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Tokyo Reported
3 days ago
- Tokyo Reported
Satoshi Kirishima: Hiding in plain sight
KANAGAWA (TR) – In February 2024, Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed that a man who died in a hospital here the month before was Satoshi Kirishima, a fugitive wanted over a series of bomb attacks in 1974 and 1975. According to investigative sources, the man was admitted to a hospital in Kamakura City in early January under the name 'Hiroshi Uchida.' He was suffering from terminal stomach cancer. When he died the next month he was 70 years old. On January 25, he disclosed his real name to the hospital staff, saying, 'In the end, I want to die as 'Satoshi Kirishima.'' He died four days later. Kirishima had remained on the run for nearly half a century. One year after his death, TBS News (Mar. 1) visited the home where he lived. Through interviews, the network was able to get a glimpse into his life on the run, one where he was hiding in plain sight. Following a series of corporate bombings in the 1970s, Satoshi Kirishima was a fugitive for nearly 50 years (X) Hiroshi Uchida A photograph presented by the network shows a man smiling with a wine glass in hand. This is Satoshi Kirishima, the suspect who committed a series of corporate bombings in the 1970s. The photo obtained exclusively by the program was taken 30 years after he was put on a nationwide wanted list. His joyful appearance, in the company of friends, does not look like that of a wanted criminal who fears arrest. In Fujisawa City, there is a building where suspect Kirishima lived until just before his death. With special permission, the program was able to film the inside. There, he was left with his life under the pseudonym Hiroshi Uchida and the inner conflict of being a fugitive. His guitar, handwritten lyrics cards, manga, movie DVDs, and other items were piled up in a cluttered mess. Medicines prescribed under the name 'Uchida' and books on cancer also gave a glimpse into his later years. There is a magazine looking back at the year 1974, the year of the bombing. A number of words are scribbled: selflessness, courage, tenacity, weakness. Maruonouchi blast Kirishima was a member of Sasori (Scorpion), a unit for extremist group East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. The extremist group was tied to a series of bombings in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front said they were behind more than 10 bombings that targeted contractors and other organizations. In 1974, a time bomb exploded at an office of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in the Marunouchi business district of Tokyo. The blast killed eight people and injured 380. It was the worst terrorist attack in Japan since the end of World War II. Kirishima is suspected of being involved in a bombing at a building of the Economic Research Institute of Korea in the capital's Ginza district on April 19, 1975. The next day, he was listed as wanted. Before he died last year, Kirishima denied involvement in the Ginza blast. However, he did admit to carrying out at least one of the three blasts on February 28, 1975 that rocked the Hazama Corp. headquarters and its plant in Saitama Prefecture. According to the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 27, 2024), Kirishima told police, 'I had worked day-labor jobs in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, before living and working at the construction company in Fujisawa.' On the day of the publication of Asahi article, Tokyo police sent Kirishima to prosecutors over five cases on suspicion of violating the Explosives Control Law and attempted murder. Of the 10 members of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, police arrested nine. Kirishima had been the only one to evade arrest. Toshikazu Ugajin (X) Daichi no Kiba Sasori joined East Asia Anti-Japanese Armed Front after the Mitsubishi blast, meaning Kirishima was not involved. Sasori was accompanied by another group, Daichi no Kiba (Fang of the Earth), in joining the extremist group. Either individually or together, the three groups carried out a total of 12 bombings. Sasori had a policy of not causing any casualties, but in 1975, a man was seriously injured by a bomb set by Kirishima. Afterward, eight member of the three groups were arrested. Kirishima and Toshikazu Ugajin, 72, a former member of Daichi no Kiba, were not among them. Ugajin tells TBS News that he immediately went to Kirishima's residence. 