In April 2020, Chizuko Tanaka, an elderly woman in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, was not found in a single apartment until a few days later, with a huge sum of 34 million yen stored in the safe of her home.
Her identity is a mystery, and her experience is puzzling, like a mystery novel, as the reporter investigates deeply, a mysterious life of loneliness and hidden wealth gradually unfolds.
The story of Chizuko Tanaka not only reveals the complex experiences of individuals, but also reflects the plight of lonely elderly people in Japan society. So, what's the story? Let's talk about it today.
Chizuko Tanaka's Mystical Life
Chizuko Tanaka was born in 1933, originally known as Chizuko Okimune, and came from an ordinary family of four children in Hiroshima. Her father was an honest worker, her mother was a virtuous housewife, and Chizuko had an older sister and two younger sisters.
Although the family was not wealthy in the early years, with the efforts of their parents, the children lived a warm life. Chizuko has been smart and clever since she was a child, especially loves to sing, and often performs for her family at home, bringing a lot of laughter to this ordinary family.
Chizuko and her sisters often play in the yard, and her mother likes to cook simple home-cooked meals in the kitchen, and the warm fragrance wafts from the garden.
The neighborhood where Chitsuko's family is located has a harmonious neighborhood relationship, and everyone takes care of each other, creating a harmonious and beautiful scene. The four sisters are studying in primary and secondary schools in their hometown, and they are proud of their parents for their hard work and excellent grades.
After graduating from high school, Chizuko moved to the city and found a job at a fashion magazine, where she quickly made a name for herself with her high fashion sensitivity and excellent writing skills.
She likes to wear a fashionable white shirt and jeans, with a beautiful tweed coat and small furs, and always attracts countless envious glances when walking on the street.
During that time, Chizuko often attended various fashion parties with her colleagues, and met many celebrities during the process. Her life is rich and varied, with a sense of accomplishment at work and the warm company of her friends.
In her daily life, Chizuko is particularly fond of collecting small and delicate objects, all of which reveal her taste and taste. After stabilizing his job, he gradually settles down in the city and meets a handsome man with glasses, and the two quickly fall in love.
It is reported that the man is a successful businessman, and although he is older than Chizuko, he is considerate and empathetic. Husbands and wives often go to temples to pray for blessings and travel together, enjoying the sweetness of the world of two.
In 1982 they bought a toy dog, which became a symbol of love and Chizuko has always cherished it. From the many photos, it can be seen that the time between the two is full of laughter and warmth.
In 1994, while working in a canning factory, Chizuko encountered a major change in her life, and her right hand was accidentally caught in a machine, causing all her fingers to fall off.
The accident had a profound impact on her life, and although the factory provided her with a three-year work-related injury pension, Chizuko gradually lost touch with society during this time, which was a terrible thing.
Workplace accidents and life transitions
After her injury, Chizuko became more introverted, gradually withdrawing from her friends and social circle, choosing to live alone and moving to a small apartment in Hyogo Prefecture. She no longer works, is no longer optimistic, has little contact with the outside world, not even with her loved ones.
The house is simple and shabby, but he still maintains his old habits, pays his rent on time every month, and never defaults on his landline phone bill.
Chizuko's solitary life lasted for decades, and her life was simple and regular, and the neighbors rarely saw her, but they all knew that she was a quiet and nurtured woman.
Chizuko also never socializes with her neighbors, let alone brings any visitors home, does not have any documents to prove her identity in her residence, and has no letters or phone calls from relatives, and her only close companion is the toy dog she bought in 1982.
The toy dog was carefully cared for for more than forty years, and most of the items in the home stayed in the eighties and nineties, as were the receipts and photos from that time.
Chizuko keeps a large collection of her youthful belongings, including a Polaroid album with many photos of her and men.
Time flies, and in 2020, a neighbor found Chizuko's mailbox full of letters, realized that something must have happened to her, and hurriedly called the police.
Soon the police arrived at the scene and found that Chizuko had died in the entrance, and the cause of death was a subarachnoid hemorrhage in the brain, and she had been dead for a long time.
Chizuko Tanaka's death attracted widespread attention, not only because she died alone at home, but also because her identity was a mystery.
After a search, the police found a large amount of cash and jewelry in her residence, which were in sharp contrast to her lonely life, and the reporter tried to unravel the mystery of her identity through in-depth investigation, but the whole process was bumpy.
The cause of death and relics revealed
With the permission of the landlady, the reporter entered her home to investigate, hoping to find more clues. Chitsuko's residence is very simple and old-fashioned, with several yellowed old photographs hanging on the walls, and the most striking of the relics is a safe.
