Japan | Documentary reveals human side of exonerated death row inmate Hakamada

When Chiaki Kasai set out to make a documentary about Iwao Hakamada, a Japanese man who was acquitted in a retrial of a 1966 quadruple murder case after spending more than four decades on death row, she hoped to tell the story of his life as a promising young boxer before his life was upended by tragedy.

It was a marked departure from the fascination with Hakamada as a presumed killer as a starting point, with the film describing a pugilist driven by ambitions of building a professional sporting career.

Sadly, the resilience he had in the ring could only be used as an asset in his fight against incarceration. He was recognized as the world's longest-serving death row inmate when new evidence won his release from prison in 2014.

"Fists and Prayers," directed by Kasai and released in October 2024 in Japan, also explores how the 88-year-old Hakamada created a spiritual world to comfort himself from the prospect of being sent to the gallows.

In 1966 when he was 30 years old, Hakamada, a retired professional boxer and live-in employee at a miso factory, was arrested for murdering the firm's senior managing director, his wife, and two of their children.

The victims were found dead from stab wounds at their house in Shizuoka Prefecture, which had been burned down.

Hakamada's lawyers say he was interrogated by police for a total of 430 hours over 23 days, and nearly 17 hours in at least one session, adding that a false confession was obtained after he was kicked, clubbed and denied water and access to a toilet.

He was indicted for murder, robbery, and arson. His mental state deteriorated over his interminable imprisonment, with signs of psychological strain manifesting from around 1980 when his death sentence was finalized.

Kasai, a 50-year-old former television reporter, first became acquainted with Hakamada's case in January 2002 when she was working on the Shizuoka prefectural police beat.

"The incident itself had all but been forgotten by the world," she recalled of the period from when Hakamada's first appeal for a retrial was denied almost a decade earlier by the Shizuoka District Court.

Once Kasai learned over 20 years ago that Hakamada had written letters to his family from behind bars, she knew that she had to hold and read them for herself as a way to engage physically with the man awaiting execution on death row.

She called his sister Hideko, now 91, and visited her at home a few days later where she was shown a pile of letters in a condition that made it clear they had been read many times. Handling them with care, she said, "They made me realize Mr. Hakamada  is a real person."

She said the writings were kind, if somewhat naive, showing how much he cared for his family, but Kasai could hardly believe they were written by a man who could be executed any day.

Even though she was busy with her TV reporting career, she continued to see Hideko now and again to learn more about her brother as visiting the prison to talk with him in person was impossible.

The documentary includes the scene when Hakamada was released from the Tokyo Detention House in March 2014, capturing his very first moments of freedom after 47 years and seven months behind bars.

No one, including his sister, could have expected him to be released so suddenly given he was still considered guilty, Kasai said.

Last year, Hakamada's case became the fifth in postwar Japan in which a retiral resulted in an exoneration after the death penalty was handed down but not carried out, with all rulings finalized without an appeal by prosecutors. But his was the first in which a death row inmate was released before winning an acquittal, Kasai said.

Kasai was one of only a handful of passengers inside the van that drove Hakamada away after he was freed, recalling the moment when she met him for the first time, saying, "It was such a miracle. I never thought that I would see him alive."

Shortly afterward, she set her mind on creating a film about Hakamada, adding, "I had no choice but to start filming to make it something that could be passed down through generations." It was this decision that put her on a path to becoming a freelance filmmaker.

Kasai took the bulk of over 400 hours of video footage captured after Hakamada's release and condensed it down, capturing his daily life and casual conversations at his residence with his sister where they lived together.

"What I desired to show in the film was not anything about the incident itself but rather about Mr. Hakamada as a person," she said, referring to how the focus of the murder case often became the starting point for people to talk about his life.

Rather, she was determined to humanize Hakamada by focusing on the "precious" 30 years of life before his arrest, especially as a professional fighter coming up in his 20s.

Many in Japan's boxing community came out to vouch for Hakamada innocence at the time of the accusations, speaking to the stoic nature of boxers who are used to rising from the canvas after being knocked down, says Shosei Nitta, who chairs the Iwao Hakamada support committee at the Japan Pro Boxing Associations.

Nitta suggested at a Tokyo press conference attended by Kasai that many could "empathize with the hardship and pain of a fellow fighter who, like in the ring, tries to overcome being knocked down."

When the film was screened last year for the first time overseas, in the United States, Kasai was moved by the audience who responded positively and even found humor in some scenes.

Many said they were riveted by Hakamada and the fictitious world he had created in which he referred to himself as "the omnipotent God," who had "absorbed" Iwao Hakamada and abolished the death penalty in Japan.

Mental health experts familiar with Hakamada's case but not featured in the film suggest his personality quirks were the result of his becoming institutionalized at the detention center.

In the editing of the film, Kasai felt it essential to highlight Hakamada's enduring sense of humor.

Simple communication between Hakamada and Hideko often caused laughter due to his sister's jokes and his charming behavior, such as tipping a doctor who had lectured him about his high blood sugar levels, then asking if he could have a glass of juice.

"Humor has the power of showing not only superficial laughter but also the strength and kindness of human beings," Kasai said.

Although Hakamada and his sister were forced to spend much of their time apart during a cruel and tragic time until his acquittal on Sept. 26 last year, they have maintained a positive and cheerful outlook.

"I also wanted to make everyone feel invigorated after watching their humorous scenes together," she said.

The film has been screened at theaters across Japan.

Kasai and her work won the Japan Documentary Film Award given by the Japan Council of the University of Pittsburgh and Screenshot Asia, with a selection committee saying it made them "think deeply about how severely capital punishment impacts people."

Kasai, who says Hakamada's case is what sparked her interest in Japan's often criticized criminal justice system, plans to continue documenting his life. "Making a film was not the goal. Because Mr. Hakamada is a surviving witness, I film him," she said.

Capital punishment in Japan, in her estimate, has all but been hidden from society, but she believes there should be more opportunities to start a debate about the contemporary use of the death penalty, saying, "I want the film to be a catalyst to think about it."

Source: Japan Today, Risako Nakanishi, January 21, 2025

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde