Japan Press Weekly

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2017 July 19 - 25 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Rally to learn about prewar false accusation takes place in connection with anti-conspiracy law

With the anti-conspiracy law taking effect, a rally was held to not forget a prewar case where a male student and American teachers at Hokkaido University were falsely accused of espionage, also known as the “Miyazawa-Lane case”. The rally took place on July 17 in Hokkaido’s Sapporo City with 110 people, including Lane’s former students, participating.

In December 1941, 22-year-old Hokkaido University student Miyazawa Hiroyuki and Harold Lane and his wife Pauline who came from the U.S. to teach English at the university were arrested for charges of violating the Military Secrets Law. Although the U.S. couple only listened to Miyazawa speaking about his travels around Hokkaido, the police authority claimed that the three planned a conspiracy to spy to obtain military secrets. A year later, Miyazawa and Harold Lane were sentenced to 15 years in jail. Miyazawa died at the age of 27. Mr. Lane and his wife were repatriated to America in 1942. After the war, the couple returned to Hokkaido and worked as English teachers.

Representing the rally organizing committee, Yamamoto Tamaki said that as a pacifist, Harold Lane opposed the war.

A female participant whose grandmother was a friend of the Lanes’ daughter said, “I remember grandma talking about the couple and their family. I want to continue thinking about what I can do to hand down lessons learned from the case to future generations.”

Past related article:
> Prewar false accusation indicates true colors of secrets protection bill [November 15, 2013]