Photo/Illutration A photo of bombing suspect Satoshi Kirishima is featured on the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s website. (Provided by the Metropolitan Police Department)

Hospital staff were stunned when an elderly patient suddenly said, “I am Satoshi Kirishima.”

The man had been admitted to a hospital in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, under a different name and was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Kirishima has been on the police most wanted list for a series of bombings in the 1970s that included one in which eight people were killed and 380 injured.

Hospital staff immediately contacted Kanagawa prefectural police, which in turn informed the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo, after the patient divulged his true identity on Jan. 25, according to investigative sources.

The sources said the man was moved to the hospital in January after his condition worsened. His condition is now listed as extremely critical.

Sources said that while in the hospital the man said, “In the end, I want to die as ‘Satoshi Kirishima.’”

Police annually designate November as the month when they place additional emphasis on catching those on the most wanted list.

Over the years, police often received tips from people claiming to have seen Kirishima or someone who resembled him.

“Investigators looked into and eliminated past tips, but there is a very high possibility that this individual is actually Kirishima,” said a high-ranking police official.

The MPD now plans to get in contact with people related to Kirishima in the hope of conducting a DNA analysis to confirm his identity. But that could take a few days, sources said.

Police believe there is a strong chance the man is actually Kirishima because he has been describing his family situation to police with details that only he would know.

The statute of limitations for the crimes Kirishima is thought to have committed has been suspended because other alleged co-conspirators have fled overseas.

Kirishima belonged to a group known as the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front.

The group claimed responsibility for at least 12 bombings in Tokyo, including one on Aug. 30, 1974, in front of the main entrance of the building housing offices of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. that killed eight people, including company employees and bystanders.

The group also targeted major construction companies, research institutes and a trading company.

Police arrested nine members of the group.

However, Ayako Daidoji, now 75, and Norio Sasaki, who is the same age, were released as part of a deal demanded by the Japanese Red Army which hijacked a Japan Airlines plane in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1977.

The two remain on an international wanted list.

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