The safe was stacked with a large amount of cash and some jewelry, 34 million yen neatly stacked together, and in addition to cash, there were several passbooks that showed that she had deposits in various banks.
The jewelry includes several delicate necklaces, a few pairs of earrings, and several expensive watches, all of which are clearly of great value.
Seeing this, the reporter was also a little puzzled, or Chitsuko's behavior was incomprehensible, why she lived a lonely life in such a humble residence.
Later, the reporter found some scattered items from the safe, including a 1-cent coin, a 1,000-won Korean won, a key chain from Kyoto's famous Yasaka Shrine, and a star pendant engraved with mysterious numbers.
Obviously, these objects all seem to have special meanings, but they do not directly explain her identity and source of wealth.
Chizuko's residence permit was cancelled in 1995 for unknown reasons, making her legally "anonymous" and it was even more difficult to investigate her information.
She had no medical card, no letters from relatives, and no phone records, as if she had never existed in this society. After Chitsuko's death, the police were unable to confirm her identity through any official channels, which made her death even more mysterious.
During the investigation, the reporter found that the apartment rented by Chizuko was contracted by a man who called himself "Mr. Tanaka", but the work unit and phone number provided by Mr. Tanaka were false information, further complicating the incident.
The neighbors and the landlady never met Mr. Tanaka, and Chizuko seemed to have been living alone all the time and had never brought any men home.
The reporter found the only clue to Chizuko's identity in her residence, that is, the early work injury certificate, which recorded that when Chizuko was working in a canning factory in 1994, her right hand was involved in a machine and all her fingers fell off.
She retired after the accident and received only three years of work-related injury pension, but unfortunately her residence permit was cancelled in 1995 and her status no longer existed in the official system.
The certificate also mentions that she is from Hiroshima and has three sisters, and this information suggests a new direction for the reporter, and then decides to go to Hiroshima to further search for her family and solve the mystery of her identity.
The reporter flew to Hiroshima to visit a number of families with the surname Okinmune, and after many inquiries and comparisons, he finally found Chizuko's nephew, Masaaki Okinmune.
The information provided by Masaaki confirms the identity of Chizuko, whose real name is Chizuko Okimune, who is the second in the family and has an older sister and two younger sisters.
Masaaki recalls that Chitsuko left her hometown around the age of 30 and has had little contact with her family since then, and her memory of Chizuko is very vague, and she only vaguely remembers seeing her a few times when she was a child.
Chizuko's death has left behind countless mysteries, and her identity, source of wealth, and lonely life have attracted widespread attention, and through the investigation of reporters, we can get a glimpse of her life, but also have different feelings.
Some say the mailbox is full of letters, indicating that Chizuko may have been in contact with the outside world and keeps a landline. In the past, Mr. Tanaka brought her beauty and happiness, but for other reasons, he brought her loneliness and longing, all of which she remembered in her heart.
The accident in 1994 caused too much psychological damage to Chizuko, which changed the trajectory of her life, and she could not forget the past from beginning to end, and her heart was deeply bound by various shackles from the outside world, resulting in her failure to get in touch with her family until she died.
The deposit of 34 million and the humble living room show how frugal she was during her lifetime to have so many savings, this wealth seems to tell the sustenance of her soul, she wants to be cared for, miss the people and home that have brought her happiness, but she has been waiting from beginning to end.
There are also speculations that Chizuko should be Tanaka's lover, and because it is a lover's relationship, Tanaka is likely to be just the man's pseudonym, so he can't be traced.
In 1994, it may have been Tanaka's breakup with Chizuko, which caused her to fall into a trance at work and cause a work accident, or it may have been Tanaka's unexpected death or disappearance in 1994, which caused Chizuko to have a work accident.
Since then, she has been living in memories and unable to extricate herself, and she has also completely isolated herself, living alone and difficult to get rid of, asking what is the situation in the world......
There are many lonely people like Chizuko in Japan, and many people always feel that this is a portrayal of the future, lonely aging, dying alone, no other relatives, even if there are children, they are running for their families, and they are still a bleak end.
In modern society, lonely and forgotten individuals are not uncommon, and their lives are equally worthy of attention and respect.
The story of Chizuko Tanaka reminds us that we should not ignore the elderly who live alone in their busy lives, and that there may be many untold stories and unspeakable pain behind his loneliness.
What do you think differently about this?
Reference: Mainichi Shimbun Mr./Ms.: Full Report A woman who died alone left behind 34 million yen in cash Who the hell are you? Journalists track down "nobodies" that the police can't figure out| The Economist Online (mainichi.jp)