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Hiroo Onoda is known for continuing fighting after the end of WWII, because he didn’t believe Japan had surrendered and thought news announcing the end of the war were ennemy propaganda. Initially with three other men then alone, he continued a guerrilla warfare for 29 years in the Philippines. A Major had to go to the Philippines to officially relieve him of his duties in 1974. He returned to Japan in March of this year and was the center of media’s attention. Some considered him a hero even though he probably killed many civilians during all these years.

Shoichi Yokoi has a similar fate, staying hidden on Guam for 28 years after the end of the war. He didn’t believe the war was over and stayed in the jungle with other comrades, then alone. He didn’t want to surrender and return alive to Japan.

At the time of rapid economic growth, after the Olympics and the Osaka Expo, it’s easy to imagine that the reappearance of these soldiers who continue fighting for nearly 30 years and thought returning alive to Japan was a disgrace must have been a shock to most people.

July is such a great reading month so far, I loved all the books I’ve read. It’s crazy, because I was wondering which one between 警察執勤中：正義的代價 and 変な地図 would be my favourite book of the month, then I read 消失的你 and thought it might actually be this one, but now I’m almost certain it’s going to be 百年の時効 if I manage to finish it this month (and of course, if the novel turns out as good as the beginning was).
I’m glad I found all these gems, it makes all the rain, heat and humidity more bearable

I started 百年の時効 and finished the first chapter. This book is incredibly engrossing! The first chapter was taking place nowadays, but it also settled the differences between the eras, how mentalities and practices changed, like for example how investigation are conducted now compared to the 70s, or the differences in means available to the police. It also mentions several real cases that all have an importance in Japanese recent history, so reading this novel is also an opportunity for me to learn about all these events.

I spent a lot of time reading about several of the real cases mentioned, so I haven’t made much progress on the reading itself, but the beginning is fantastic and the plot looks really great.

渋谷暴動事件: Shibuya Riot Case
The Shibuya riot case was a famous incident involving the New-left radical activists in 1971. In November, left-wing students and workers organised protests, but some members of a far-left group called 中核派 violently killed a 21-year-old police officer, beating him with iron pipe and setting him on fire with molotov cocktails.
7 members were identified as the ones who killed the policeman, 6 were arrested and prosecuted, but Masaaki Osaka (大坂正明) remained a fugitive for 46 years with the help of the 中核派.
Even though the status of limitation was 15 years at the time, it is suspended while accomplices are on trial. Numerous and lengthy appeals made it so that these trials were dragged out, so the status of limitation for Osaka was paused and was not concluded in 2010, when the whole system was abolished in the case of murder and took place retroactively for cases that were still open in 2010. This is what allowed Osaka to be trialed in 2017 when he was finally arrested.

I didn’t know that, but apparently, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is often referred to as Sakuradamon 桜田門 because the main building is facing the Sakurada Gate of the Imperial Palace. This gate is also where the Sakuradamon Incident took place as mentioned in the novel (it was the assassination of Ii Naosuke, a Tairō of the Tokugawa Shogunate).
But as the novel states, the Metropolitan Police Department HQ were originally located elsewhere and only moved there in 1931, because their previous building had been destroyed during the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake.

三億円事件 - 300 million yen robbery
The 三億円事件 took place in 1968, it is the biggest heist in Japanese history and remains unsolved. A man, posing as a policeman, managed to fool bank employees who were transporting money. He made them believe that a bomb was hidden under the vehicle. The employees believed it because a few days earlier, the bank had received threats involving explosion. The man was able to drive away with the vehicle after scaring the employees away.
The scale of the investigation was massive, and they did check a ton of fingerprints one by one. A 19-year-old man was falsely accused and committed suicide. In 1975, the case reached its status of limitations.
Official name of the case is 現金輸送車強奪事件, but it is commonly referred to as 三億円事件.

Prince Shōtoku (聖徳太子) was printed on the 10.000 yen banknotes when they first released in 1958, but the second series printed in 1984 had the portrait of Fukuzawa Yukichi (a Meiji philosopher) instead.

Apparently, the word 相場師 is not super familiar to Fujimori, so I guess it’s more a Showa thing. I understand it as a market wizard who trades following a mix of instinct and skill, and can make a fortune quickly. Some of these speculators have become some kind of legends, which seems to be the case for Sakurai.
I don’t know if the word itself is used a lot nowadays, investors are generally referred to as 投資家 or トレーダー.

ロッキード事件 - Lockheed bribery scandals
Lockheed is a US aerospace company that paid bribes to politicians of several countries to facilitate the sell of their aircraft. Japan was one of the countries involved,
Lockheed actually hired Yoshio Kodama, a right-wing ultranationalist, prominent figure in the organised crime and active in the criminal underworld from the 30s to the 70s, to influence Japanese airlines, notably All Nippon Airways, to buy one of Lockheed’s aircraft. They also paid considerable sums to the office of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka to facilitate the contrat. Kodama, Tanaka and All Nippon Airways all receive bribes.
Lockheed used Nicholas Deak, a banker and head of a huge financial group who worked with US secret service, to transfer the money to Japan via HK where Deak’s office was. This and other scandals will eventually force Deak to declare bankruptcy in 1984.
In 1976, actor Mitsuyasu Maeno who was associated with the Japanese ultranationalist movement tried to kill Kodama by crashing his plane on Kodama’s house. He used to respect Kodama, but considers that he betrayed the right-wing and the samurai code by accepting bribes, and caused a national disgrace (Lockheed had built aircrafts that fought against Japan in WWII).
Maeno and two of his friends rented two planes saying it was for the shooting of a film on kamikaze. Maeno then alone crashed his plane on Kodama’s house, killing two servants and himself in the process. Kodama, who was in another part of the house, was uninjured. He later died of a stroke in 1984 before his trial was concluded.
As for Tanaka, he was arrested on 1976 but released on bond, he was later sentenced to four years of prison in 1983 but remained free on appeal until his death. His political influence did not end with the scandal however and he was able to continue his political career with the support of his faction. The scandal did create a political turmoil and Prime Minister dissolved the Diet, but in the 1983 Japanese general election (also called the Lockheed Election - ロッキード選挙), Tanaka retained his seat at the Diet.

It’s decided, I just bought 百年の時効 on Booklive. The English subtitle is “When the Era Breaks Its Silence”, I love this title!
I’ll first need to add it and the author to the database, and then I’ll start it!

My initial plan with the Mystery Writers of Japan Award was to read them in chronological order, to get an idea of how mystery novels evolved throughout the second half of the 20th Century. I stopped in 1989, I think I just started moving to other things at the time, and I completely put the project aside (and I was tired of reading hardboiled novels that seem so popular in the 80s).

I want to go back to the award now, but I think I will either pick them in reverse order: start with the most recent one, or just pick the ones I find appealing.

The winner of 2026 is 百年の時効 by 伏尾美紀, and this one looks huge! It’s apparently a police procedural that spawns 50 years, so we go through Showa, Heisei and Reiwa through it. It probably won’t be the easiest to read, but I’m up for the challenge. And with my new setup it’s going to be easy to make character lists or summaries if needed.

Listened to 花之歌 a bit today. It’s exactly like last time, once I get started with the text and know the context and the characters, I don’t need it anymore and can understand well.

天帝妖狐 was first published in 1998, but it really doesn’t feel like something someone could write at the age of 20~. It has those recurring themes of loneliness and friendships, but the setting and plot felt very unique compared to the other short stories I read. I really loved it, as well as the other short story from the collection, A Masked Ball.