In September 2006, 'M', an anarchist comrade from Osaka, Japan, was arrested for fraud. It is a minor crime but there was a predictable aspect to the detainment. It was a way to attack him for his anarchist activity in the squatter (Nojukusha) movement. He was held for 3 weeks and interrogated about his political activities in 'Kamagasaki Patrol' and about the 'black helmet group(s)', an anarchist grouping that the Osaka city police are obsessed with. The police thought that they had struck at one of the main organizers of squatters struggle in the city and were glad to be able to victimize him. He was arrested with 4 other people after an incident in a squatted park when they objected to an official city visit to regulate the squatters.
Can you tell me how you were treated in the police station?
I was kept in custody for 21 days, Sept 27th - Oct 18th. The standard detention period is 72 hours but they prolonged it twice. In the police station, I was held by both sides and dragged, fell off the staircases and then got kicked from behind. I complained then got pushed down to the floor with my face on the ground, dragged up to upstairs from the 2nd floor to the 4th, hitting my face and legs, thrown into the interrogation room. It was on purpose, off course, they knew I was the person they needed to crush down. It wasn't a whim but a well planned arrest.
During the custody, the suspect is given a chance to meet your friends and comrades after 24 hours if your comrades make a request to enquire about the custody and bring the case to the court. This is a very important opportunity for the suspect to have contacts with the outside. But I missed it due to the conflicts in our movement. My comrades gave up supporting me so I missed this chance and was left only to the lawyer. The authority knew well what was going on in the movement and thought that as a good chance to weaken me further. From around 2nd of October they became more violent. Inagaki, who got caught with me, had a court case on the 5th, when the torture started for me. They interrogated me but I kept silent to all the questions and demanded apology from the authority while keeping shouting at the interrogators for three days. The police station was small so it was filled with my voice. Comrades in the station were impressed by my ranting. I made a long speech how the authority is rotten. On the 2nd day, I got dragged on the floor by the officials. I was very weak on the 3rd day because of the lack of medication and with no sleep. I demanded for medication as the drugs I had with me had been taken away, but they did not do anything for 5 days. That day, they refused to let me go to the toilet despite of my very bad physical/mental condition. So I took off my trousers, my underwear and shit in the interrogation room. They came in to tight me up onto the chair but I kicked around caused a lot of troubles for the officers. They tried to calm me down, three of them turned pale as I didnt stop shouting it is because they didn't let me go to the loo. Finallly, they let me go out the interrogation room that day.
All these things I told my lawyer, which instantly led to my transference to the other detention center.
I was kept in Tondabayashi police station then moved to Osaka detention center. The headquarters were in the Osaka police head office, the 3rd department, who've been searching for "the extreme left, violent black helmet group".
In Osaka detention center, I experienced no more violence but did not receive medication. Pills I managed to get when I went to see a doctor from Tondenbayashi station were taken away again in Osaka detention center as the psychiatrist decided that I did not need one. Instead, they decided to start medical observation of my sleeping patterns to see if I am actually suffering from insomnia even though they already a cctv camera in my solitary detention room. Even after a week, they still wanted to continue the sleeping check. Without any sleep, I thought I was gonna go crazy or die. I couldn't eat, had almost nothing for a week. Anything I put in my stomach came out. I kept drinking water or tea but still vomiting. I asked for stomach medicine, which was given one day before the release as if to show they were actually taking care of me. All this time, I kept resisting interrogation, gave no comment, refused to sign and to give finger prints. The stack of papers with nothing written and no sign became just higher during that week.
On the 18th, I finally got out of the station. It was a surprise as I thought I'd be kept there longer. They just could not find anymore reasons to keep me there, which actually surprised my lawyer too. I think they had tried to look for reasons to arrest the group for organized crimes, trying to see who started, how it is organized, where the money came from and how it was used etc. The reason they used against me was benefit fraud but they found no claim from the benefit office so could not use it anymore. Of course, it was just from the police side. They wanted to see I did a fraud, which actually was not intended at all and was not what they wanted to think.
Can you explain about "the fraud" more?
I've been receiving benefit as a mentally disabled for my depression but I worked for a few days. I thought I could pay tax when I received a letter from the benefit office in the year end, which is what people do usually.
When I first got caught there was Kamagasaki Patrol's name on the paper but it disappeared afterwards. As I said before, they tried to make the case an 'organized crime', torturing me to get something out of me.
Would you tell me about the Osaka police headquarters?
There are three sections in the criminal investigation department, the 1st section for Yakuza, the 2nd for right wings and the 3rd extreme left. They even made a special investigation group for us, "the violent black helmet group".
Do you think the arrests this time satisfied them?
No, I think they are just seeing another opportunity. The main purpose is to repress the whole movement of park squatter resistance, to find out the big picture about anti-war groups and black helmet groups. Actually in police's eye, there is no difference between anti-war groups or anarchist activists. They thought I was the head of a "black helmet group". I'm worried about my friend K---- who might become their next target. Actually, him and the other person had left Kama patrol but the police went to their houses to search and got them to come to the police station. The police is desperate to stop any kind of radical left movement, riots, for any reason before anything happens.
Can you explain about regulations on workers?
There is a special regulation to employ people older than 55 years old, which they are going to stop soon. Kamagasaki liberation centre has been an address for 15,000 people once, now it is reduced to 3,600 people. In three weeks, They will tell them to move to Doya gai (a district where doyas-hostels with tiny rooms for day workers fill both sides of streets). They are still allowing old people to have work but trying to stop them from registering at an address so that they will not be protected by the law. Nishinari authority stopped approving the centre's address, which is the first step to stop day laboring.
Now in Japan, the government is trying to liberalize temporary work regulation, which now does not allow temp companies to send people to construction sites to do physical labour. In reality it happens often but it is hidden so the construction companies can use people as they want as day workers are not protected by this regulation. Along with the liberalization of temporary work regulation, day workers would be an obstruct. They would not be needed when temp companies can dispatch people to construction sites. At the moment, day workers are entitled for benefit if they work more than 26 days in two months, they get 7 to 10 days of benefit. The government wants to stop this system and this is why they are trying to get rid of 3,600 people from the centre so that they would not get benefit registration cards.
Doyas would still benefit from the system as they get money from day workers having them stay there and feeding them. Old people who have no home and outside sleepers would be on the street.