When it comes to the three most famous unresolved events in Japan during the Showa period, readers who often read Japanese mystery novels or watch Japanese mystery movies and even love Japanese manga must be familiar. One was the 300 million yuan robbery in 1968 (Showa 43), the other was the indiscriminate killing of poison cola in 1977 (Showa 52), and the last was the Gligo Morrinaga incident in 1984 (Showa 59).
Talk a little bit about the "Gligo Morinoki Incident," which occurred from 1984 to 1985, in which the inmates claimed to be "21 faces of the freaks," made various statements, kidnapped the president, put toxic chocolates in stores, and extorted money from food companies. Companies targeted include Esaki Glico, Maruko Foods, Morinaga Fruit, House Foods, Fujiya, and Surugaya. The case caused huge social discussion and panic at the time. Unfortunately, the offender was never apprehended, and the statute of limitations was established on 12 February 2000 and became a permanent open case.
"Voice of Sin" is a fictional work based on the unresolved event "The Glico Morinaga Incident" left over from the history of Showa crime. In contrast to Kaoru Takamura's Lady Joker (レディ·ジョーカー), which also used the Glico Morinaga incident as a source of inspiration, the author in Lady Joker completely fictionalizes an entire case, with only the kidnapping of the president of a beer company and poisoning beer being done in reference to the modus operandi of the Gligo Mornaga incident. However, in "The Voice of Sin", the author Shiota Samurai describes himself at the end of the book, and in the novel, he tries to reproduce the original appearance of the events at that time, so the "Silver Man Incident" in the book is actually synonymous with the "Glico Mornaga Incident".
When Shiota Samurai, who was born in Kansai, read a book about the "Glico Morinaga Incident" at university at the age of 21, and after learning of the fact that the voice of the child was used in the threatening phone call during the incident, he became interested in how his life was like after a child who was about the same age as himself and who was also born and raised in Kansai was used for crimes. At this time, he already had the idea of writing a novel based on this theme. When he debuted as a novelist in 2010, he told the editor at the time about the idea of the story, but was stopped by saying that he could not write it with the current pen power. Since then, he has accumulated experience in 8 works, and finally began to write the book "Voice of Sin" in 2015.
When Shiota wrote this book, he read all the newspapers from 1984 to 1985, so although the prisoners in the works are fictional, the time of the "Silver Man Incident", the threatening letters of the prisoners, the challenge book, and the related incident reports all try their best to reproduce the historical facts of the "Glico Morinaga Incident". That is to say, the events described in the book are partly facts, and the part of the criminals' secret activities are all derived from the author's creation. In this way, it is this sense of reality that completely reproduces the "Gligo Morinoki Incident" that makes this speculative novel with the characteristics of "documentary literature" full of atmosphere at the end of the Showa period.
Moreover, because Shiota Samurai once worked for the Kobe Shimbun, he himself possessed the characteristics of "ability to draw materials" and "inorganic style" possessed by journalists, and played a great role in this highly documentary novel. Through the meticulous materials, the past newspaper reports, and the photo-like descriptions of the scene of the event, as well as the exotic style of britain, are reflected in the work, conveying the objective facts to the reader from the words between the lines; and the objective and calm words in the first four-fifths of the novel, like news reports and documentary literature, are in stark contrast with the last fifth of the words that contain strong author's emotions, and it is easier to capture the reader's heart in one fell swoop.
In terms of the structure of the novel, the story has two main lines. One is based on the process of journalist Hideshi Akuzu's investigation into the unresolved incident "Silver Man Incident" for the newspaper's year-end special, and the other article takes suit suit maker Tsone Toshi also investigates the reason why the prisoners used tapes to appear in their childhood voices in the "Silver Man Incident". The two represent the neutral journalist's position and the victim's (who is also the victim's) child position, and in the course of the investigation, through the narrative of one incident after another, the "Silver Ten Thousand Incident" hidden in the darkness is illuminated from their respective directions.
The different perspectives of the two men clarify the different facts in the event, and although the two protagonists of the story, Akutsu and Toshiya, have not crossed paths in the story before the sixth chapter of the novel, the reader can already make a complete reasoning about the whole event from the facts they have discovered each other. It is precisely with this structure that the reader can put aside the truth of the events in the last two chapters and fully enter the inner world of the characters in the book, which is really wonderful.
Generally speaking, for fiction based on real unresolved events, the author will make some reasonable hypotheses based on the events themselves, and basically the focus is on exploring who the prisoners of the unresolved events are, what the form of the crime is, and so on. But in The Voice of Sin, these hypotheses about the event itself become supporting characters, and what the author really wants to describe is the lives of the unfortunate people who were caught up in the unresolved event. As the novel approaches the final chapter, Akuzu and Toshiya finally meet and have a common goal, and in the process of their respective explorations of the case, their thinking changes, and they still move forward after revealing the truth of the case, and the focus of the whole work shifts from "who is the prisoner" to "what is the life of the people affected by the incident".
This is what the author really wants to convey to the reader after conceiving the 15 years of completion of this work. As revealed at the beginning of the novel, the three children have always been present in the event. As the fictional truth in the novel becomes clearer, so does the true identity of the children. A heavy sense of weight pressed into my heart when I thought of the fate of the children who were caught up in the event without knowing anything, and the selfishness of the adults who forcibly involved them in the event without any consideration for the future of the children. In reality, the end of the prisoner who committed the crime, and the family members who were left behind, may also be as described in the novel, far from the impression that the world's people have retained in their minds that "because the event has passed the statute of limitations, the prisoners must live in the world gorgeously and happily", and may only be left with a dark shadow.
Returning to Kaoru Takamura's Lady Joker, the game has been exploring why criminals committed such crimes, why they chose such criminal methods, how they were able to successfully commit crimes, and why the police did not find any clues to catch criminals, focusing on the complex social context involved in this incident. Although "The Voice of Sin" also hides the turning points of that era, such as the security struggles and the student movement in the Showa era, in the end, the author gives the event planners an empty motive that has almost nothing to do with the society of the time. It can also be seen what the purpose of the author's creation is, and it can be said that because of this, the pain and sorrow of the children who are used can be more prominent.
Fortunately, the end of the novel comforts the reader with warm brushstrokes.
Although the sun has set, the blue canopy overhead is extremely beautiful, and the winter evening wind with the scent of the seaside blows towards the children who were used in the event.
The corners of his eyes were hot, and soon tears were flowing down.