by Shiro Hamao
As long as the full details of the case had not been released it was of course impossible to know anything for certain, but it did look awfully unlikely that anyone besides Ōtera could possibly have committed the murder.
The only way to find out more information was to wait until the case went to trial. Finally, four months after the murder had taken place the preliminary judge handed the case over to the trial judge. It was at this point that Ōtera Ichirō learned that he was to stand trial for the murder of Oda Seizō and his wife Michiko.
Based on the facts I had heard up until this point was it not time for me to let the matter go? Did it not look as though Ōtera was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt? I, for one, thought not. Gentlemen as intelligent as you will no doubt also have noticed that even among the facts so far established there were several points that did not add up. It was these doubts that made me decide to undertake the defence of the accused and to do all I could to uncover the truth about this case.
My first doubt had to do with the following.
A reasonable enough motive had been established. Ōtera was angry that Michiko had transferred her affections to Tomoda and when he reproached her with this she brushed him off so cruelly that he conceived the desire to kill her. And yet we know that the knife Ōtera had was not his own but belonged to the victim Oda Seizō.
The intended victim may have been a helpless woman. But her husband was there with her. And however ill he was, he surely would not have watched quietly while his wife was murdered. So anyone who wanted to kill Michiko in that room would have to kill her husband as well. It is also uncertain whether Ōtera knew that there was a jackknife in the room. This would suggest the possibility that Ōtera burst into the room prepared to kill two people with bare hands and empty fists. Under normal circumstance, this would be rather peculiar. Of course Ōtera may not have intended to kill anyone when he came to stay with the Odas. But once he made that decision it is quite likely that he would have taken a towel or something with him, even if he had just five minutes to prepare. At a pinch even an empty cigarette case could work as a murder weapon. Add to this the fact that Ōtera was physically weak and more like a woman than a man and one has to think that, while it may not be impossible, it was certainly highly unlikely that he would have gone into that room unprepared. Clearing this up would make it easier to determine whether there was an intent to kill. And even if it turned out that Ōtera was behind this tragedy it would be to his advantage to have this matter clarified.
My second doubt had to do with the scene of the crime. This was a crucial point.
When someone kills a husband and wife it is typical for them either to kill the man first or to tie him up while they kill or violate the woman. In this case, however, the wife had been stripped from the waist up and her hands were tied behind her back. If what I was told was in fact the case the couple died at almost exactly the same time. So one has to ask what Seizō was doing the whole time while Ōtera was taking his revenge by tying Michiko up, stripping her naked, wounding her on the face and breasts, and finally killing her. And would not Michiko herself have screamed bloody murder? how could it be explained if she hadn’t? I wondered what the accused said about all of this, and what sorts of theories the prosecutor and the examining judge had come up with.
There is one more suspicious point I want to mention. This is something that crops up often in the novels you gentlemen write so you might have thought of it already. It’s about the fatal wound inflicted on the victim Seizō: a stab wound in the right breast. It’s not easy to stab someone in the right breast from head-on unless one is left-handed. This is not a matter just for novels. It is a serious matter in real life as well. It is only possible for a right-handed person to inflict such a wound if the victim is in just the right position so that his chest comes into contact with the assailant’s right hand. Now I had not heard that Ōtera was left-handed. So we needed another theory to account for this wound. One might imagine, for example, that the two had been struggling over the knife and Seizō was wounded accidentally (in this case it would be more natural to assume that Seizō, and not Ōtera, was wielding the weapon). This point is very important because leaving aside the question of Michiko, it has a bearing on whether Ōtera could be charged with the murder of Seizō. If Ōtera were not convicted of murdering Seizō, even if he were found guilty of some other charge, it would have a serious impact on the final verdict. The issue here is not just whether he killed one person or two. To put it simply, if Ōtera did not kill Seizō but did kill Michiko, there is a chance he would get the death penalty. But there is also a chance that he would not. If, on the other hand, Ōtera killed Seizō it would be a case of an adulterer killing the husband. And in such a case, even if he did not kill Michiko, he would certainly receive the death penalty.
