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2008 October 29 - November 4 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

Court Decides to retry ‘Yokohama Incident’ case

The Yokohama District Court on October 31 decided to retry a case of the pre-war period involving the repression of freedom of speech, known as the “Yokohama Incident,” accepting a petition filed by relatives of a former defendant.

The retrial petition was the fourth such request brought by a son and a daughter of Ono Yasuhito, an editorial staff member of the Kaizo magazine, who was convicted of violating the prewar Public Order Maintenance Law after the end of WWII.

Presiding judge Oshima Takaaki said, “Ono was tortured into making false confessions.”

In September 1945, the Yokohama District Court sentenced Ono to two years in prison but suspended the term for three years.

Judge Oshima said, “It is impossible to conclude that the then district court carefully examined the confessions by Ono and other suspects; it would be indisputable that the case was processed in a rough and sloppy manner.”

Referring to the “meeting to reorganize the Japanese Communist Party" allegedly held by Ono and other people in Toyama Prefecture in 1942, the judge said, “It was a gathering held in recognition of the work of editors and journalists, and there was no evidence that suggested that it was a meeting to discuss the reconstruction of the party.”

Pointing out that no documents on the court proceedings exist, Oshima said, “It is highly possible that the court destroyed them to cover up any facts that they believed detrimental to their case. The court should not reject the retrial petition on the grounds that it is difficult to find evidence.”

The Supreme Court in March 2008 dismissed appeals by relatives of other defendants in the “Yokohama Incident”, and avoided giving any ruling and closed the case. Given this precedent, a retrial this time will also not lead to a verdict either, the judge said.

Ono Shin'ichi, the late Ono Yasuhito’s son, said, “This decision to retry the case makes me feel that the door has opened for a not-guilty sentence. It could be a breakthrough in post-war Japanese judiciary behavior. The reason for the decision is in accord with our request.”

Ono's daughter Saito Nobuko added, “This is a landmark decision that faces up to the facts. The decision is equivalent to a not guilty verdict. I want to report it in my prayers to my parents and all former defendants in the case.”

Japanese Communist Party Kanagawa Prefectural Committee Chair Koike Kiyoshi said, “In addition to the atrocity by the special political police, the responsibility of the court that played a part in this state crime is criticized. This is important because violations of human rights, including repression of freedom of speech, by the state are still continuing.”

The “Yokohama Incident” represents the notorious suppression of the freedom of speech in a frame-up by the Special Political Police (Tokko) under the Public Order Maintenance Law during the Pacific War. The journalists and others were convicted of promoting communism. The incident broke out when Tokko used Hosokawa Karoku’s magazine article to assert that the magazine editors' party in Toyama Prefecture was actually a meeting held to prepare the reconstruction of the JCP.

About 60 editors were arrested on suspicion of “propagating communist ideology.” Five of them were tortured to death in jail without determining their guilt or innocence. Even after Japan surrendered to the Allies by accepting the Potsdam Declaration, a “guilty verdict” was given to about half of them. Three policemen who interrogated Ono and others were found guilty of the crime of use of excessive violence as special public servants.