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437 people tortured to death, missing: Japanese-American activist played key role

Just before the ceremony for "50 years since the military coup, eradicating dictatorship," about 20 images of people who had died from torture or gone missing were shown, as if they were sending messages from the afterlife, and the audience was glued to the screen. At the end of the video, four Japanese-American activists were also shown.

Adriano Jogo, Edison Kameda, and Marcos Miura

One of them, Francisco Seiko Okuma (ALN), died in a shootout with police on March 15, 1973 in the city of Sao Paulo. His autopsy report listed him with the letter "T" for terrorist.

Edison Kameda (56, second generation from Bastos), who played the role, said, "Okuma was 11 years older than me. I was only 15 when he died. If they hadn't done it, we would have done it. I'm proud of their courage in standing up to the military government. Bastos was also treated harshly by the Vargas administration during the war. As Brazilians, we can't just obey the government, but we have to say that what is wrong is wrong."

Lewis Hirata

Marcos Miura (40, third-generation Mogi), who played the role of "Luis Hirata," a relative of Lower House Councilor Susumu Hirata and one of the five top leaders of the Sao Paulo Metalworkers' Union at the time, who was killed after three weeks of torture, also spoke out, saying, "This matter has been taboo among Japanese families. I should dig up history and speak out openly as a young man who contributed to democratization."

As a descendant of a hidden Christian family, Hirata did not seem to compromise his beliefs until the very end. As a result, the autopsy report stated that he had died after being hit by a bus while trying to escape, but the testimony of his cellmate revealed that he had been tortured to death.

Adriano Jogo, a member of the Sao Paulo Truth Commission, which is investigating human rights violations by the military government, was one of the people who was tortured here. "There is a culture of shame among Japanese people, which gets in the way and prevents cooperation from the bereaved families. We have a role to play in taking a good look at how our sons and daughters, who played such an important role, were treated by the military government, and in monitoring to ensure that the same tragedy does not happen again," he emphasized, and called for "public hearings focusing on Japanese activists. I want young Japanese people to take a greater interest in them. I ask for the cooperation of the colony."

The Japanese community at the time recognized such activists as "terrorists." The Humanities Research Institute's chronology also uses the word "terrorism" as a preface to a related incident, stating, "On March 15, 1973, three members of the ALN terrorist group, including Tonoyama Moriyasu, were shot dead in a shootout with the military and police on Peña Street." I asked Miyake about this, but he looked sad and said, "My parents and siblings didn't understand my activities at all."

Abe, a member of the House of Representatives, also analyzed and summed up the connections, saying, "Even a military government must be held accountable when it makes mistakes. Any good thing will corrupt after 20 years. The military government invested in infrastructure such as dams and communications equipment, but did not put effort into education, which is why it failed. The policy of focusing on introducing foreign capital was the cause of high inflation in the 1980s, which in turn hurt the agricultural industry, leading to the collapse of Cochia and Minami-Haku Agricultural Cooperatives, and the dekasegi boom."

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The proclamation for the ceremony marking 50 years since the start of military rule stated, "During the 21 years of military rule, more than 70,000 civilians were tracked down and arrested, and at least 437 were killed or missing," and revealed that in the DOI-Codi building next to the venue alone, "8,000 people were tortured and more than 50 were killed." Among them were at least 40 young people of Japanese descent.

Their resistance movement was the beginning of the later transfer of power to civilian rule. Perhaps it is time to take a more objective look at that period from the perspective of the colony itself.

*This article is reprinted with permission from the Japanese-language newspaper Nikkei Shimbun (April 9, 2014).

© 2014 Nikkey Shimbun