The Japanese judicial system is one with many faults. The 99,9% conviction rate, the existence of the death penalty, the way the judges never contradict the prosecutors and the police, since this guarantees their career, all create a number of problems, which have essentially deem it a rather unfair one. None other case than Iwao Hakamada's has brought to the light all those issues so eloquently, as the former professional boxer was sentenced to death on September 11, 1968, for a 1966 mass murder that became known as the Hakamada Incident, and on March 10, 2011, Guinness World Records certified him as the world's longest-held death row inmate. Even more surprisingly, in March 2014, he was granted a retrial and an immediate release when the Shizuoka district court found there was reason to believe evidence against him had been falsified. Louis Dai highlights both the case and the aforementioned issues in the most eloquent way.
“Hakamada – The Longest-Held Man in Deathrow” is screening at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
On the 30th of June, 1966, in a small country-side town in Japan, four members of the Hashimoto family were stabbed and burnt to death in their family home. The savagery of the crime shakes the country and shortly after, 30-year-old retired boxer Iwao Hakamada is arrested, convicted and sentenced to death, as the pressure from the media and the public weighed heavily on the police and the judges, essentially forcing them to find and convict the murderer as fast as possible. Iwao never stopped protesting his innocence, but the only one who believed and fought for him was his sister, Hideko. It would take many decades however, before forensic investigators managed to show that the evidence in the trial was falsified…
Louis Dai explores the case starting with the incident, focusing both on the police research and Hakamada's life, through archival footage, letters he sent to his parents and sister, and interviews of Hideko. As the case is revealed clearer, the focus changes to the Japanese judicial system, with Lai showcasing the aforementioned discrepancies, mostly through statistics and interviews with judges, lawyers, and death row officers. The cruelty of the system is revealed rather eloquently, with laws like the one that had the inmates learning of the date of their execution 24 hours before the actual event being rather shocking (this tactic changed in the 70s however). The reaction of one of the judges of the initial trial, who regrets his decision in tears, cements the dramatic aspect of both the case and the system as a whole.
Furthermore, the 99,9% of conviction emerges as something out of a science fiction book, since it is a percentage that essentially deems any kind of legal defence, futile. The reason behind it, that has to do with the way judges get unfavorable transfers when they contradict a system that is also comprised by prosecutors, the police, and judges higher up on the ladder, is even more despicable, as people get convicted in order for the members of the judicial to get favorable promotions. One of the phrases uttered during the documentary, “Prosecutors do what they want. They are just like the Yakuza” synopsizes the whole thing in the harshest but also most accurate way. The same applies to the prosecutors' actions as soon as the initial decision was overturned, to appeal this decision immediately, a verdict that could potentially return an already completely broken Hakamada to the death row. Even more shocking are the stats related to the death penalty. 91% of the Japanese population support it, while 86% feel that it is unavoidable in some cases.
The editing of the film emerges as one of its greatest assets, with the way Dai connects the many different footage being ideal, through a rhythm that makes the documentary quite easy to watch despite the heaviness of its theme. Furthermore, at 72 minutes, the movie does not overextend its welcome in any way, without any cost at the amount of research however.
“Hakamada – The Longest Held Man in Deathrow” highlights a case, the struggle of two people, and a whole issue in the best way, emerging as one of the best documentaries we have seen in recent years.
