Miyuki Ishikawa

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, known as the prime perpetrator of Kotobuki San'in incident. She is believed to have murdered dozens of infants, along with several accomplices, during the Occupation of Japan. List25 magazine called her the "most evil woman of all time" in 2021, while saying "even Hitler would probably be afraid of her". [3]

Miyuki Ishikawa
Miyuki Ishikawa was surrounded by police officers at Waseda Police Station
Born(1897-02-05)5 February 1897 [1]
Miyazaki, Japan Empire
Died30 May 1987(1987-05-30) (aged 90) [2]
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

Early life

Miyuki Ishikawa was born in Honjō village, Miyazaki Prefecture. She moved to Tōkyō at the age of 17, and graduated from the midwife course of Tōkyō Imperial University. In 1919, She married Takeshi Ishikawa, three years older than her, born in Shirakawa village, Ibaraki Prefecture. Having served as a Kenpeitai sergeant formerly, and a police officer from 1919 to 1926, he was helping his wife's work without a regular job.[4][5] The relationship did not produce any children, since she had her uterus removed in surgery.[6] Still, the couple lived with a boy between Takeshi and his ex-wife, and three adopted children (two boys and one girl).[7]

She 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. In April 1947, she ran for an election of Shinjuku Ward's assembly members, but in vain.[5]

Infanticide
Miyuki Ishikawa

In the 1940s, there were many babies kept at Kotobuki San'in. Most of them were born out of wedlock, and their real mothers were poor and unable to raise their children properly without financial struggle. Due to decrease of their 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.[8]

At the same time, she also attempted to garner payment for these murders. She and her husband Takeshi solicited large sums of money from the parents, claiming that it would be less than the actual expense of raising these unwanted children. Shirō Nakayama, a doctor, was also complicit in this scheme and aided the couple by falsifying death certificates. The numbers of infants kept newly and listed at Kotobuki San'in, and their burial permits of each year are charted below;[8][9][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] She and Takeshi were arrested on January 15, 1948.[6] There were seven infants surviving at Kotobuki San'in then, but two of them died soon.[11]

Upon further investigation, the police found the ashes of over 40 infants in the house of a mortician, and those of 30 more in a temple.[12] 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 the court, the prosecutors asserted that they had murdered at least 27 infants between April 1946 and January 1948, while 84 deaths were verified.[8]

The authorities viewed her homicides as a crime of omission.[13] On 11 October 1948, Tokyo District Court sentenced Ishikawa to eight years imprisonment, and Takeshi to four years, finding the fact of murdering five victims (including those found alive but died soon). Both the couple and the prosecutors appealed the sentences. Revoking the original sentence and granting pardons by the effect of Treaty of San Francisco, Tokyo High Court sentenced Ishikawa to four years in prison and Takeshi to two years on 28 April 1952.[11] The Supreme Court of Japan rejected the second appeal on 15 September 1953.[14]

Social impact

Since the victims were deserted children, Ishikawa insisted that parents were responsible for their deaths. Some people supported the assertion, but Yuriko Miyamoto criticized them, saying it was an example of discrimination against children from nowhere.[15]

This incident is regarded as the principal reason the Japanese Government began to consider the legalisation of abortion in Japan.[16][17] One of the reasons this incident was thought to have occurred was as the result of an increase in the number of unwanted infants born in Japan. On July 13, 1948, the Eugenic Protection Law (now the Mother's Body Protection Law) and a national examination system for midwives was established. On June 24, 1949, abortion for economic reasons was legalised under the Eugenic Protection Law in Japan.

Aftermath

In 1969, Ishikawa got interviewed by Shūkan Shinchō, claiming her innocence of the crime. After the release from jail, she began to work as a peddler of soap, cream and fish. And then, she was operating a real estate office in Tōkyō, while her husband Takeshi was already dead. Her former lawyer guessed that she had earned about 100 million yen.[11]

Her name and address (same as Kotobuki San'in) have been listed in the telephone directories between 1954 and 1987.[18][19] As well, her name has been on the industry's lists as a representative of a real-estate agent, whose address was also same as Kotobuki San'in, until the end of 1986.[20][21]

  • Kotobuki San'in
  • Surviving infants
  • A surviving victim and real mother.
  • Confiscated goods
  • Rice boxes to store victims' ashes
  • Ashes of an estimated dozen of victims
  • GHQ/SCAP officer's observation
  • Nurses taking infants to hospital with them
  • A shot at the court

See also

Note
  1. Although there was one more dead infant, it was not regarded as a viable victim due to its deformity.[10]
  2. The two infants, found alive but died soon, are not included in the number of these burial permits.

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. https://list25.com/25-most-evil-women-in-history/
  4. The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 18 January 1948. p. 2
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. The Yomiuri Shimbun. The Yomiuri Shimbun Company. 20 January 1948. p. 2
  8. 警視庁史 [第4] (昭和中編 上) [Histrory of Metropolitan Police Department vol.4]. Metropolitan Police Department. 1978. pp. 552–557.
  9. The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 22 January 1948. p. 2
  10. Mainichi Shimbun. The Mainichi Newspapers Co.. 27 January 1948. p. 2
  11. 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.
  12. The Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun Company. 19 January 1948. p. 2
  13. Takahashi, Katsuyoshi (1950). 壽產院事件その後 [Aftermath]. Hoken to Josan. Japanese Midwives Association. 4 (2): 20–22.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. "Archived copy" 第1章 少子化社会に至るまでの経緯と少子化問題への対応 (PDF) (in Japanese). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2007-12-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) (103 KiB)
  17. "Archived copy" 第147回国会 国民福祉委員会 第10号 (in Japanese). National Diet Library. 2000-03-15. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2008-03-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
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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