Photo/Illutration Iwao Hakamada and his elder sister, Hideko, at their apartment in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, in September 2023 (Yuri Murakami)

The summer of 1966 must have been just as hot as now. I remember my mother telling me a long time ago how relentlessly muggy it was, day after day.

Iwao Hakamada was 30 when he was arrested on an overcast, showery day in August of that year.

I was born on the next day.

Because of that, I invariably project my own life on Hakamada's every time I think of what he went through. And the fact that he was treated as a murderer for 58 years steals my breath away.

How long and heavy those years were.

A letter he sent to his family from prison went: "Please, God. I did not commit the crime. I am shouting this every day."

He was sentenced to death two years after his arrest. When the sentence was finalized, I was a rural junior high school boy with a shaved head.

"In a dream where I was being led to the execution chamber, I completely understood what despair means," Hakamada wrote.

He apparently developed a mental disorder from living every day without ever knowing when he would be executed.

His older sister, Hideko, who visited him in prison, said that he became delusional, babbling about "the devil's minions" coming to get him.

The Shizuoka District Court on Sept. 26 acquitted Hakamada and declared that investigative authorities had fabricated evidence.

Fabricating evidence to seek the death penalty is a truly egregious crime. I would even call it attempted murder.

The baby born 58 years ago is now wearing reading glasses for the elderly and his hair has thinned considerably.

Hideko said that his brother used to be an "outspoken person," but he is no longer able to communicate.

Hakamada was ruthlessly robbed of too many years of his life. I don't know how to deal with my feeling of utter desolation.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 27

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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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