They say that Ōtera gave a complete confession. But what exactly did he say? The newspaper article I read to you earlier was obviously too sketchy an account. So I waited impatiently until the day when the details of the interrogation would be made available.
I waited, but not of course idly. Instead I made use of the time to think through a few theories of my own. I’d like to share with you a few scenarios I was considering at the time.
What if the defendant had insisted on his innocence? Was there no theory by which he might be proved not guilty?
I was convinced that such a theory had to exist. Of course detective novelists like you could no doubt come up with all kinds of ideas. But let me tell you about one of mine.
What do you think, for example, about the possibility that it was Oda Seizō himself who murdered his wife? What if we were to hypothesise that Oda Seizō discovered his wife’s adultery that night or perhaps he knew already but something that night drove his anger to such a pitch that he killed her?
Let’s say that he had been suspicious of his wife’s behaviour for some time. On that evening something happened between the two of them and the husband confirmed his wife’s infidelity. Michiko shows no inclination to change her ways. Even worse, she sometimes behaves strangely with the two other men. Finally Seizō takes it into his head to kill his wife. But she has betrayed him and it won’t be enough just to kill her with a single blow. So he waits until she is asleep, pounces on her and ties her up. He wants to make her suffer as much as possible so he cuts her in the face and on her breast. At this point (Ōtera, perhaps having heard the commotion, comes bounding into the room. Of course Seizō is just as angry with Ōtera so he goes for him with the knife as well. But let’s say it’s Seizō who ends up getting hurt in the struggle. Might we not imagine such a circumstance? If that were the case Ōtera would not be guilty of murdering Michiko and it would be a case of manslaughter or he might even be let off for self-defence vis-à-vis Seizō. In any case, it would not be murder. It sounds a bit too much like a novel to be true, but for a while I considered it in all seriousness.
There are, however, quite a few points that cannot be explained by this theory. First of all, the idea that someone would choose a night when a guest is in the house to murder and torture his wife is highly unlikely. Then there is the fact that Ōtera was sleeping in the room just below the couple’s bedroom. It would be hard enough in a western-style house, but even granting that the person downstairs were asleep could you actually take so much time to commit a murder in a Japanese house? Or rather would it ever occur to you that such a thing was possible? Even if we assume that Seizō was carried away by anger how likely is it that he would have decided to torture and murder Michiko on a night like this? Seizō murdering Michiko on the spur of the moment might be different, but one can be sure that he would not have committed such a brutal act without expecting that Ōtera would come upon the scene.
Then there is the problem of (Ōtera’s arrival into the room at that time, when Michiko was already tied up and wounded. Now this is not impossible to explain if you assume that he ran into the room as soon as he heard Michiko scream. But Michiko must have started
to scream from the moment she was tied up. Earlier, I neglected to mention another factor that worked in the favour of the defendant: namely, there was no evidence that Michiko’s mouth was gagged.
So here again, we have to wonder what Michiko was doing.
The idea that Seizō died from a wound received as he struggled with Ōtera, while possible, starts to seem rather farfetched.
It would only be possible if Ōtera were left-handed. The notion that Seizō killed himself after he murdered Michiko seems equally unlikely unless Seizō were also left-handed.
Seizō, however, appears not to have been left-handed. And neither does Ōtera.
As a result, my theory that Ōtera was innocent is back on shaky ground.
All of you have fertile imaginations and I have no doubt that another theory has occurred to you that would explain several of the facts in this case as I have described them thus far. I will not name it here but I imagine that as detective-novel writers you will surely have thought of it.
If this last remaining possibility were true, however, why did Ōtera admit to the murders? Most problematic of all, moreover, were the words the dead couple uttered right before they died. Seizō clearly said ‘Ōtera’ and Michiko ‘Ichirō’ before they died. If this was indeed confirmed it was not hard to know what it meant. With only one possible exception, it must have been Michiko calling out the name of her lover as she died. But in any case, the biggest problem was the defendant’s confession. There is no more powerful evidence than a confession. And Ōtera Ichirō had made a complete confession.
