November 2006
To our Friends and Supporters:
Greetings from Japan to our supporters around the world. On October
31, representatives from almost every district of the United Church
of Christ in Japan met in Tokyo for a rally in support of Kazuo
Ishikawa, who was wrongly convicted over 40 years ago of a crime
he clearly had no part in. The “Sayama Case,” as it
has become known, has become a focal point for the struggle against
“buraku” discrimination.
Kazuo Ishikawa and his wife thanking supporters at the rally.
This miscarriage of justice stems from a botched police investigation
of the kidnapping and eventual murder of a teenage girl in 1963.
The local police were under severe criticism for allowing the
kidnapper, who had written a ransom note, to escape. Their “solution”
was to look for a suspect in a nearby “buraku” area
(a poor neighborhood of people descended from those who had been
designated “unclean” by ancient religious traditions),
and Kazuo Ishikawa proved to be a convenient scapegoat. He didn’t
have a provable alibi, and since he was “one of those people”
that society thought of little worth anyway, it was easy for them
to justify extracting a “confession” out of him. A
Web site in Japan has more details of the story.
It boggles the mind to think of a young man’s future being
taken away from him by clearly trumped-up charges. After being
tricked into signing a confession after many days of grueling
interrogation, he was sentenced to death. This was in spite of
the clear evidence that he could not possibly be the real culprit,
and was based entirely on his “confession.” The sentence
was later reduced to life imprisonment, and after spending 32
years behind bars, he was finally paroled. His unjust sentence,
however, was not overturned, and the court has continued to refuse
to open the case so that he can clear his name. The court is following
a traditional Japanese saying, “If it stinks, put the lid
on.”
The rally Tim attended was to launch a new campaign to collect
a million signatures to appeal to the Japanese court to reopen
the trial and look at the actual evidence. It’s hard to
imagine a more obvious case of frame-up, which was so poorly done
that it is clear that it was done totally ad hoc and under pressure,
with little if any real planning. This is not a case of “reasonable
doubt” concerning his guilt, but clear and compelling evidence
of his innocence! Even in this situation of “guilty until
proven innocence,” that would be very easy to do if only
given the chance.
People all over the world are being urged to show their support
in this effort to put pressure on Japanese authorities to admit
this injustice. Previous efforts have been stonewalled, and the
court has steadfastly refused to even look at the evidence. We
urge all of you to go to the
Web site and sign the petition online. Just click the “Sign
the petition” button on the right under “More Information,”
key in your name and email address, and submit.
A rally on October 31, 2006, supported Kazuo Ishikawa, who was
jailed wrongly for 32 years.
At the rally, we spent more than an hour appealing to passersby
to sign the petition, and added more than a hundred to the list.
Next, we went to the main rally, where well over a thousand supporters
from various religious and secular groups were gathered to listen
to speeches in support of the cause. Kazuo Ishikawa himself came
to express his appreciation for all of the support he continues
to receive.
Ishikawa is only one victim of a wide variety of subtle and not-so-subtle
forms of discrimination still present in Japan against people
of buraku descent and other marginalized groups. His story, however,
has become a central symbol in the struggle to liberate not only
the people who suffer such discrimination, but also those who
still engage in it. The goal is not retribution or revenge against
those who directly perpetrated this injustice. It is to set all
of us free from the fear and misinformation that is at the root
of the problem. And as Christians, our goal is to introduce people
to the life-changing power of Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate
answer to this age-old problem.
Grace and Peace,
Tim and Yuko (Juji) Boyle
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
252 |
