Tokyo Year Zero (16 page)

‘And for how long was that job?’

‘Again about half a year.’

‘And then what?’

Now Kodaira pauses for a moment but then shrugs and says, ‘I was assigned to the Naval Clothing Department near Shinagawa.’

‘We’ve both seen this before, detective. Remember?’

‘Who assigned you to work in Naval Clothing?’
‘Did you find that file, inspector… ?’

‘I was assigned to the Naval Supplies Department by the local Labour Mobilization Office in Gotanda…’

‘And they assigned you as… ?’

‘As a boiler technician.’

‘And when was this?’

‘August, 1944.’

‘And then?’

Kodaira shrugs again, then says, ‘I got married. I had a kid.’

‘This is with your present wife then?’ asks Kanehara.

‘Yes.’

‘How did you meet your new wife?’

‘Through a friend.’

‘And when did you get married?’

‘Last February.’

‘And you were still working for the Naval Supplies?’

‘I was then,’ he says. ‘Until June last year.’

‘What happened in June last year?’

‘Nothing,’ he says. ‘I just quit.’

‘Why?’

‘I had evacuated my wife and baby to her family home in Toyama and I was renting a house in Wakagi-chō in Shibuya…’

‘This is the same house that you’re in now?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘The old place we were renting burnt down in the May air raids, so that was when I decided to quit my job at the Naval Supplies and go live with my wife and kid in Toyama.’

‘And could you find any work in Toyama?’

‘We were staying with my wife’s older brother and he helped me get a job as a security guard.’

‘Where was that?’

‘At Fuji Seikō –zai in Higashi Toyama.’

‘So when did you come back here?’

‘About a week after the surrender.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘Well, I’d borrowed some money from a broker,’ he says. ‘To set myself up selling Toyama Medicine Boxes door to door.’

‘And so how long did that job last?’

‘Not very long,’ he laughs. ‘Just until I paid back the money
to the broker. In November last year…’

‘And so when did you start working at the Shinchū Gun laundry, for the Occupation Army?’

‘Well, my wife and my kid came back to Tokyo in December last year,’ he says. ‘So then I must have started at the Shinchū Gun laundry in March this year.’

‘Thank you very much,’ says Chief Inspector Kanehara. ‘You’ve been very helpful. Very cooperative. Now we’re going to give you a little rest and some tea and then we’re going to come back in here and we’re going to ask you some more questions.’

Kodaira Yoshio smiles. Kodaira nods his head.

‘But these questions won’t be about your life,’ says Kanehara. These questions won’t be about your family. These questions won’t be about your work. These questions will be different questions –

‘Do you know what these different questions will be about?’

Kodaira has stopped smiling. Kodaira is shaking his head –

Kanehara is smiling now. ‘But I think you do know…’

Kodaira shaking his head again. Again and again –

‘These questions will be about Midorikawa…’

Again and again. He shakes his head –

‘Midorikawa Ryuko…?’

Again and again –

Now Kanehara says, ‘Take off your shirt and your trousers and we’ll be back soon.’

In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Adachi stares at the wall again; Kanehara reads back over the notes; Kai smokes –

Now Chief Inspector Adachi turns to me again and asks, ‘Does the Naval Clothing Department in Shinagawa ring any bells?’

‘Not for me,’ I say. ‘Why, does it ring any bells for you?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘But I’m deaf to all bells these days.’

*

It is dark now. The table has gone. The chairs have gone. The stenographer too. The cigarettes are all smoked. The tea all drunk. The room all shadows. Ten policemen file into the room. Ten policemen with bamboo sticks. Ten policemen opposite Kodaira Yoshio. Kodaira Yoshio stood in his underwear. Kodaira Yoshio with his head bowed. Kodaira Yoshio with his tears on the floor –

Chief Inspector Adachi steps towards him –

Adachi says, ‘In your own words…’