'The idea of using weapons or anything like that to achieve some goal was wrong in itself,' says Ugajin. Kirishima was shaken. '[Kirishima] had a look on his face saying, 'What have I done?' He said, 'I've done something that can't be undone,'' Ugajin remembers. The two men were afraid that the investigation would reach them, so they kept watch over each other's apartments as investigators closed in. Ugajin lived near Saginomiya Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line in Tokyo. Meanwhile Kirishima was at a residence two stations away. 'There were no investigators at Kirishima's apartment,' Ugajin says. 'But when Kirishima went to my apartment, there were about 10 people wearing white gloves.' Satoshi Kirishima with a glass of wine in 2005 (X) The escape Ugajin explains to the network how the two escaped 50 years ago. 'As we were walking, two of the [men in white gloves] followed us and said, 'Let's take a taxi to Shinjuku,'' Ugajin says. 'We were lying down on the grass and asking, 'What on earth should we do?'' While moving from one cheap lodging to another, Ugajin cut Kirishima's long hair with scissors. 'I thought if I cut his hair, they wouldn't know,' he says. 'The blade started moving around, and I wound up cutting it short.' After learning in the newspaper that they were wanted, the two decided to split up and go on the run. 'I was in a panic,' Ugajin says. 'It was bad to be together, so we decided to split up, run away and meet again.' Satoshi Kirishima at his favorite bar in Fujisawa (X) 'Never says no' Despite that promise, they never did meet again.,Ugajin was arrested seven years later and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Meanwhile, Kirishima continued to flee. There are people in his hometown in Hiroshima Prefecture, where he was born in 1954, who were caught up in Kirishima's flight. Kirishima's high school classmate, Ryutaro Okada, 71, went on to a different university in Tokyo than Kirishima. '[Kirishima] was easily influenced by others,' says Okada. 'If someone says, 'Hey, Kirishima, let's go hang out,' he'll go. He was the kind of guy who never says no.' When Kirishima was in his fourth year of university, his classmate was subjected to relentless questioning after Kirishima was put on the wanted list. 'Because he ran away, the police investigated his classmates in various ways, and I think his family got it even worse,' says Okada. 'I felt strongly that he should have come out quickly and say at least one word of apology.' 'I've seen you somewhere before' When Kirishima started his escape, he wound up at a steelworks plant in Fujisawa City. He was introduced to the manager by a gang member under the name 'Uchida.' Takashi Komura, 76, was that manager: 'The gang member said, 'Please take care of him for a bit.'' After working there for about three months, Kirishima disappeared. Komura remembers, 'I said to Kirishima, 'I've seen you somewhere before.' He responded, 'There are a lot of people who look like me.' Then he disappeared at the end of the month.' Kirishima then worked at another construction company for about 40 years. Acquaintances said that although he was quiet at work. But they also said that in his private life he acted boldly, which was hard to believe for a wanted man. At the height of the so-called 'bubble economy,' he danced at discos and visited Tokyo and Yokohama to watch live music. He also went skiing, camping and fishing with friends. 'Excited about movies and music' Kirishima frequented a bar in Fujisawa for 25 years. TBS News got the proprietor to speak on camera for the first time. 'We called him 'Woo-yan,' the manager says. 'He seemed to like getting excited about movies and music the most.' The nickname 'Woo-yan' is also written on the event list at the bar. The manager felt a special bond with Kirishima as a friend. 'He remembered my birthday and brought me something every year,' the manager says. 'He would give me old movie videos, or if he happened to go to a discount store and saw some clothes that looked good on me, he would buy them for me.' He was a cheerful figure at the bar, livening up the atmosphere with the regulars. 'There was a musician he loved,' the manager remembers, 'and he would save up cans of canned chuhai that he drank every day, put a lot of pebbles in them, tie them up with duct tape, and make dozens of them as maracas for all the customers who came in, telling them to support him.' In 2023, Kirishima confessed his illness to the manager. 'He told me he had pharyngeal cancer and said he couldn't go out drinking for a while,' he says. 'About a month later, he said he'd had surgery and was cured, so he'd come again.' That never happened. Satoshi Kirishima was wanted for 50 years Afterward Ugajin was released from prison in 2003. On January 29 this year, the anniversary of Kirishima's death, he visited a shrine in Kamakura. 