Matsukawa incident

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Matsukawa incident

The Matsukawa incident ( Japanese 松川 事件 , Matsukawa jiken ) was a derailment caused by an act of sabotage that occurred in 1949 on the JNR - Tōhoku main line of Fukushima Prefecture between Matsukawa and Kanayagawa .

In addition to the Shimoyama and Mitaka incidents , it was one of the three major criminal cases of the Japanese State Railways after the Second World War .

overview

On August 17, 1949 at 3:09 am, one month after the Mitaka incident derailed and toppled a train with a steam locomotive of the series C51 that of Aomori to Ueno went and Matsukawa, today Fukushima , had crossed. The locomotive derailed and overturned, whereupon the following wagons , two baggage cars , a rail mail car and two passenger cars also derailed. Three members of the locomotive crew died, passengers were not killed. The scene of the accident was at a corner entry between Matsukawa and Kanayagawa on the Tōhoku main line.

Local inspection

During the inspection it was found that the bolts and nuts of the track connection parts were loosened near the scene of the accident and the connection boards had been removed. In addition, a large number of nails had been pulled out to fix the rails to the sleepers .

Arrest and charge the suspects

The investigating authority classified the incident as a criminal offense , which was carried out due to a plot by the Tōshiba -Matsukawa factory union , the Kokurō (railway workers' union) and the Japanese Communist Party , which opposed the current staff cuts . Ten trade unionists from the Tōshiba Matsukawa Factory Union and ten from the Kokurō were arrested and charged.

Court hearing

In the first judgment of the Fukushima District Court on December 6, 1950, all twenty were found guilty and five death sentences were passed. In the second verdict of the Sendai High Court on December 22, 1953, 17 defendants were found guilty, four of whom were sentenced to death. In the course of the proceedings, the innocence of the accused became clear, and the writer Hirotsu Kazuo wrote an essay in the magazine Chūō Kōron . A support movement of writers and intellectuals such as Uno Kōji , Yoshikawa Eiji , Kawabata Yasunari , Shiga Naoya , Mushanokōji Saneatsu , Matsumoto Seichō , Sata Ineko , Tsuboi Sakae , and public interest grew. On August 10, 1959, the Supreme Court overturned the second judgment and referred it back to the Sendai High Court. The "Suwa note" hidden by the prosecutor, a document confirming the defendants' alibi, was made public and it became clear that a plot had not been carried out. On August 8, 1961, all of the defendants were found innocent in a new hearing at the Sendai High Court. On September 12, 1963, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the prosecution and upheld the innocence of all defendants. The television broadcast on the day of the judgment by the NHK before the Supreme Court was broadcast across the country as part of the special news program "The Final Judgment in the Matuskawa Incident".

Movie

In 1961 a film of the same name was produced based on the investigative report of the formerly accused Akama Katsumi and the records of the first and second court hearings. The screenplay was written jointly by Shindō Kaneto and Yamagata Yūsaku and directed by Satsuo Yamamoto . The production cost of 45 million yen was financed entirely through donations. The cast consisted of Uno Jūkichi , Nishimura Kō , Utsui Ken , Senda Koreya and Nagoya Akira .

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