‘I met Midorikawa Ryuko in Shinagawa station about two months ago. There had been a train accident that day and so the platform was crowded with people waiting. I saw Midorikawa Ryuko walking along the platform. I had some bread with me from the Shinchū Gun. As she walked past, I offered her half of the bread and she took it and ate it there and then. I felt sorry for her and so I gave her the other half and she stayed near me…’

Inspector Adachi says, ‘So it was Midorikawa who followed you. You didn’t follow her…’

‘We got on the train for Meguro together and while we were on the train I put my hand up her skirt and stroked her cunt. Ryuko didn’t object and when we got off the train she copied down my address from my pass. She then visited my house three times…’

Adachi says, ‘So she obviously liked your hand up her skirt. She must have liked you playing with her cunt…’

‘I met Ryuko again on the sixth of August at ten o’clock at the east entrance of Shinagawa station. I’d told her I could help her find a job with the Shinchū Gun but that she would first need to take a written test at the barracks; that to enter the barracks we would have to get a letter of permission; that to get the letter we would have to go to the American Club in Marunouchi. This was all a lie. But I told her to follow me and I took her up the hill in Shiba…’

‘But once again it was Midorikawa who followed you, yeah? You didn’t drag her up there, did you?’

‘We found a quiet spot and we sat down together, side by side, and we began to eat our
bentō
lunches, side by side. But all the time we were eating, I couldn’t stop staring at her tits, smelling her woman’s smell and all the time we were eating, I really wanted to have her, to have her there and then, but she said she didn’t want to do it then, said she didn’t want to do it there. I was angry and I was frustrated now and so I slapped her face and then I stripped her underwear and I had her then and had her there, even though I knew it was wrong. I just lost control…’

‘But you’d been down there before, you’d had your fingers up her skirt and in her cunt…’

‘Then after I’d finished, she just wouldn’t stop crying and crying so I strangled her.’

‘She’d never been upset before, had she? She’d still come to meet you, hadn’t she?’

‘I strangled her with her own
haramaki.’

‘You’d not planned it that way…’

‘Then I stripped the body and…’

‘You were afraid…’

‘I ran away.’

*

In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai congratulate Chief Inspector Adachi.
Case closed
. Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai tell Chief Inspector Adachi what a great job he did.
Case closed
. In the corridor outside the interrogation room, Chief Inspector Adachi congratulates Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai.
Case closed
. Chief Inspector Adachi tells Chief Inspector Kanehara and Inspector Kai what a great job they did.
Case closed. Case closed. Case closed…

They will eat good food tonight, their glasses raised –

They will sing old songs, their songs of victory –

‘You saw how it was done,’ Kai tells me. ‘Good luck.’

*

They have switched on the light. They have brought back the table. They have given Kodaira Yoshio back his chair. They have given Kodaira Yoshio back his clothes. They have given Kodaira Yoshio tea to drink. They have given Kodaira Yoshio cigarettes to smoke –

Kodaira smiling. Kodaira grinning. Kodaira laughing…

I ask him, ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me?’

‘Like what?’ he asks. ‘Like about Midorikawa?’

‘That’s not the first time you’ve killed, is it?’

‘You know that,’ he says. ‘I told you.’

‘Then please tell me again…’

‘Why?’ he laughs.

‘Tell me!’

He shrugs his shoulders. He says, ‘I killed my father-in-law.’

‘And?’

He says, ‘And I’ve just told you I killed Midorikawa.’

‘And?’

He smiles now. ‘And I killed six Chinese soldiers.’

‘And?’

He shakes his head. He asks me, ‘And what?’

‘And how many more have you killed?’

He asks, ‘Killed where? In China?’

‘Just tell me about the others…’

Kodaira asks, ‘Were you a soldier, detective? Did you fight?’

‘I’m not talking about China,’ I say. ‘What about here?’

But he asks me again, ‘Did you fight, detective?’

‘Yes,’ I tell him. ‘In the army. In China.’

He says, ‘Then you saw what I saw. You did what I did.’

