"Tracking! Taboo 1 of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare"-Open Pandora's box! -November 11th 19:30
“Do you know the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's taboo? Chidorigafuchi sleeps a“ non-Japanese remains ”. This is the“ Pandora Box ”held by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
This summer, a problem with the remains of Siberian detainees revealed by NHK reports. Our coverage began with this word from the people involved. Inconvenient facts for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which were revealed one after another over the past two years, and “lie”. What I saw from the interview was the appearance of bureaucrats who looked away from the mistakes of the past and tried to be “innocent”.
"Mistake" for 597 war dead remains
On September 19, however, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that the remains of 597 people collected from Japanese who died in Siberia immediately after the end of the war may not be Japanese.
The suspicion of confusion was found to have been neglected, although several experts have pointed it out 14 years ago. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare acknowledges that there was a problem with the past response, and set up a research team with external lawyers and is expected to publish the results of the survey this month.
After announcing a series of issues, the person in charge of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said, “The nature of the remains collection business and the trust in the entire business are being questioned. I apologize to the former detainees.
However, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare did not seriously face any suspicion of confusion and did not disclose it until NHK reported the issue in July.
The remains collection is “Pandora's box”
January 2017, two years ago. The reason why we started the interview was a word from a related person.
"Do you know the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's taboo? The collection of Japanese remains is really terrible. The bones are collected and transported to Japan and sent to Chidorigafuchi. However, Chidorigafuchi has a sleeping “non-Japanese remains” ”
“Ashes collection” refers to the “Collecting remains of war dead” conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on battlefields in Japan and overseas. Chidorigafuchi is the “Chidorigafuchi Tomb of the Todoroki Warriors” in Tokyo, where the remains of approximately 370,000 people who were sacrificed in the Great War are paid and the bereaved family and friends come to the memorial service every year.
In 2016, the government enacted a law that clearly positioned the collection of remains of war dead as a “national responsibility” as it was necessary to concentrate the collection of remains as early as 2016. I just let them.
The people added to us who were puzzled by the content that wasn't easy to believe.
“The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare knows the past mistakes but can't turn back. Why do you know? What was the memorial of the bereaved family so far, and it is clear that they brought back the bones of people from other countries It becomes an international problem, and this is a taboo from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
We immediately formed an interview team. I was prepared for a long-term interview and started by collecting all materials related to the collection of remains.
Among the enormous amount of materials collected, the first thing we noticed was the suspicion over the collection of remains in the Philippines that was discovered nine years ago.
Taboo called “empty”
Fierce battlefield Philippines where approximately 520,000 Japanese people were killed. The suspicion that Filipinos were included in the remains collected here was pointed out, and in 2010 the collection was suspended.
The collection of remains in the Philippines started in 1957, but the information has decreased year by year, and the number of remains that can be collected has decreased to about tens of people per year. However, after the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare commissioned the collection business to a Japanese NPO that is familiar with local information in 2009, the number of remains collected has increased rapidly, and the number has been about 15,000 in just two years. It was as high as a minute.
At that time, in the Philippines, incidents where the remains of indigenous people were stolen from cemeteries and other places were reported one after another, and it was suspected that there was a connection with Japanese collection projects such as "Is the remains being bought and sold for money"? It was.
The curator of the local museum was appraising the remains of the collection project. The sloppy reality of judging whether it is Japanese or not only by the testimony of local residents was also revealed.
However, the “Verification Report” published in October 2011 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in response to allegations was inevitable.
Denies the specific testimony that the relationship with the case of stealing remains in the Philippines was denied. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, based on the results of DNA testing conducted by a single expert, “the remains of the NPO collected and stored locally contain what appears to be Filipino. The remains of humans were also included. "
And while recognizing that there was a problem with the method of appraisal of the remains, the remains of the same NPO that had been collected and returned to Japan were mentioned as “the fact that Filipinos were mixed in” Is not allowed. "
In other words, the “bones kept locally” were mixed with Filipino ones, but the explanation was iridescent that “the bones that had already returned to Japan” had no problem. The official told us:
“This story is called“ Sky ”from the acronym of the NPO corporation, and it is a taboo within the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Everyone knows it's not the remains of the Japanese, but it's never accepted, because if you make a mistake, you won't be able to resume the business. "
After the allegations were discovered, the remains of 15,000 people collected by NPOs and brought back to Japan for some reason were moved from Chidorigafuchi War Tomb to the mortuary on the 5th floor of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and kept in storage. It was. Although there is a possibility that the remains were misunderstood, they cannot be returned to the Philippines.
The remains left in the mortuary told the essence of the problem.
Filipino collection business resumed ... hidden facts
While continuing to interview related parties and deepening doubts about the remains collection project, we were able to get information that we could not obtain decisive evidence.
On May 8, 2018, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that it would resume the remains collection project in the Philippines for the first time in eight years.
In the press release document, “The project was suspended because there was a report that Filipino remains were mixed, but the results of the verification in October 2011 showed that Filipino remains The fact that things were mixed in was not recognized, "and so on.
