Tokyo Year Zero Read Free Page B

place and she never arrived back in Nagasaki…’
    ‘Who says so?’ I ask him. ‘Her parents?’
    ‘They might have been lying,’ says Fujita. ‘To keep their daughter from coming back to Tokyo…’
    The caretaker shrugs. The caretaker says, ‘Well, if she did get back to Nagasaki, she’s as good as dead anyway…’
    I finish my cigarette. I nod at the body in the dirt and I ask, ‘Is there any way you could identify this as her?’
    The caretaker looks at the remains of the corpse on the ground. He looks away again. He shakes his head –
    ‘Not like that,’ he says. ‘All I remember is that she had a watch with her name engraved on its back. It was a present from her father when she moved to Tokyo. Very proud of it, she was…’
    Fujita puts his handkerchief back over his mouth –
    He crouches down again. He shakes his head –
    There’s no watch on the wrist of this corpse –
    I nod back towards the air-raid shelter and say to Detective Fujita, ‘It might still be down there somewhere…’
    ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘And it might not be.’
    ‘How about you?’ I ask the boiler-man. ‘Did you know her?’
    The boiler-man shakes his head. He says, ‘Before my time.’
    ‘He only started here this June,’ says the caretaker. ‘And Miyazaki was last seen around here at the end of May.’
    I ask, ‘Can you remember the exact dates?’
    He tilts his head to one side. He closes his eyes. He screws them up tight. Then he opens his eyes again and shakes his head –
    ‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘But I lose track of the time…’
    I can hear an engine now. I can hear a jeep
…
    I turn round as the vehicle approaches –
    It is a military police vehicle –
    It is the Kempeitai.
    The jeep stops and two Kempei officers get out of the front, both wearing side-arms and swords. They are accompanied by two older men sporting the armbands of the Neighbourhood Association –
    I want to applaud them. The Kempeitai. I want to cheer –
    No one wants a case. Not today. Not now
…
    This body was found on military property; this is theirdominion, this is their body, this is their case.
    Detective Fujita and I step forward. Fujita and I bow deeply –
    These two Kempei officers look very much like Fujita and I; the older man is in his late forties, the other in his late thirties
…
    Detective Fujita and I introduce ourselves to the men –
    I am looking in a mirror. I am looking at myself
…
    We apologize for being on military property –
    But they are soldiers, we’re just police
…
    There are briefer reciprocal bows –
    This is their city, their year
…
    The younger officer introduces the older man as Captain Muto and himself as Corporal Katayama –
    I am looking in a mirror
…
    I bow again and now I make my report to the two Kempei officers, the two men from the Neighbourhood Association still standing close enough to hear what I am telling them –
    The times and dates. Places and names
…
    I finish my report and I bow again –
    They glance at their watches.
    Now Captain Muto, the older of the two Kempei officers, walks over to the corpse stretched out in the dust. He stands and he stares at the body for a while before turning back to Fujita and me –
    ‘We will need an ambulance from the Keiō University Hospital to transport this body to the hospital. We will need Dr. Nakadate of Keiō to perform the autopsy on the body…’
    Detective Fujita and I both nod –
    This is their body, their case
…
    But Captain Muto turns to the two uniforms now and says, ‘You two men return to Shinagawa and request that the Keiō University Hospital send an ambulance immediately and that Dr. Nakadate is made available to perform the autopsy.’
    Uchida and Murota, the two uniforms, both nod, salute and then bow deeply to the Kempei man –
    Fujita and I both curse –
    No escape now
…
    Now Captain Muto gestures at the caretaker and then the boiler-man and asks us, ‘Which of these men work here?’ ‘They