Miyuki Ishikawa
Born(1897-02-05)5 February 1897[1]
Honjō, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan
Died30 May 1987(1987-05-30) (aged 90)[2][3][4]
Japan
Criminal penalty4 years in prison
Details
VictimsUncertain
5 (Final Judgment)
27 (Indictment)
84 (Police Investigation) [note 1]
Span of crimes
April 1946 – January 1948
CountryJapan
State(s)Tokyo
Date apprehended
January 15, 1948

Miyuki Ishikawa (石川 ミユキ, Ishikawa Miyuki, 5 February 1897 – 30 May 1987) was a Japanese midwife, real estate agent and serial killer. During the US occupation of Japan, she and several accomplices are believed to have murdered dozens of infants, a crime spree known as the Kotobuki San'in incident.

Early life

Miyuki Ishikawa (née Omaru or Komaru (小丸)[5][6]) was born in the village of Honjō in Miyazaki Prefecture. In 1914 she moved to Tokyo, where she graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University as a midwife on 30 September 1919.[5] That same year she married Takeshi Ishikawa, three years her senior, originally from Ibaraki Prefecture.[7] Takeshi, a former Kenpeitai sergeant and police officer, helped his wife's midwifery work without a regular job.[8] Because Miyuki had had a hysterectomy, the marriage produced no biological children.[9] Even so, the couple raised a boy from Takeshi's previous marriage and adopted three other children (two boys and one girl).[10]

Miyuki was an experienced midwife, and managed a maternity home named Kotobuki San'in (寿産院 / 壽產院), holding some important positions of multiple midwives associations.[8] In April 1947, she ran in the election of Shinjuku Ward's assembly members unsuccessfully.[8]

Infanticide

In the late 1940s, during the immediate postwar period, many babies were kept at Kotobuki San'in. Most of them were born out of wedlock, and their real mothers were too impoverished to properly raise their children. Due to a decrease in foster parents, Ishikawa chose to neglect numerous infants, many of whom died as a direct result. Almost all of the other midwives employed by Ishikawa were disgusted by this practice and resigned from their positions.[11]

At the same time Ishikawa also attempted to garner payment for these murders. She and Takeshi solicited large sums of money from the parents, claiming that it would be less than the expense of raising their unwanted children. Shirō Nakayama, a doctor, was also complicit in this scheme and aided the couple by falsifying death certificates. The number of infants listed at Kotobuki San'in and burial permits issued to the maternity home each year are charted below;[11][12][note 2]

194319441945194619471948Total
Infant List 82434401005211
Burial Permit 0012453684

Arrest and trial

Miyuki Ishikawa (front right) and Takeshi Ishikawa (front left)

Two police officers from Waseda police station accidentally found the remains of five of Ishikawa's victims on 12 January 1948. Autopsies performed on these bodies proved that they had not died of natural causes.[note 1] Ishikawa and her husband were arrested on 15 January.[9] There were seven surviving infants at Kotobuki San'in at this point, but two died soon afterwards.[14] Public Health and Welfare Section (PHW) at GHQ/SCAP and Tokyo-Kanagawa Military Government District (TKMGD) also dispatched some officers to the site.[15]

Upon further investigation, the police found the ashes of over forty infants in the house of a mortician, and those of thirty more in a temple.[16] The sheer number of dead bodies recovered and the length of time over which the murders took place made it difficult for the authorities to determine the exact number of victims. In court, prosecutors asserted that the couple had murdered at least twenty-seven infants among eighty-four deaths between April 1946 and January 1948.[11]

On 11 October 1948, the Tokyo District Court found the couple guilty of five murders (including the two infants that were found alive but passed quickly afterwards) by omission, and sentenced Ishikawa and her husband to eight and four years' imprisonment respectively.[17] Both the couple and the prosecutors appealed the sentences by 16 October.[18] On 28 April 1952, the Tokyo High Court sentenced Ishikawa to four years in prison and Takeshi to two years, granting pardons by effectuation of the Treaty of San Francisco.[14] The Supreme Court of Japan rejected the second appeal on 15 September 1953.[19]

Social impact

Because the victims were deserted children, Ishikawa insisted that parents were responsible for their deaths. Some people, including Musei Tokugawa,[20] supported the assertion. Yuriko Miyamoto and Michiko Fujiwara criticized them, however, saying it was an example of discrimination against deserted children.[21][22] Moreover, it was revealed that the other eleven maternity homes in Tokyo had also committed crimes similar to Kotobuki San'in case by the end of 1948.[23]

