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Voices of Victims
WRITTEN STATEMENT
Soichiro KOBAYASHI
WRITTEN STATEMENT）
Soichiro KOBAYASHI
- Preface
I was born in 1971 in Koto-Ward, Tokyo, to Yoshihiro and Toshie Kobayashi. I have a sister of three years younger, Tomomi. I was enrolled in the Architecture Department, Engineering Faculty, Chiba Institute of Technology, in May of 1991. While I was at school, I met the teaching of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (Unification Church or UC). I joined UC in May 31st 1992. Since then, I have undergone abduction and confinement three times by the hands of my relatives who tried to make me withdraw from the faith. At the third attempt, Rev. Yoshio Shimizu of the Japan Christian Union was directing my relatives. - First Abduction and Confinement
In November 1982 around the midnight while I was resting at my parents’ home, I was abducted by a group of people including my parents, his half sister Takako Murayama and her husband Hiroshi, father’s another half sister Michiko Sawai, her husband and high school teacher Isao who serves as a judge of the Kodokan, the Judo association, as well as my mother’s brother Kiyoshi Sugaya. They took me by taxi to a weekly rental condominium in Ueno, Tokyo, and confined me in a 10-th floor room right next to the elevator. Though the door was not locked with a special device, my parents always blocked the way to the entrance, preventing me from escape. I intermittently acted violently and shouted, “I am confined! Help me!” But each time, my mouth was closed and my body was held down by my relatives. My parents said, “Rev. Kawasaki is concerned about you”, or “Mr. Asami is caring about you.” Presumably, ‘Rev. Kawasaki’ means Rev. Keiko Kawasaki of the Japan Christian Union, while ‘Mr. Asami’ is meant for Prof. Sadao Asami of the Tohoku Gakuin University. Both were known to be engaged in fierce anti-UC activities. In desperation, I kicked and broke the window and shouted loudly, “Help me! I am kidnapped!” Some relatives became frantic, trying to hold me down. My parents said, “You broke it, didn’t you?”, trying to close my mouth with a cushion. After about twenty minutes, sounds of siren were heard outside. Then, the telephone rang and someone knocked the entrance door. While nobody opened the door, the telephone rang again and my father answered. Suddenly, a couple of riot troopers carrying guns came into the room and talked with my father at the entrance. Shortly afterwards, a chief detective approached me and said, “Don’t disturb us, will you? UC-related problems are between parents and the child. You are wrong! Don’t cause any uproar! You know some two hundred riot troopers had to be mobilized!” I explained my circumstances under detention. But he would not care about it, rather shifting a topic to a different direction, saying, “You broke the window on the 10th floor. What do you think will happen when the glass falls on people on the ground?” He left me by saying, “Don’t cause troubles to your parents!”
As the troopers left us, I got almost mad and screamed again out of my loudest voice. Then, the building’s janitor showed up and said, “You are disturbing our business! Please get out!” Having heard of this, my parents gave up the plan and returned home in the night of December 2nd. Uncle Sawai rebuked me by saying, “You are not fair! Why don’t you play on an equal footing? ” As they aborted the plan of confining me, I returned home. - Second attempt by putting me off guard
- 3-1．Abduction and Confinement
When I was walking near the Senju Police Station to go for a part-time job at 7:15 in the morning of April 1987, all of a sudden, my father’s voice was heard. “That is Soichiro!” There were some twenty men and women including my parents and Kiyoshi Sugaya. I was attacked by four of them and carried into a waiting station wagon. “Help me!”, I screamed in loud voice. The windows of the vehicle were made opaque, while windows of passenger seats were fixed immobile. Inside the vehicle were my parents, younger sister, Sugaya and an unknown person. I was scared to death in realizing that my confinement was carried out systematically, involving someone other than my kin. The vehicle passed the Senju Station, crossed the Senju-Ohasi Bridge and went towards the entrance of the highway. A patrol car followed our vehicle and stopped us. Through a microphone, the police instructed our car to follow them to the Senju Police Station. I tried to get out but could not, being grabbed firmly by the relatives. The policeman appeared out of the patrol car and looked inside the wagon. My father said, “My son was made fanatic with the UC! It’s a parent-child matter.” Ignoring his assertion, the policeman questioned me. “What is the matter with you?” I told him: “I have been abducted! As I have the basic human rights, please get me out of this place!” The policeman said to the father, “He says this and he has his own will. Why don’t you let him go?” Then, some seven unknown people who had assisted my abduction surrounded the policeman, shouting all at once, “This guy has been mind-controlled!” Overwhelmed by their pressure, the policeman said at last to my father, “You may go!” The wagon crossed the Senju Ohashi Bridge once again, taking the highway and arrived at the same parking lot of the Sunrise Ota, where I had been taken before. Two station wagons followed our car, carrying those who had assisted my father. One of the relatives urged me to get out of the vehicle, but I refused to comply. In the end, I was forcibly brought out by the relatives and a stranger and was confined in the room No.209 at the Sunrise Ota. The entrance door was locked threefold, a padlock, a combination lock and a chain lock. The room consisted of three rooms and a kitchen. One of the rooms was at the side of the entrance and situated against the hallway, while two other rooms faced the porch. The windows of the room near the entrance and one of the two rooms located against the porch were applied with 15-millimeter-thick plywood shields. Another room window was covered with special 10-milimeter-thick celluloid board. The plywood shields were fixed to the window frames with 5-centimeter screws at 10-centimeter intervals. The window locks were also fixed permanently. The doors of the bathroom and toilet were unlocked. A telephone in the corridor was sealed in a padlocked wooden box.
