Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 13 - 19 TOP3 [HISTORY]

Prewar false accusation indicates true colors of secrets protection bill

During World War II, a Japanese university student was arrested and imprisoned on a false charge of spying. This incident should stand as a warning to the general public of the dangers of the state secrets protection bill currently under Diet deliberation.

On December 8, 1941, the day the Imperial Japanese forces attacked the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (Japan time), Miyazawa Hiroyuki, a 22-year-old student at Hokkaido University, was suddenly apprehended by Special Political Police officers within the university premises. This came shortly after Miyazawa visited the home of his American teacher, Harold M. Lane.

The police authority claimed that the student violated the Military Secrets Law. The law stipulated that when a person leaked military secrets such as the imperial forces’ operations and the state of mobilization, that person will face severe punishment.

In talks with his teacher, Miyazawa mentioned the Nemuro air base in Hokkaido which he had visited. The police insisted that he committed espionage by obtaining classified military information while he was there and providing it to an enemy alien. A year later, Miyazawa and Lane were sentenced to 15 years in jail. The number of those who were arrested on suspicion of violating the Military Secrets Law reached 149 in 1941 alone.

The air station was already widely known at that time. When Charles A. Lindbergh flew to the base in 1931, it made front-page headlines around the country.

After the end of the war, Miyazawa was released in October 1945, reduced to skin and bones. Two years later, he died of a disease that he had contracted during his imprisonment. He was only 27 years old.

Yamamoto Tamaki, representing a civil group publicizing the facts of this incident, stressed, “The government framed the student for spying for the purpose of smoothly prosecuting its war of aggression.”

The government-proposed secrets protection bill gives cabinet ministers a free hand to classify state information. This system is strikingly similar to that of the prewar Military Secrets Law which gave ministers of war and the navy the authority to determine the scope and kinds of secret information.

The civic group is actively calling for discarding the bill as well as demanding that the university authority clear Miyazawa’s name.