Several intellectuals, such as doctor Takashi Hayashi (林髞) (Takatarō Kigi (木々高太郎)) and politician Tamayo Miyagi, advocated that Japanese government should begin to consider the legalisation of abortion in Japan in order to prevent recurrence of such incidents.[8] On 13 July 1948, the Eugenic Protection Law (now the Mother's Body Protection Law) was established. On 24 June 1949, abortion for economic reasons was legalised under the Eugenic Protection Law in Japan.[24]

Aftermath

In 1969 Ishikawa was interviewed by Shūkan Shinchō magazine, claiming innocence in the murders. Following the end of her sentence, she began to work selling soap, cream and fish. At the time of the interview, Takeshi was already dead and Ishikawa was operating a real estate office in Tokyo, and she boasted about having built a big tomb for herself two years before. Her former lawyer imagined that she had earned about 100 million yen.[14]

Ishikawa's name and address (same as Kotobuki San'in) were listed in telephone directories between 1954 and 1987.[25][26] As well, her name was on the industry's lists as a representative of a real-estate agent named Asahi Shōji (朝日商事), whose address was also same as Kotobuki San'in, until the end of 1986.[27][28][note 3]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kotobuki San'in incident.

Remarks

  • Some portraits of Yuriko Miyamoto[30][31][32] are displayed as that of Miyuki Ishikawa wrongly at multiple websites.[33][34][35]
  • This incident was adapted into 2023 Korean cinema The Ghost Station.[36]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Although there was one more dead infant, it was not regarded as a viable victim due to its deformity.[13]
  2. ↑ The two infants, who were found alive but died quickly afterwards, are not included in the number of these burial permits.
  3. ↑ Five months after Ishikawa's death, National Association For Real Estate Transaction Guaranty (全国宅地建物取引業保証協会) requested someone qualified to come forward to get refund of three million yen, the deposit of her real estate business, on Kanpō.[29]

