Voices in the Dark: The Sayama Incident and the Accusation of Literature, 1974

Voices in the Dark: The Sayama Incident and the Accusation of Literature, 1974

In 1963, Kazuo Ishikawa, a young man from a discriminated Buraku tribe, was arrested and found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of a high school girl in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, based on his own confession. However, there were many inconsistencies in his statements and insufficient evidence, and there was a strong suspicion that he was falsely accused. In the early 1970s, discrimination against the Buraku remained deep-rooted in the shadow of Japan's rapid economic growth, and the Sayama case resonated with the student and civic movements. In the midst of university conflicts, the case became a symbol for demanding social reform, and literary figures and intellectuals took a strong interest in the case. The magazine's "Sayama Incident and Buraku Liberation Literature" featured Yoshikiyo Arakawa's novel "Inside the Dark and Long Hole" and poems written in prison, documenting his attempts to make voices trapped in darkness resonate in society. It was not only an expressio
n, but also a social weapon to denounce discrimination and judicial injustice; in October 1974, the Tokyo High Court sentenced Ishikawa to life imprisonment, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1977, but the case continued to remain an unsolved issue as requests for retrial continued to be filed. The Sayama case is a symbol of the problem of false accusations, and it continued to raise questions for society at the intersection of literature and activism.