I went back and forth over it in my mind, thinking that, whatever happened with the murder charge against Michiko, he might end up being charged with manslaughter in Seizō’s death. As I continued in this confused state I was on tenterhooks waiting for the final decision of the preliminary trial.
V
The decision for which I had waited so impatiently was finally handed down. As I said earlier, the case was to be moved on to a public trial. In my capacity as the barrister for the defendant Ōtera Ichirō I quickly ordered all of the case records. With what excitement I finally held the documents in my hands! I read through them ravenously from start to finish, as one would read letters from a lover. With eyes sharpened so as almost to penetrate the paper they were written on, I read through them all without missing even a single character.
And yet what did I find there? Having read them all I felt utterly disappointed. I was disappointed to discover that the newspaper reports had been mostly free of inaccuracies. The defendant Ōtera Ichirō had, both to the prosecutor and in the pretrial hearing, admitted his guilt. He had pleaded guilty to the murder of both husband and wife.
The few doubts on which I had pinned my hopes were summarily dispatched by the extreme rationality of the confession. At the same time, it was altogether too passionate a confession for it to be fraudulent. It was too earnest not to be true. And what purpose, after all, could possibly be served by the defendant lying to the prosecutor and the preliminary trial judge?
I have a facsimile here of the record of that interview. Allow me to read it aloud and to show you the exact transcript of the questioning and his responses during the pretrial. (The original is lacking voiced consonant marks and punctuation, but I will try to read it as a normal text to make it easier to understand.)
Q: Does this mean that the defendant resolved to kill Michiko because she had transferred her affections to another man?
A: I decided to kill Michiko because, while she had been quite kind to me up until then, she had treated me coldly after her change of heart and had begun to love Tomoda instead.
Q: Did the defendant know that Michiko was in love with Tomoda?
A: Until that day I had no conclusive proof of it. That evening I became convinced of it based on the way they were speaking to each other.
Q: When did the defendant decide to kill Michiko?
A: It was late at night on that day. Until then I was suffering enormously on the inside but the thought of killing her had never crossed my mind.
Q: Please explain the steps that led you to want to kill her.
A: When we were playing mahjong on that day – it was around nine-thirty I think - Tomoda got up to go to the toilet, after which Michiko left the room as well, looking as if she had something to do in the kitchen. I had been suspicious of their behaviour for some time already and felt something wasn’t right, so after a few moments I excused myself as well, saying I needed to use the toilet. I headed towards the bathroom but purposely turned quietly into the dark corridor where I discovered Michiko and Tomoda whispering to each other. I clearly heard Michiko say, ‘All right then – six o’clock the day after tomorrow at the usual place.’ I couldn’t quite make out what Tomoda said in reply but I sensed that the two had grasped each other’s hands. I did not actually see this, but I felt it quite clearly.
Q: Tomoda says that he may have gone to the toilet at that time but that he did not speak to Michiko. Why is that?
A: That is an outright lie. I remember the conversation quite clearly. And besides, if I hadn’t heard it I would not have become so furious. Overhearing it made me deeply angry. I felt that I had no more hope in the world. At that point, however, I had not yet thought of killing Michiko. That night I ended up staying in the room downstairs and went to bed after midnight, but I was so devastated that I couldn’t fall asleep and lay in bed moaning for about an hour. After a while I sensed someone coming downstairs and, listening closely, determined that it was Michiko. After she had gone into the toilet, I thought things over and decided that I had to speak to her and try to change her mind. So when she came out of the toilet I stopped her in the corridor and spoke to her. I said everything I could think of to win back her heart. But she had already given her heart to Tomoda and she showed no signs of returning to me. To make matters worse, she said, ‘Have you not been loving me behind Seizō’s back until now? You and I are both adulterers, aren’t we? What right does an adulterer like you have to tell me whom I can or cannot love? My husband might have a right to complain but I fail to see why I should listen to you.’ Of course I knew I had no rights in the matter but her way of putting it was so harsh that I said two or three things in my defence, to which she replied, ‘Do you actually think I cared about you? What a silly boy you are! I went with you just to tease you, you know. Now if you don’t stop this whining this instant I’m going to have to wake up Seizō. Let me go now, if you please!’ So saying, she turned her back on me and vanished back up the stairs.