Half-thoughts form. In the half-light. Half-things move…

‘I’m not talking about China,’ I tell him. ‘There was another body found in Shiba Park. There was another murdered girl.’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

Kodaira shrugs his shoulders again. He shakes his head –

‘Another dead girl aged seventeen or eighteen…’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

Kodaira shakes his head. He bows his head –

‘In a yellow and dark-blue striped pinafore dress,’ I tell him. ‘A white half-sleeved chemise, dyed-pink socks and white canvas shoes with red rubber soles…’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

Kodaira shrugs his shoulders. Kodaira shakes his head. Kodaira bows his head. Kodaira says, ‘It wasn’t me, detective…’

Ton-ton. Ton-ton…

I get up to go –

Ton-ton…

‘I’m very sorry,’ says Kodaira. ‘But it wasn’t me, soldier.’

*

I stay away from Headquarters.
They will have found his name
. They will be having their parties to celebrate.
They will have talked to his family
. They will be eating good food.
They will have found his office
. They will be raising their glasses.
They will have talked to his colleagues
. They will be taking off their ties.
They will have found his stories
. They will be tying their ties round their foreheads.
They will
have talked to his contacts
. They will be singing their songs.
They will have found his notes
. Their songs of endeavour.
They will have talked to his snitches
. Their songs of courage.
They will have found my name
. Their songs of battle.
They will be coming for me
…

Case closed. Case closed. Case closed…

Be singing their songs of victory –

Chiku-taku. Chiku-taku…

The night is heavy; the heat is dark; the Shimbashi New Life Market deserted except for a few stall-holders here and there, standing in small groups, watching the reed screens being torn down, drinking
mechiru-arukōru
and reading the signs while they still can:

Closed for the time being. Efforts being made to reopen …

No pots. No pans. No sardines or second-hand suits –

No tinned fruit or soldiers’ boots –

No Victors on the stairs tonight –

No red apple to my lips…

‘The boss has been waiting for you,’ says the goon in the new suit as two other goons in two other new suits take an arm each and march me past the empty mats and broken stalls, down the alleys and the lanes, through the shadows and the arches to the old wooden stairs and the wide-open door at the top of those stairs –

I wipe my face. Then I wipe my neck –

Now I walk up the stairs –

Into the light –

Senju Akira is sat cross-legged before the long low polished table, bare-chested with his trousers unbuttoned at the waist and a clean white
haramaki
belt around his belly –

Senju calmer than before –

Before the storm…

‘I attended a very interesting meeting today,’ he tells me –

There are ten police revolvers laid out on the long table…

‘All of the gang bosses and all of the police chiefs…’

There is ammunition for them. There are short swords…

‘I impressed upon them all that the traditional friendship between the bosses and the followers should remain untouched, but I agreed that the system itself should be completely altered otherwise it will not survive in this age of democracy…’

He picks up a gun. He picks up a cloth. He begins to clean…

‘I advocated that all of the gangs should abandon the practice
of living upon protection money and other such outdated and parasitic practices…’

Bit by bit, piece by piece, he wipes, he polishes, he oils…

‘I advocated that the markets be drastically democratized and reorganized into modern business corporations with even their own labour unions…’

He sorts through the ammunition, he sifts…

‘I told the gang bosses and the police chiefs that the old Shimbashi Black Market has already been transformed into the Shimbashi New Life Market and that the old Matsuda gang has now been reorganized into the Kantō Matsuda Group, a modern commercial organization under my presidency…’

He chooses. He loads…

‘That all our members have doffed their traditional clothes for sack coats like all other white-collar workers. That unemployment insurance is being introduced…’

One bullet, two bullets, three bullets, four…

‘Relief money for workers who are sick…’

Four bullets, five bullets, six more…

‘And help for the families of the dead…’

He closes the chamber of the gun…

‘I told them that we were here to work with the police, shoulder to shoulder, brother to brother, Japanese to Japanese. I told them we were here to help the police…’

Now he cocks the gun
…

‘But I also told them that we would never lie down, that we would never back down in the face of threats and intimidation from the Formosans and Koreans…’