Kirishima spent nearly half a century evading arrest until his death.
Shocking deathbed confession: The 70-year-old who lived a double life as a construction worker was admitted to a hospital near Tokyo last month, where he told staff he was actually one of Japan’s most wanted fugitives one.
In the latest photo, provided to Japanese media by an acquaintance, we can see similarities to the black-and-white photos that have decorated Japanese police boxes for decades, showing a smiling, bespectacled man with a haircut A college student with shoulder-length hair.
While he shared details about his family and organization that only he knew, it was only this week that DNA evidence confirmed that the terminally ill man was indeed Kirishima, a member of a militant group that has ruled North Korea for nine years. months. Terrorist attacks in the mid-1970s shocked Japan.
His decision to surrender has reignited collective memories of a time when well-organized left-wing extremists posed a serious threat to the public in Japan and overseas.
as a member of the organization Sasori In April 1975, Kirishima East Asia Anti-Japanese Armed Front (Scorpion) troops allegedly planted and detonated a homemade bomb that destroyed a building near Ginza in the Tokyo area, causing no casualties.
In the same year, he was also suspected of participating in four other attacks against large Japanese companies, and the group regarded him as a “collaborator” in the disaster of Japanese militarism in the first half of the 20th century.
In its most notorious incident, the group planted a bomb at the Tokyo headquarters of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, killing eight people and injuring more than 360, apparently because the company supplied supplies to U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. It was Japan’s deadliest terrorist attack until 1995, when the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway.
Shortly before he died of stomach cancer in late January at the same hospital where he had been an outpatient for about a year, Kirishima told staff: “I want to greet my death with my real name,” adding, He regrets his role at the hospital. attack.
While police have handed over the bombing case to prosecutors, Kirishima’s death means the families of the group’s victims will never be able to stand trial. It also forces investigators to uncover how a high-profile criminal was able to hide in plain sight for 49 years.
In May 1975, the police arrested eight people involved in the attack, including Masashi Daidaiji. He and one other man were sentenced to death by hanging, but Daidaiji died of cancer on death row in May 2017.
Kirishima was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, attended a local school, and began his life as a political extremist while studying law at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo.
His confession means at least a clearer picture of his seemingly humble, blameless life during the decades on the run.
His name is Hiroshi Uchida, and he has worked for a construction company in Fujisawa, south of Tokyo, for about 40 years. He reportedly avoided bank transactions and asked to be paid in cash to avoid leaving a paper trail that could lead to his arrest. He had no driver’s license, cell phone, or health insurance, and he paid for the hospital stay out of pocket.
The Yomiuri Shimbun said “Uchida” visited a local public bathhouse and then walked into a bar – where he was affectionately known as “Uchida” – to drink beer and listen to rock music, adding that he was very Share less about yourself with other drinkers. .
Kirishima may have found some kind of closure, but the victims’ families have expressed frustration that he waited so long to pour out his heart. He told the Yomiuri newspaper that his apology came “too late” for a relative whose sister, then 23, was killed in the Mitsubishi bombing.