References

  1. ↑ "東京都告示第二十五號" [Notice No.25]. 東京都警視廳公報 (Tōkyō-to Keishichō Kōhō). No. 273. Tōkyō Metropolis. 1948-01-27. p. 34.
  2. ↑ Building registration No.59344 (1987) at Shinjuku Branch Office, Tōkyō Legal Affairs Bureau (Wikimedia Commons)
  3. ↑ Moore, Camille (2021-09-27). "Five Female Serial Killers That Deserve Documentaries". TVOvermind.com. New York, USA: TVovermind. Archived from the original on 2022-05-29. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  4. ↑ Harrington, John (2013-01-04). "The Most Brutal Female Criminals in History". 24/7 Wall St. Roxbury, CT, USA: 24/7 Wall St., LLC. Archived from the original on 2023-02-18. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  5. 1 2 "Registration, correction and deletion of midwives list". 警視廳東京府公報 (Keishichō Tōkyō-fu Kōhō). No. 1174. Tōkyō Metropolis. 1919-12-27. p. 2383.
  6. ↑ "Registration, correction and deletion of midwives list". 警視廳東京府公報 (Keishichō Tōkyō-fu Kōhō). No. 2176. Tōkyō Metropolis. 1925-09-29. p. 738.
  7. ↑ The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 18 January 1948. p. 2
  8. 1 2 3 4 地獄の貰い子殺し 壽產院事件 [Hell-like murder of left infants]. Shūkan Asahi on 8 February. Vol. 52, no. 6. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 1948. pp. 16–17.
  9. 1 2 Ide, Isamu (1948). ―搜査斷片―壽產院事件の眞相 [Truth of Kotobuki San'in incident]. Jikei. Jikeikai. 30 (3): 21–25.
  10. ↑ The Yomiuri Shimbun. The Yomiuri Shimbun Company. 20 January 1948. p. 2
  11. 1 2 3 警視庁史 [第4] (昭和中編 上) [History of Metropolitan Police Department vol.4]. Metropolitan Police Department. 1978. pp. 552–557.
  12. ↑ The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 22 January 1948. p. 2
  13. ↑ Mainichi Shimbun. The Mainichi Newspapers Co.. 27 January 1948. p. 2
  14. 1 2 3 億万長者になっていた「寿産院事件の鬼婆」 ["Demon Hag" has become a millionaire]. Shūkan Shinchō on 21 June. Vol. 14, no. 25. Shinchōsha. 1969. pp. 44–46.
  15. ↑ Civil Affairs Region Section, GHQ/SCAP (1948-01-16). "Hospital Inspection – Maternity". Investigation of Kotobuki Maternity Home (Report). Public Health Activities File, 1946–51. pp. 28–30. NARA RG331.
  16. ↑ The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 19 January 1948. p. 2
  17. ↑ Takahashi, Katsuyoshi (1950). 壽產院事件その後 [Aftermath]. Hoken to Josan. Japanese Midwives Association. 4 (2): 20–22.
  18. ↑ The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 17 October 1948. p. 2
  19. ↑ 東京地方検察庁沿革誌 [History of Tōkyō District Public Prosecutors Office]. Tōkyō District Public Prosecutors Office. 1974. pp. 166–167.
  20. ↑ Sakaguchi, Ango (1999). 坂口安吾全集 [Ango Sakaguchi Complete Works] (in Japanese). Vol. 17. Chikumashobo Ltd. pp. 316–317. ISBN 4-480-71047-7.
  21. ↑ Yuriko Miyamoto (1948-01-23). "生れた権利"をうばうな (in Japanese). Aozora Bunko. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  22. ↑ 衆議院 本会議 [Plenary session of the House of Representatives]. 2nd Diet (in Japanese). Vol. 12. 1948-02-02.
  23. ↑ Ōbayashi, Michiko (1989). 助産婦の戦後 [Midwife's Post-WW2] (in Japanese). Keiso Shobo. pp. 84–86. ISBN 978-4-326-79863-6.
  24. ↑ 参議院 国民福祉委員会 [the Committee on Health and Welfare, the House of Councilors]. 147th Diet (in Japanese). Vol. 10. 2000-03-15.
  25. ↑ 人名別電話番号簿 昭和29年4月現在 [Telephone Directory as of April 1954]. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation. 1954-06-01. p. 34.
  26. ↑ 東京都電話帳 (ハローページ:50音別) 昭和62年10月1日現在 [Tōkyō Telephone Directory as of 1 October 1987]. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. 1988. p. 300.
  27. ↑ 宅地建物取引業者名鑑 東日本版 昭和63年版 [List of Real Estate Transaction Brokers, East Japan, 1988]. Jutaku-Shimpō-sha. 1987-08-12. p. 96.
  28. ↑ 会員名簿 昭和62年度版 [List of Members, 1987]. The Tokyo Real Estate Public Interest Incorporated Association. 1987-02-10. p. 233.
  29. ↑ "宅地建物取引業保証協会弁済業務保証金取りもどし公告" [Official announcement of refunding agent's deposit]. Kanpō (in Japanese). Vol. 136 (Extra ed.). Printing Bureau at Ministry of Finance. 1987-11-11. p. 43.
  30. ↑ Alfred Eisenstaedt (1946). "Portrait of Communist Party member, author Yuriko Miyamoto". Google Arts & Culture. Time Inc. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  31. ↑ Alfred Eisenstaedt (1946). "Communist Party member, author Yuriko Miyamoto, at home". Google Arts & Culture. Time Inc. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  32. ↑ Alfred Eisenstaedt (1946). "Communist Party member, author Yuriko Miyamoto, at home". Google Arts & Culture. Time Inc. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  33. ↑ Barnes, Peter (2021-12-09). "Weird Back stories of the 7 Most Famous Female Serial Killers". Shutterbulky. Shutterbulky. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  34. ↑ Olivér, Bastian (2023-05-05). "Miyuki Ishikawa: The True-Crime Story of the Demon Midwife". Medium. A Medium Corporation. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  35. ↑ Harrington, Luke T. (2023-03-17). "Details You Should Know About Serial Killer Miyuki Ishikawa". Grunge. Static Media Inc. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  36. ↑ ホラー映画「オクス駅お化け」モデルは助産院での大量殺人事件、高橋洋が着想明かす [Hiroshi Takahashi unveiled the idea]. Eiga Natalie. Natasha, Inc. 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
The record of surviving infants and a similar incident at Yodobashi San'in (maternity home), exposed a month after Kotobuki San'in.
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