'The place where I met Kirishima. The place where we agreed to meet again, three months after we started our escape,' he says. 'We parted ways, agreeing to talk things over [another time].' On the appointed day, 50 years ago, Ugajin walked around the shrine grounds, but could not find Kirishima. After that, he visited the shrine almost every year. 'I couldn't meet him. I couldn't meet him. I haven't seen him for 50 years,' he says. Kirishima's classmate Okada said he felt uncomfortable with the reports that Kirishima was involved in the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing. 'He's being treated like a villain,' Okada says. 'There were some things about that that I couldn't forgive. But I want to make it clear to what extent Kirishima was actually involved. For Kirishima's sake.' For Okada, one question remains: Why did Kirishima join the extremists? To find out, he visited Kamakura to ask Ugajin. 'I thought that Kirishima was a man who was easily influenced by others. So I always had a strong feeling that he was pulled in that direction,' Okada says. Ugajin disagrees. He says, 'He's not the kind of person who is influenced by others.' After Okada suggests it was Ugajin who forced Kirishima to join the group, Ugajin says, 'Do I look like the kind of person who would pull someone along? Me? He wasn't pulled along by someone, he chose that fight of his own volition. That he's just a person who doesn't think about anything. That's absolutely wrong. It's wrong.' 'An apology' Okada and Ugajin's opinions were at odds. Later, the two visited visited the Fujisawa bar. 'When we talk, we only have happy memories,' the proprietor says. 'When I think about the victims, I can't express those feelings honestly. To me, Uchida is Uchida, and because we were close, it feels like a friend has died, so I'm sad.' In 2024, Ugajin wrote in his memoir that Kirishima's escape was a 'victory against the public security police.' Since then, his feelings have changed. 'He will live life anew as an ordinary human being, not a terrorist,' he says. 'It's not fitting to call it a 'declaration of victory.'' In January 2024, Kirishima was found unable to move on a street and was taken to the hospital. Stricken with cancer, he made the aforementioned confession as to his identity on his deathbed. When police arrived, he divulged information about the attacks and the background of Kirishimia that only the man himself could have known. The results of a DNA analysis verified his identity. Why did Kirishima reveal his real name at the end? 'He wanted people to know that it wasn't just some nameless person named Uchida who died, but that he was living as Satoshi Kirishima, pretending to be Uchida,' Ugajin says. The proprietor thinks the reason might run deeper. 'I think he was a serious person, so I feel like he drew a line under himself in the end,' he says. 'By calling himself Satoshi Kirishima, it felt like he erased Satoshi Kirishima, partly as an apology for the incident.' Ugajin also visited the building where Kirishima lived for the first time. 'I made a mistake, or rather, I fought in a way that I shouldn't have,' he says. 'I've come to understand that. I think that's natural. When I look at the people he's been with, there's not much difference between my feelings and theirs. I really want to know what he was thinking. I wish I did.' A piece of paper was left behind in Kirishima's room. Handwritten on it were the words of a philosopher: 'You can understand life by looking backwards.'
Japan Times
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘Escape': Masao Adachi's fugitive biopic salutes a kindred spirit
Satoshi Kirishima was the happiest-looking fugitive in all of Japan. For nearly half a century, his smiling visage (fresh-faced, glasses, long hair) was a fixture on police posters nationwide. It was hard to believe that he was a wanted terrorist who'd taken part in a bombing campaign waged against Japanese corporations by an extremist left-wing group in the 1970s. He looked more like an off-duty pop idol. In 'Escape,' Masao Adachi's fictionalized biopic about Kirishima, one of the first things the fugitive does after going on the run is to give himself a haircut. He also resolves to stop smiling, which is a smart move. It's no spoiler to reveal that he would manage to evade capture for the rest of his life, only disclosing his true identity a few days before his death in 2024. Based on the few known facts about this outlaw's life on the run, Adachi has fashioned a spirited existential drama that's more interested in dialectical theater than generating suspense. The director's interest lies in what kept Kirishima going during his decades-long flight, and why he chose to blow his cover at the end of it all.
