Editor's note: This is the third in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. 

Of the world’s 199 countries and territories, 144 had either abolished or suspended capital punishment by the end of 2022, according to human rights group Amnesty International Japan.

Japan, however, continues to carry out executions.

Iwao Hakamada feared he would be another death penalty statistic in Japan after being convicted of murdering an executive of a miso manufacturer and three of his family members in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966.

“The verdict has been delivered, and I have no choice but to call it a classic example of a miscarriage of justice.” (November 1980)

In December 1980, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, finalizing his death sentence.

Later that month, Hakamada wrote to one of his defense lawyers from the Tokyo Detention House.

“Is it acceptable to kill someone based on a misunderstanding of the facts of a case? What are the law and the trial for to the people? I can’t help questioning whether they are functioning properly. … The decision to deny my appeal is totally contrary to justice, so I am going to file a request for a new trial.”

Only two days after Hakamada wrote down those thoughts, the Supreme Court made a historic decision in what became known as the Menda case.

The top court ordered a new trial for Sakae Menda, who was sentenced to death for murdering a couple and seriously injuring their two daughters in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1948.

It was learned that Menda had been tortured and threatened into confessing to the crimes.

In 1983, Menda became Japan’s first death row inmate to be proved innocent in a retrial. He had spent 34 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

Hakamada filed his first motion for a retrial in April 1981.

By 1984, two more condemned prisoners, in the Saitagawa and Matsuyama cases, were exonerated in their retrials.

“As is clear from the recent rush of acquittals in retrials, wrongful convictions persist despite the fact that judges tried the cases in earnest.” (July 1985)

Hakamada was further inspired in May 1986, when the Shizuoka District Court granted a retrial to a man sentenced to death over the 1954 murder of a young girl in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.

While incarcerated, Hakamada perused law books provided by his family and supporters to prepare himself for his legal battle.

“At long last, the judiciary brought justice in the Shimada case. Since I am in the same boat as those accused in the Menda, Saitagawa, Matsuyama and Shimada cases, I am now feeling relief, like seeing light in the dark. I will be the next to receive justice!” (May 1986)

But a letter from April 1987 conveyed his continuing sense of loneliness and helplessness.

Claims of innocence from prison, he wrote, are akin to “frustrating efforts to try to see something beautiful in the darkness.”

He was also anxious about the time-consuming process of holding a hearing to consider whether his case deserves a retrial.

“Even though some capital inmates were proved innocent in their retrials, their acquittals came only after repeated requests for a retrial. By then, it was just too late to start over with their lives.” (June 1988)

In one letter, Hakamada offered a searing description of how it feels on death row.

“A death row inmate lives every single minute of the day with awareness of death. … During the day, the fact that you are still alive makes you conscious of possible death tomorrow, and at night, you are made to fully grasp what despair is like in dreams of being dragged to the death chamber.” (December 1987)

In Japan, death row inmates are informed of their executions just a few hours before they are hanged. They wake up every morning, dreading that this day could be their last.

In his long struggle for an acquittal, Hakamada has drawn strength from his family, supporters and inmates exonerated in their retrials. He was also inspired by Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a former U.S. boxer who was sentenced to life imprisonment for a triple homicide in 1966.

Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane,” a song released in 1975 about Carter’s case, fueled efforts to gain his freedom.

The convictions against Carter were overturned in 1985.

Hakamada learned of Carter’s acquittal through a magazine article he read in prison. In a letter to his sister, Hideko, he sounded elated about Carter’s release.

“As a fellow former professional boxer and a man wrongfully convicted, I now have the urge to chant … ‘banzai’ from the window of my cell in the deepest corner of Japan’s largest prison. Mr. Carter, I am so glad that you have cleared your name. Congratulations!” (March 1989)

Hakamada was a professional boxer before he took a job at the miso manufacturer.

At the prime of his pugilist career, Hakamada was ranked sixth in Japan’s featherweight division.

In one year, he fought as many as 19 times. And in April 1961, he traveled to Manila to fight the top bantamweight of the Philippines.

Carter’s acquittal had a special significance for Hakamada, who had thought that his former career in the ring worked against him in the courts.

“An idea that blatantly disregards human dignity, that a boxer would likely commit murder, was put to an end, and Mr. Carter, who is innocent, was exonerated in a retrial … . I will do my best to follow suit.” (March 1989)

The magazine article about Carter was written by Makoto Maeda, former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Boxing Magazine.

Maeda said he was a teenager when he saw Hakamada’s bouts.

“He was a tough fighter who beat his opponents in the end by enduring their incessant attacks with a tenacity that matched what his first name ‘Iwao’ stands for,” he said.

Carter had also learned about Hakamada’s plight.

In 2008, the Japan Pro Boxing Association hosted a special charity event for Hakamada’s cause.

In a videotaped message played at the event, Carter said: “Now is time to free the ‘Eastern Hurricane.’ Now is time to free Hakamata to show the people that you are a civilized society. Free Mr. Hakamata now. Free all of us, because anytime one person is wrongly convicted and sentenced to prison, that’s convicting all of us.”

Hakamada tried to stay hopeful for a retrial, but even his defense team had its doubts.

“We were convinced of his innocence, but it seemed exceedingly difficult to gain a new trial because we had been unable to find strong evidence to qualify for it,” one of the lawyers recalled.

In 2008, Hakamada’s first motion for a new trial, filed in 1981, was turned down by the Supreme Court.

After that, his writing became incoherent at times. The letters increasingly showed that he was in a state of mental decline.

(This article was written by Hisashi Homma, Yuri Murakami and Ryuichiro Fukuoka.)

For details of Hakamada's trial and letters, check out https://www.asahi.com/special/hakamadaletters/en/