"I Cannot Take Off My Straw Sandals: Our Family's Lifelong Journey Seeking Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted"

"I Cannot Take Off My Straw Sandals: 
Our Family's Lifelong Journey Seeking Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted".

by Michiko Furukawa

Translated from the Japanese by Joel Challender

Foreword by Sister Helen Prejean


"I have worn straw sandals for ten years to help innocent prisoners. I keep walking through towns and villages shouting out about their innocence. One day, maybe...everybody will help release them. For otherwise...I cannot take off my straw sandals."

---Tairyu Furukawa

In the spring of 1961, Tairyu Furukawa, a Buddhist prison chaplain, suddenly became concerned that two death row prisoners under his watch were likely innocent. He discussed these fears with his wife Michiko, and from that instant, both decided to put their entire efforts into preventing wrongful executions. Both fought and suffered for many years, raising their children in abject poverty battling for the two prisoners.

The case, known as the 'Fukuoka Incident', is still very well known in Japan. And the quest for justice continues even today. In May of 1947, two clothes merchants, one Japanese and one Chinese, were shot and killed. The murder was linked to the burgeoning postwar black market in clothing. Two men were arrested, tried and sentenced to death. The prosecution claims the two conspired, but neither knew the other.

Furukawa, upon hearing the two men's stories became alarmed. He quit most of his ministerial activities, and worked full time pouring over the expansive trial transcripts which amounted to thousands of pages. He sought and received help from attorneys, law professors, and witnesses.

An Amazing Journey

Michiko Furukawa grew up in a well to do family, and attended an elite college in Tokyo, quite far from her native, rural Kyushu. Married at 21, she accompanied her husband to China during the war years. Life was comfortable until May 1945, when Russia renounced the non-aggression pact with Japan. Michiko's then husband was sent to the front, and she worried constantly about his safety, and later, of being raped by Russian soldiers.

Ironically, the woman who had grown up in opulence would end up doing laundry for the Russian army to make ends meet.

She returned to Japan in June 1946, "having frantically managed to survive in former Manchuria." Her husband, like other Japanese taken p.o.w by the Russians, remained a postwar slave. Two years later he died of disease. At age 30, Michiko was a war widow with two children.

An Auspicious Encounter

War widows in Japan had little chance of future marriage. Thousands of available women, few available men. Michiko began attending religious services conducted by a charismatic Buddhist minister. They grew close and Tairyu Furukawa, much to the widow's delight, proposed marriage.

They had little money, and the honeymoon was a lecture circuit around the island of Kyushu. One stop was a leper sanatorium. When she watched him on the stage comforting the residents, "tears of gratitude welled up inside me," and, "I wholeheartedly assented that my life's mission would be to support him. "

Eight years after marriage, Tairyu discovered the two prisoners. Michiko was running a Japanese style inn, but they would shore up juvenile delinquents and paroled prisoners. Very little money was coming from guests. Tairyu even wanted to draw back from his religious activities which would further deplete finances. When Michiko heard the plight of the two men, she was unperturbed, "I will steadfastly support you from behind the scenes. We will do this together."

A Turning Point

The couple suffered through deprivation after deprivation, even having their water shut off on New Year’s Day. A turning point came with the visit of a Tokyo attorney who wanted to assist in the case. At least he appeared to be an attorney. One of the Furukawa children noticed his face on the police's "most wanted list." He was arrested at their house, and the Fukuoka case received national attention.

14 years after the Furukawas began their efforts to save the two men, joy and tragedy occurred. On June 17, 1975, one of the defendants was granted a commutation - his sentence was converted to life. The next day, the other prisoner was hanged in the detention center.

I have been familiar with this case for many years, but one fact is very elusive. The prisoner whose sentence was commuted never claimed to be innocent. He testified that he shot the two clothing merchants in self-defence. Why did the Furukawas support him so strongly, and why was his sentence commuted? To this day, I am still befuddled with this point.

The Struggle Continues

Even after the hanging, the Furukawas continued to advocate for the two men. They took their case to the international arena. Despite enduring such dire poverty, Tairyu would later meet Mother Teresa in Poland, and Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. He passed away in the year 2000.

Sister Helen Prejean even became involved. She visited Japan in 2001 to publicize the case, and I attended one of the talks. The book contains an unforgettable picture of her with "Mama Michiko."

Michiko passed away in 2010. Her life of childhood opulence, surviving postwar deprivations in China and postwar Japan, her selfless support for her husband and so many others who cried for help, is an amazing tale. It is the story of a woman with daunting intelligence, an indomitable will, a love of justice, and altruistic dedication to the human spirit.

Reviewed by Michael H. Fox
Japan Innocence and Death Penalty Information Center www.jiadep.org

NOTE: The quest for justice of the defendants in the Fukuoka case continues. The Furukawa children maintain a website: www.schweitzer-temple.com