All I could do was go back to bed. But as I thought about how horribly rude she had been and – although of course I am in no position to judge – how disgraceful and wanton her behaviour had been for a married woman, I could hardly stand it and resolved to kill her and then to kill myself. I had lived my life for her up until that point and now that I had lost her I saw no reason to go on living.
Q: Where did the defendant intend to kill Michiko?
A: I planned to go into her bedroom and kill her.
Q: Were you aware that her husband was sleeping in Michiko’s room?
A: Yes, I knew.
Q: Did the defendant believe that he could kill Michiko quietly while her husband was sleeping?
A: No. I knew that, if I killed Michiko, Seizō was sure to wake up.
Q: So what did you plan to do when Seizō woke up?
A: At first I thought if he woke up when I killed her I would come clean and confess my crime and then kill myself. But depending on Seizō’s attitude I was prepared to kill him as well.
Q: Did the defendant harbour ill feelings towards Seizō?
A: I had always hated him for mistreating the woman I loved. But what bothered me most was simply the fact that he was married to her. His existence was hateful to me. This may be hard for you to understand but it is true.
Q: Did you attempt to use a weapon of some sort in order to kill them?
A: I looked around for something but couldn’
t find anything.
Q: By what method did you plan to kill them?
A: At the time I was quite delirious so I did not really think it through but my plan was to barge into the room and strangle Michiko as she slept with my bare hands. As for Seizō, he was ill so I figured one good blow to the head would be enough to finish him off.
Q: Describe the way in which you killed them.
A: After I had determined that they were both asleep I quietly drew back the shōji and entered the room. I then mounted Michiko like a horse as she slept inside the mosquito net and immediately proceeded to close my hands around her neck. At this point Seizō woke up and called out, ‘Who’s there?’ There was no way around it so I spoke as I had planned.
‘I have wronged you terribly. Please forgive me. I must apologise.’
As I said this, Seizō sat up on the floor and said, ‘What? You’re Ōtera aren’t you? What on earth are you doing in our bedroom at this hour?’ To which I replied, ‘I came here in order to kill Michiko-san and ready to die myself. I don’t know how much you know, but the truth is that Michiko-san and I have been committing adultery for quite some time now. Michiko doesn’t love you. And you don’t love her either, do you? I am Michiko’s true lover. It is I who possess her. But she has betrayed me and I am here now to punish her.’
Q: Was Michiko listening to this without saying anything?
A: When she first opened her eyes she was trembling with shock but once I started talking she called me a liar, ‘a filthy no-good liar’. But she did not scream or call for help. She was too busy trying to justify herself to her husband.
Q: Describe what happened after that.
A: If Seizō had listened even a little to what I was saying I might have been able to avoid killing him. But despite my full and honest confession, he refused to listen. Indeed, rather than listening at some point he grabbed a knife that must have been on the desk and came after me with it all pale and trembling. His face looked to me like the face of a devil. I flew into a rage, tightened my fists and punched him in the head. He let out a short grunt, fell over, and hit his head hard on the corner of the desk. He looked like he had spit up blood at the same time that he fell over and he immediately lost consciousness. The mosquito net had come undone during the scuffle and was fluttering around so I kicked it violently out of the way. Michiko screamed when her husband fell over and ran over to him and tried to embrace him. I immediately pulled her by the hair and held Seizō’s knife to her neck and told her I would kill her if she made a sound. But she looked like she was going to scream anyway so I cut her on the face. Just as she started to scream she fainted and collapsed. Looking at this woman whom I had so loved until then, in nothing but her nightgown with a cut across her face, I was overcome by a wave of cold-blooded cruelty. I knew I would not be satisfied if I killed her with one blow so I decided to torment her first. Taking advantage of the fact that she had fainted I quickly untied the sash around her waist and bound her with it. Then I stabbed her in the right breast, avoiding her vital organs. I was not concerned for my own safety at the time but I planned to kill her immediately and then kill myself if anyone came into the room.
