The was an incident that took place in

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on July 15, 1949, when an unmanned

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train with its operating handle tied down drove into

Mitaka Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Mitaka Station is served by the Chūō Main Line, acting as the terminus for all-stations Chūō-Sōbu Line ...

on the Chūō Line, killing six people and injuring 20.The Three Big Rail Mysteries that Defined Japan’s Summer of 1949
/ref> The incident remains a mystery, as do the Shimoyama and Matsukawa incidents which occurred around the same time. The government

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

ten people on a charge of train sabotage resulting in death of the victims, as well as the train's conductor, Keisuke Takeuchi, who was not in the train when it derailed.

History

On the day of the derailment, all four of the police officers at Mitaka Station abandoned their posts; this was never explained. Two of the alleged conspirators were indicted for

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. Takeuchi's lawyer refused to allow a co-worker to present evidence affirming that he and Takeuchi were in a

public bath Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

together when the train left the station (an apparently airtight proof that at least one other person was involved), claiming it was "irrelevant to the case". In a court ruling in 1955, the judge found there was no evidence of a conspiracy, but rather that Takeuchi had planned and executed the entire incident himself.http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908010064.htm
Archived
on 2 August 2019 Takeuchi was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

; the other defendants were declared innocent of all charges. All appeals of the verdict were rejected. All the acquitted defendants were members of the

Japanese Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...

, but Takeuchi was not. Takeuchi died in jail in 1967 of a brain tumour. Until his death, he continued to proclaim his innocence while in prison for life.日本労働年鑑　第２４集　１９５２年版
/ref> In 2010, an article from the

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mentioned that the confession Takeuchi provided was done under duress from the police. In 2019, the

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denied a request to have a retrial for Keisuke Takeuchi. His son, Kenichiro, mentioned that he was disappointed at the decision.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitaka incident History of Tokyo Derailments in Japan Railway accidents in 1949 Mass murder in 1949 1949 in Japan Chūō Main Line Rail transport in Tokyo Accidents and incidents involving Japanese National Railways July 1949 events in Asia Mass murder in Japan 1949 murders in Japan 1949 in Tokyo

History

See also

References