Photo/Illutration Iwao Hakamada, right, and his elder sister, Hideko, speak to supporters in Shizuoka on March 21 after prosecutors decided not to appeal a high court ruling to hold a retrial. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The small white flowers of “hakuchoge” (snowrose) go well with the blue sky during a break in the “tsuyu” rainy season.

In Chinese, this evergreen shrub is called “liu yue xue” and written with characters that stand for “June” and “snow.” I can see how the plant’s deep green leaves, dotted with white, must have evoked images of an unseasonable snowfall in summer.

On the old lunar calendar, the month of June is equivalent to sometime between July and August today.

But it’s an entirely different story when there is real snow in June, not just little white flowers that look like snow.

The old Chinese idiom “liu yue fei xue,” which translates literally as “snow flurries in June,” denotes a case of a false accusation.

When an innocent person is executed for a crime they did not commit, their fury and grief are said to soar to heaven and trigger an unseasonable snowstorm.

Is that what Japanese prosecutors really want now? They say they are set on proving the guilt of Iwao Hakamada during a retrial in the Shizuoka District Court, even though his acquittal is thought to be a near certainty.

Why is the prosecution dragging out this case in court against the 87-year-old defendant?

“Because they are prosecutors, and I knew they were going to do something outrageous,” said Hakamada’s older sister, Hideko.

Her total distrust and disgust are quite understandable. The Tokyo High Court, in its decision to grant a retrial in March, indicated that the evidence on which the prosecution sought the death sentence was “likely fabricated.”

This must be what the prosecutors just cannot accept. During a briefing they held yesterday, they reiterated their old argument in defending the credibility of the evidence as being “not unnatural.”

How did they come across to the public, I wonder? I personally saw them not as the defenders of the law and justice who fight against a great evil, but as petty individuals obsessed with saving face and protecting their organization. How pathetic.

In Japanese, the kanji for snow is pronounced as “yuki,” but it can also be read as “sosogu” (erase or eliminate) and “susugu” (rinse).

We have had more than enough tragedies caused by unseasonable weather episodes. Hakamada’s defiled honor must be “rinsed clean” at once.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 11

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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