Japan Confidential invites you to discover the hidden history of Japan based on the series Inspector Kurokochi. Published since 2015, this manga is the creation of Tagashi Nagasaki, Naoki Urasawa's collaborator on the Monster, Billy Bat or Pluto series. It is a terribly well written and addictive detective / thriller series succeeding with each volume to renew its stakes. One of the reasons for its effectiveness lies in the feeling of realism of the cases that are told to us. However, it stems as much from Nagasaki's writing talent as from his source of inspiration. It feeds on news items, scandals that really happened in Japan. Some remain unresolved, involve actors from the shadows and inspire many works. Combined with the extraordinary narrative talent of the author, they give all the power to the story. Still, for a Western audience and despite the many footnotes, these cases remain very mysterious. This is why we propose to return to these stories lurking behind fiction. This first light will focus on the sinister works of the former imperial army.
Inspector Kurokochi; A brief summary
A few lines first to describe the series as a whole. It consists of 23 volumes (the last one was released in April 2021). It features Keita Kurokochi, inspector at the 2nd Investigation Brigade, specialized in solving financial crimes: corruption, fraud, money laundering. A golden place that puts him in touch with powerful men. Accumulating files and compromising documents, not refusing financial compensation in exchange for his silence, he becomes the black sheep of the service, the worst officer of the police. But because of his information, he is an untouchable man. Forced to team up with Shingo Seike, an idealistic young officer fresh out of the police academy, Kurokochi decides to reveal his true face to him. To bring down the country's biggest white-collar criminals, he himself had to become a police officer of questionable morality.
January 26, 1948: A strange robbery in Tokyo
Volume 12 of the series confronts the inspector with a terrible case: individuals threaten to spread a deadly product in Tokyo. Their weapon, a perfect poison, disguised as a harmless drink that our hero hunts for 5 volumes. His investigation leads him on the trail of an unsolved case in the immediate post-war period, that of the Tenjin bank. An authentic news item still unsolved but intimately linked to the former imperial army. Reminder of the facts. January 26, 1948 in Shiinamachi, a suburb of Tokyo, the branch of the Teikoku Ginko or Teigin bank will close its doors. A man introduces himself at the reception desk as a public safety officer. Mandated by his superiors and the American occupation forces, he was responsible for carrying out emergency vaccination of personnel against a virulent epidemic of dysentery. He then made a demonstration of the pills and injections to be made, thus gaining the trust of the 16 people still present in the bank. They are inoculated with the product and absorb a stamp. The effects are immediate: 10 people die on the spot, two others in hospital. The pills contain a lightning poison. The fake employee takes the opportunity to steal the money on the spot: 181 850 yen, 1800 euros. This is the third robbery attempt using this process. The police investigation proved to be lengthy. The only clue is the official's fake business card, which belonged to Shigeru Matsui of the Ministry of Health. Tracing the contacts of the latter, investigators identify a suspect. Sadamichi Hirasawa, an artist at whose home the police found a sum of money apparently corresponding to the robberies. Two witnesses identify him from portrait-robot. Case closed for the police… 
A very light file
However, despite extensive interrogations, the accused refuses to confess. The court sentenced him to death, but the ministers of justice refused to sign the order. The accused spent 40 years in prison before dying behind bars in 1987 of pneumonia at the age of 95. However, the case against him is light. The money found at Hirasawa's comes from a trade in pornographic works. A dishonorable trade, the artist has always refused to admit the origin of his money. On the other hand, the amount of money stolen from the bank is derisory while the poisoner had ample time to help himself. The last flaw in the investigation, the chemical analyses conducted on the poison are contradictory. The first thought to detect cyanide, the last identified acetone cyanohydrin, a military poison developed by Unit 731. And since then, investigators have been looking at former members of the group who used Hirasawa as a scapegoat.
Inspector Kurokochi and Unit 731
This sinister unit operated during the Asia-Pacific War (1937-1945) in China, especially in Manchuria. At its head, a doctor turned officer in the army: Shiro Ishii. Its mission was to develop poisons, bacilli and chemical weapons tested on the vast majority of Chinese prisoners and civilians. At least 12,000 prisoners died as a result of the experiments. Thousands of Chinese civilians have reportedly been victims of the use of bacteriological weapons. The unit carried out real war crimes until Japan's final defeat. Its post-war fate is representative of the Cold War context taking hold in Asia. A dozen Japanese medical officers were arrested by the Soviets in 1945 and tried during the Khabarovsk trials. But the vast majority of this unit, including Shiro Ishii, escaped justice by returning to Japan. In exchange for immunity, they gave the balance sheet of their work to the US armed forces. They were indeed very curious to see the practical application of these Weapons of Mass Destruction of a new kind. For many, the attack on the Teijin bank bears the mark of these former soldiers whose motivations remain very unclear: demonstration, blackmail, extortion for the mafia… . S In his manga Inspector Kurokochi, Tagashi Nagasaki points the finger at this case still unsolved and whose verdict is controversial. It recalls the existence of nationalist and militarist circles tolerated by the authorities. They did not hesitate to recall, with the case of the Teijin bank, among others, their power of nuisance.
