Sakae Menda (Mainichi/Masanori Hirakawa)

OMUTA, Fukuoka -- Sakae Menda, 93, a former death row inmate who was acquitted in a retrial in the 1983, is furious about false convictions that continue to occur in Japan.

"I'd like the judicial authorities to perform their duties properly," he said in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun prior to the 70th anniversary on Dec. 30 of the murders for which he was convicted.

Menda was handed a guilty verdict for the murder of a family of four in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, in southern Japan, in December 1948 at the age of 23. He was then arrested the month after, and was said to have confessed to his involvement in the incident. However, Menda claims that he was forced to sit on the floor and was kicked and trampled on by investigators.

"It wasn't a confession," he said. "The police compiled a deposition and said that I must have done it that way." Menda claimed that investigators forced him to sign the document, saying, "(If you sign it), then you can be released soon."

Menda pleaded not guilty to the charges, but he was sentenced by the Yatsushiro branch of the Kumamoto District Court to death in 1950. The sentence was later upheld by the Supreme Court. He saw many death row inmates led to the execution chamber.

"Whenever the prison guards would come, my body shook. I became unable to stand when I learned it wasn't my turn," he recalled. "I shed tears when I remember those times."

In June 1952, Menda submitted his first retrial request, and his sixth request was upheld by the Fukuoka High Court in September 1979 on the basis that his confession was not reliable evidence. The Yatsushiro branch of the Kumamoto District Court found him not guilty in July 1983. When he was released after being detained for 34 years, he was 57 years old.

"If I had not been arrested, I'd have become an ordinary farmer," he said. "But there is no helping it now."

Instead, Menda became involved in support activities for those requesting retrials across the country. He has made many speeches about his experience of having been falsely convicted of murder.

"There are still cases of false convictions. The people who try the accused in court don't understand the real truth about a case," he said, criticizing the judicial system and continuing to fight for the abolishment of the death sentence in Japan.

Now, having moved to a care facility for the elderly, Menda spends his time peacefully, exchanging letters with acquaintances. After his acquittal, he married, and while his wife Tamae currently lives in another facility, she comes to visit her husband once every two days.

"He has experienced many hardships," Tamae said, with a smile. "But even then, he says, 'It was a good experience."

(Japanese original by Masanori Hirakawa, Kyushu News Department)