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What was happening to the two Japanese men when they were arrested by the U.S. Secret Service for passing and possessing counterfeit U.S. dollar bills in Thailand?
One of the first newspaper reports on the case describes as follows:
| Cambodia Times March 24 - 30, 1996 Japanese Red Army man detained PHNOM PENH : A man, suspected to be a member of the Japanese RedArmy, was arrested at the Cambodia-Vietnamese border last week on suspicion of being involved in a currency counterfeiting ring. The suspect, wanted by the Thai police for allegedly distributing counterfeit US dollars, was handed over to the Pattaya police for questioning. Police are looking for another suspect, identified as Tan TohHock, to assist in the investigations. His nationality is unknown. According to a copy of the warrant of arrest obtained by The Cambodia Times, the Pattaya police had been on the trail of the suspect for the past 15 days. The suspect, identified as Hayashi Kasinori, 47, was travelling in a North Korean diplomatic car and carrying a North Korean diplomatic passport identifying him as Kim II Su when he was stopped at a border checkpoint in Baved, Svey Rieng province, on March 24. Three others in the car, believed to be the personnel of the NorthKorean embassy here, were released and allowed to return to PhnomPenh while the suspect was later handed over to the Thai police. A despatch from Tokyo said the man was believed to have been involved in the hijacking of an aircraft from Japan to North Korea in March 1970. Meanwhile, officials of the North Korean embassy in Phnom Penhhave declined to comment on the incident. (END) |
| What newspaper reports tell us about the case. | What newspapers don't tell us about the case. |
To be honest, I had no particular interest in the incident at that time since I had had no association with the Red Army during my activist days and thereafter. But one day in 1997 I received a letter from Tanaka in prison stating that he had read my first book 'Toppamono', and that he could relate to what I described about the student movement in the late 1960's, adding that I had injured him in one of the Gewalt battles. He also wrote in a merry tone that the scars left on his body made him feel personally so close to me after so many years. As I have said earlier, I had no particular interest whatsoever in the counterfeit bills case in which Tanaka had been indicted. But I felt something in his letter that I thought called me for some action. So I flew to Bangkok on one day in the autumn of that year to observe one of his trial sessions.
At the court, to my great surprise, I could take a seat right behind Tanaka's and converse with him throughout the trial sesssion. The testimonies made by the prosecution's witnesses were mostly groundless, made-up stories and irresponsible remarks (Ms. Kiyomi Uzaki describes in more detail about this elsewhere), to the extent that even I, with hardly any background knowledge of the case, could easily point out their contradictions and inconsistencies. No wonder that the U.S. Government (particularly the Secret Service of the Treasury Department) chose to put the case on trial here in Thailand, because they knew that they would not be able to maintain the case in an American court, where rigourousness of the evidence is what is sought after most in a trial. The case gave off the odor of something strange--a conspiracy, maybe.
While visiting Bangkok, I met a Japanese journalist who had been covering the case for some time. He shared my view that there was a possibility of Tanaka having been framed up. I also learned from him that the other Japanese arrested in relation to the case, Mr. Shogo Kodama, had been coerced by the Secret Service to testify against Tanaka, and when he refused to do so he was immediately sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. The journalist told me that Mr. Kodama repented of having once tried to betray Tanaka by accepting the S.S.'s bargain offer to lure Tanaka out of Cambodia. Being tormented by a guilty conscience, Mr. Kodama adamantly refused to falsely testify against his once business partner and good friend, despite the attractive rewards he would enjoy if he acted against his will. When I heard this episode, I thought Mr. Kodama was a man of honorable values, or you could say, a real 'samurai'. I just could not sit still and see gross injustice being perpetrated on my fellow countrymen.
Upon my return to Japan, I at once made it public on my Internet Home Page that I would begin a relief campaign on my own. In response to my calling, numerous people came to offer their assistance and cooperation. At the present, Mr. Tanaka's trial is still going on, while Mr. Kodama has submitted a petition for renewal procedure.