Tokyo Year Zero

‘Do you believe these deaths are connected?’ asks Chief Kita.

‘Until the results of the autopsy are known, the location and sex of the two bodies remain the only connecting factors,’ I reply. ‘Despite their proximity, the nature of the vegetation meant that the site of one body was not visible from the other. As you are all aware, there was what would seem to be a piece of material tied round the neck of the first body, leading us to assume that death was a result of murder. On preliminary examination of the second body, no such material was found, nor were there any other obvious signs of a murder having occurred. As we know, in the last year a number of bodies have been found in the environs of Shiba Park. However, before today’s discovery, only one of these has proved to be murder. The other deaths were as a result of either suicide or disease.’

Chief Kita nods. Chief Kita says, ‘Chief Inspector?’

Adachi nods, reluctantly. ‘I agree with Inspector Minami.’

‘Then we’ll handle the two cases separately,’ says the chief. ‘Until we have the results from the autopsies which will be…?’

‘The day after tomorrow,’ says Adachi.

‘From Keiō or Tokyo?’

‘From Keiō…’

‘By?’

‘Dr. Nakadate.’

Kanehara and Kai pretend not to look up from their notes. Kanehara and Kai pretend not to look from me to Adachi to Chief Kita. Kanehara and Kai pretend not to see our exchange of glances –

I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to remember …

‘It can’t be helped,’ says the chief. ‘Let’s proceed…’

Now comes the structure of the investigation. The delegation of responsibility. The division of labour …

‘Inspector Kai and Room #1 will open the investigation into the first body. Inspector Kai and Room #1 will set up their Investigation Headquarters at the Atago police station. Inspector Kai will report to Chief Inspector Kanehara.’

Inspector Kai bows. Inspector Kai shouts, ‘I understand! Thank you! I will not let you down!’

Chief Inspector Kanehara bows. Kanehara shouts, ‘Thank you! I will not let you down!’

‘Inspector Minami and Room #2 will investigate the second body found at Shiba Park…’

I bow too hastily; there must be a hint of relief, a glimpse of respite in my action, because Chief Kita’s tone is harsh now –

‘Inspector Minami and Room #2 will conduct the investigation as a murder inquiry. Inspector Minami and Room #2 will also set up their Investigation Headquarters at Atago police station until further instructions are received. Inspector Minami and his team will report to Chief Inspector Adachi.’

I curse him. I curse him. I curse him …

I bow again to the chief. I tell him I understand. I thank him. I promise I will not let him down –

So tomorrow morning Room #2 will take their trunk to Atago. Tomorrow morning our banner will be unfurled and raised on its poles. Tomorrow the investigation will begin. Day and night, night and day. From tomorrow morning there will be no rest, no time off for twenty days or until the case is closed …

‘Has anyone anything else they wish to say?’ asks Chief Inspector Kanehara. ‘Anything they wish to clarify?’

There is nothing to say. Nothing to clarify –

There is silence now, almost –

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton …

‘Then tidy up all your affairs tonight,’ Chief Kita tells us. ‘Leave nothing unfinished. No loose ends, please.’

The chief looks away now –

I glance at my watch –

Chiku-taku …

It is 8:30 p.m.

*

I run down the corridor of Police Arcade to the back stairs. I leave through a back door. I cut through Hibiya Park. The temperature not falling with the night, the flies and mosquitoes hungrier than ever –

Pan-pan girls calling through the shadows and the trees –

‘Asobu …? Asobu …? Asobu …? Asobu…?’

I run across Hibiya-dōri. I reach the elevated tracks –

Pan-pan girls in the shadows and the arches –

‘Asobu …? Asobu …? Asobu…?’

I follow the Yamate train tracks –

To the Shimbashi Market –

‘Asobu …? Asobu…?’

To Senju Akira.

*

Kettles and pans. Crockery and utensils. Clothes and shoes. Cooking oil and soy sauce. Rice and tea. Fruit and vegetables. The kakigōri stalls and over and over, again and again, the ‘Apple Song’ –

‘Red apple to my lips, blue sky silently watching …’

All laid out on the ground, on stall after stall –

Half of it Japanese. Half of it foreign. All of it illegal. But there are no police here. No Victors. No Occupiers –

‘Apple doesn’t say a thing, but Apple’s feeling is clear…’

Here there is only one law; buy or be bought. Sell or be sold. Eat or be eaten; this is where the cannibals come –

‘Apple’s loveable, loveable is apple…’

To the Shimbashi New Life Market –

‘Shall we all sing the Apple Song?’

The old Outside Free Market is gone. The old Black Market is finished. This is the new market for the new Japanese yen –

‘If two people sing along, it’s a merry song …’

This is the two-storey Shimbashi New Life Market with its modern arcades for over five hundred stalls –

‘If everyone sings the Apple Song …’

The dream of Matsuda Giichi –

‘It’s an even merrier song…’

But Matsuda Giichi never lived to see his New Life Market open because two months ago, on the night of the tenth of June, Matsuda Giichi was attacked and shot in his office by Nodera Tomiji, one of his own former gang members, one who had been expelled during Matsuda’s reorganization of his own gang, the Kantō Matsuda-gumi, in their amalgamation with the Matsuzakaya gang –

But nobody really knows if Nodera killed Matsuda –

Nobody saw Nodera pull the trigger and fire –

Nobody really knows because Nodera Tomiji was drunk when persons unknown found him in a bar on the Ginza –

And he was dead when they left him –

‘So let’s all sing the Apple Song and…’

Now Senju Akira is the new boss –

‘And pass the feeling along…’

This is the man I’ve come to see. This is the man whose men are waiting for me. The man whose men are watching for me –

They know I’m here. They know I’m back …

In their pale suits and patterned shirts, with their American sunglasses and Lucky Strikes, they are whispering about me –

They know why I’m here, why I’m back …

Among the kettles and the pans, they come up behind me now, one on either side, and they take an arm each –

‘You’re more brave than you look,’ whispers one of them –

‘And more stupid,’ says the other as they whisk me past the mats and the stalls, the crockery and the utensils, out into the alleys and the lanes, through the shadows and the arches, until we come to the wooden stairs and the open door at the top with its sign –