The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-12-03
THREE DIE
FOR GOOD
OF EMPIRE
Japanese Soldier Tells How
He StrangIed Socialist
Leader, Wife and Boy,
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Times Foreign Editor

GVI AsHINGTON, Dec. Snow
tWt that the news embargo has
G been lifted and hitherto con-
3ealed side of the great Japanese
earthquake can be told, many strange
tales are beginning to filter through
to the outside world.
Here is one of them. One Of the
strangest. 1t has just reached the
writer from a friend IN Kobe, and is
nothing less than the cool confession
of a triple murder by a high official,
for the sake of the Empire"
It seems that during the first days
Of the horror, the Japanese rounded
up every dangerous person" they
could find, including people Of certain
political beliefs.
Capt. Amakasu Masahiko, Japanese
army officer appointed head Of the
Gendarmerie of Koji-machi, told how
he came to strangle Osugi Sakae
socialist leader; Ito Noe Osugi's wife
and a writer, and 17-year-old nephew
Of Osugi.
After the earthquake" he said,
the Metropolitan police and the po-
lice at each station in Toxic were en-
gagged in hunting up socialists. I saw
Osugi had not been run to earth and,
fearing socialist activities. after the
evacuation Of the city by the troops,
I started a search for him.
I'm company with Sergeant Major
Mort and two gendarmes, I went TO
the residence Of Osugi He was not
there, but a policeman found he had
gone to Tsurumi.
Family Is Sighted
AT 3 p. m. Osugi. Noe and a boy
were sighted. Noe stopped at a fruit
store to buy some pears for the boy.
Sergeant Major Mort then requested
them to come to the gendarmerie.
"Osugi and the others were led up
the stairs, where there were some
unused rooms. Here I gave them
supper. AT 8 p. m. Sergeant Major
Mort took Osugt into another room
and started his examination.
Il entered the room through a door
behind Osugi. who was sitting on a
chair answering the sergeant majors
questions. I Immediately grasped
Osugi's neck with my right forearm,
Selling his right wrist with my left
hand and pulled him backward.
"Osugi fell on the floor. Putting
my right knee on his back 1 strangled
him to death by a jujutsu hold Osugi
was in great agony, but expired in
some ten minutes. Then l would a
piece Of string about his neck and
laid him there.
About els I entered the room
where Ito Noe was and found her
sitting on a chair. leaning her elbow
on a desk and with her back toward
the entrance. This made 1t difficult
to strangle her Immediately.
StrangIes Woman
While conversing with her I APP
preached her and strang'ed her to
death in the same man as Osugi.
Owing to the disadvantaf eous position
in which she was sitting 1 had some
difficulty in executing her. She
groaned a few times and scratched
my left wrist. but she, too, expired
in about ten minutes. after winding
a piece Of cord about her neck, left
the corpse there. Sergeant Major
Mort was standing by, but did not
help me.
The boy had become familiar witt
me on my way to the station. I
pitied him. Shortly before the
strangulation Of Noe, I put him in
the next room. When Noe groaned
and struggled, the boy heard and be-
came noisy.
After Noe was killed I proceeded
irto the next room and strangled
the boy to death, winding a piece OF
cord about his neck. He uttered no
sound"
The captain then told how
gendarmes threw the bodies in a well
partially wrecked by the earthquake
and threw brick in to cover them up.
Then ne said:
1.-The strangulation was my own
scheme. did it not as head of the
Gendarmerie branch office, but as
an individual. I thought 1t necessary
for the sake of the Empire"