawa Sadamichi from custody sometime the same evening. Officials of the Tokyo Procurators Office said after cross-examining Hirasawa that two major points still need to be cleared up relative to Hirasawa’s action at the time of the crime and subsequently. The first was said to be Hirasawa’s alibi as to what he was doing on January 26, the date of the crime. The other puzzling point, they said, was the suspect’s construction of a new home and the fact that he possessed ¥45,000 in cash at home, which he alleges to have borrowed from a friend.
—
The seven-month-old question as to who perpetrated the diabolic Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’ remained a baffling mystery today following the clearance of Hirasawa Sadamichi from suspicion as being the long-sought criminal.
Hopes entertained by police authorities, especially Inspector Ikki, who made the arrest and went so far as saying that Hirasawa’s guilt was ‘100 per cent certain’, fell dismally flat Monday evening when 11 persons who saw the Teigin criminal could find no resemblance in the much-publicized latest suspect.
Although the ‘screening’ was conducted under a tense atmosphere and all who saw Hirasawa were given ample time to make up their minds, not a single person charged the water-colour artist as being the Teikoku Bank criminal.
Six of them, in fact, were certain that he was not the man who committed the diabolic crime.
Hirasawa was the fourth important suspect directly questioned by the Metropolitan Police Board in connection with the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
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Meanwhile, Government and police authorities appear destined to face sharp criticism from numerous public organizations on the charge of failing to safeguard basic civil rights in the event investigations should clear latest Teigin suspect Hirasawa Sadamichi of all association with the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
Lessening of suspicion against Hirasawa has switched public attention to the issue of basic civil rights concerning police action and the indignities to which the latest suspect was subjected.
Already, two civic organizations — the Tokyo Bar Association and the Free People’s Rights League — are reported to be preparing a campaign of protest against Government authorities for their action against Hirasawa in the event the latter should be freed of all suspicion.
Both of these bodies favour the institution of legal action against the Government on behalf of Hirasawa to obtain payment of damages or a formal apology from authorities for their failure to uphold basic civil rights in the latest case.