The explanation is as if there were no problems in the past. Soon, an email was sent from a person who felt uncomfortable with this announcement from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The content was shocking.
“The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has concealed the results of the appraisal. Even though the two experts who performed DNA appraisal gave appraisal results that were not all Japanese…”
What does this mean…
According to officials, after the discontinuation of the remains collection project in the Philippines, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare divided 311 remains that had been stored locally into three, and commissioned three experts to conduct DNA testing.
However, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has published only the results of an expert's appraisal saying that “the remains of Japanese were also included”. The other two reported that they had compiled the appraisal results that “there were no Japanese remains,” but they have not published it for over six years.
We interviewed the expert who gave the appraisal. Then one of the experts acknowledged the facts despite being confused by the sudden coverage.
“I was always wondering why the results were not disclosed even though they were important in considering future collection of ashes. There was no choice but to accept them as intentional information manipulation. I must say that the remains of the Filipinos may have returned as Japanese soldiers. "
On August 16, 2018, we reported this fact in “News 7”. Two weeks later, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced the appraisal results of the two experts and explained, “If we think now, we should reflect on the appraisal results of the two people as soon as possible.” .
However, there was no further verification, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's attitude that there were no problems with past projects did not change.
scoop! Siberian detainees “misplaced remains”
We couldn't open the “Pandora Box”. In September 2018, a new reporting team was formed in collaboration with a director who had been reporting on this issue for a long time. In order to convey the truth of this problem in a documentary program, we have accelerated the interviews with all parties involved in collecting remains.
Then, several people who had doubts about MHLW's attitude began to open their mouths.
“Despite problems in the Philippines, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is repeating sloppy collection as before.” “The mistakes are happening outside the Philippines, but the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is hiding.”
Under these circumstances, we found the existence of a meeting that holds the key to the “remaining problem”.
Private “DNA Appraisers Conference”. In order to identify the identity of the remains of the war dead, this is a meeting where several experts discuss the results of DNA testing started by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2003.
Since the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare used to conduct DNA testing only when there was a clue that could lead to identity, the conference mainly discussed the remains of Siberian detainees whose burial records remained. It is said that “suspicion of mistaking the remains” is often pointed out at the meeting.
And we finally get some of the minutes of the private meeting. There was a surprising content written there.
At a meeting held on August 28, 2018, an expert who conducted DNA analysis of the remains collected in Siberia stated:
“When comparing DNA data, there are clearly more people than Japanese. The conclusion is that there is nothing Japanese, so it is not Japanese.”
In the minutes, it is noted that the experts who conducted DNA tests on the remains of 16 people collected by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare delegation as Japanese were showing the results of appraisal such as "not all Japanese" It had been.
Unlike the Philippine case, the remains of 16 people have already been burned locally and returned to Japan. However, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare did not release any of these facts.
We jumped to Siberia relying on the published materials, and we found out that the problem gathering site was Borjgantai village in Zaibakal, East Siberia.
On August 5th, the meeting on December 13, 2017, more than a year and a half ago, continued to point out that there was a suspicion of mistaking the remains of 70 people collected at another burial site in Siberia. I reported to.
And on the same day, the documentary program “The War Dead Dies Twice: Ashes and Wars” was broadcast. A sloppy appraisal was conducted not only in Siberia but also in the southern battlefield, and the details of how the bereaved family's thoughts were trampled were communicated in detail.
"Is it already stopped?"
Still, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's attitude to not look to the past did not change. On July 29, when the misconduct was first reported, the person in charge reiterated the fact that it hit the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
“I cannot answer because of privacy issues”
I was wrongly bringing my remains back to Japan, but what's the problem with privacy ... When the interview team repeated the questions to the person in charge, he shouted.
“NHK is getting suspicious or shocking that we know information that we haven't made public because we have been very nervous” (Executive Manager, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)
After NHK reports, each company rushed to the “Social and Relief Bureau” where the remains were collected. Then, although the factual relationship with the suspicion that the remains of 16 people were misunderstood was turned around, `` I was going to announce it after discussing with the Russian side at the stage of considering the response in the province '' Explained.
When the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported that it had grasped the suspicion of mistaking the remains of 70 people more than a year and a half ago, it did not even respond to the factual confirmation. The person in charge repeats the same explanation as before, saying, “It was not disclosed because it was an internal review stage.
"There was no big problem with the response so far, just because there was not enough speed"
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare was trying to continue this attitude. Around this time, I was able to speak words from the MHLW personnel who were smiling.
"NHK, are you still covering this issue?"
At such times, I noticed the people who were waiting for the return of their remains. The former Siberian detainee who lost many of his friends sang.
“I still come to my dream that a war fighter who was unable to move due to hunger died while yelling,“ I want to eat yokan ”. In such a situation, your friends are n’t floating. ”
Don't end this way. The news gathering team decided to do so and continued further coverage. 《Continued from the 2nd》
(World War II remains report team) Reporter Hiromi Honda, Yuichiro Nakamura, Kazuo Fukuda, Yukiaki Matsuo Director of Social Program Taku Uchiyama