Desperate to escape, I acted violently. But each time, I was given a blow, held down and finally bound by the relatives. I had my hands tied behind my back with bandages and gum tape as well as a metallic material that normally fixes a construction pipe. My legs were bound in the same way. With my hands tied behind, my shoulders were on the verge of dislocation, sending severe pains. The more I moved my hands or legs, the tighter the metal applied to my hands and legs closed, coming to cut into my flesh after a lapse of time. No matter how I cried and begged, they would not remove the metal. The hands were unbound the following day, while the legs were untied three days later.
Two days after I was bound, experiencing itch all over my body, I solicited for a bath. My father put me in the hot bath with my hands and legs bound and he washed my body. During this period, as I was not allowed to use my hands and legs, I had to eat meals only with my mouth! - 3-2．Forced encounter with Minister Shimizu
On April 12th around 9:00 PM, Minister Yoshio Shimizu showed up at the confinement site. “I never wanted you to come!”, I said. He looked puzzled. Since then, he came twice a week, on Monday and Friday, but I did not respond to him. He would talk one-sided criticism on the UC. From May, a few women who had left the UC under his guidance began to accompany him twice a week. - 3-3．Minister Shimizu advised on confinement
When my parents were asleep at night, I searched a container under the kitchen sink for anything useful at the time of escape. Instead, I found a roll of bandage, masking tape and a piece of rope to be used to bind me. One morning in July, as I could not hold back my temper of resistance to the protracted ordeal, I kicked the window-covering celluloid board very strongly with my right foot. The celluloid board got bent, hitting the window glass, causing one-inch-diameter, circle-shaped cracks on the window, which was reinforced with metal net and did not create a hole. My parents got furious and said to me, “You broke it, didn’t you? I will call on the pastor”. He went out to make a call. Hopelessly convinced that the call to the pastor would mean the prolonged confinement, I went to bed. About an hour later, Minister Shimizu came, with shoes on, to the room where I was lying. He shouted, “Hey, get up! How come you are lying？”, taking away my blanket. Noticing his sneakers. I thought he was ready to struggle with me. He told me not to be violent and preached for about 20 minutes. He also advised to my parents, “If he becomes violent, do whatever you can! If you hesitated, he would look down on you.” - 3-4．Falling ill
In August I began to have blood in my urine and pains in the urethra. Showing my urine to my parents, I asked for a visit to a doctor. Very anxious about anything wrong in my body, I begged them with tears. But they would only tell me to wait for a while. Two days later, the minister came to discuss with my parents on whether I should be brought to a doctor. At that time, the minister was concerned only about my escape. He said, “Can you prepare enough number of relatives? What about cars? If there is a medical facility nearby, he should be checked there”. He never mentioned anything about my health condition. When he was gone, my father said, “Though we are concerned about your health, we are not allowed (by Minister Shimizu). As we will ask again, just be patient!” The pastor was worried about my possible escape if I were taken to a hospital. But after the prolonged confinement, my physical condition was not good and I could not escape.
On the following day, I was allowed to visit a hospital under the guard of my parents, younger sister and the minister. I myself wished to see a urology doctor, but my relatives had no connection in the urology field. Accordingly, I was not allowed to go to the urology department. While I was in the hospital, the minister entered even into the consultation room in order to watch me. The doctor said, “The urinary duct was cut perhaps by a kidney stone.”. He offered some medicine but would not treat the wounded part. In an evening chat, my mother said, “The way Minister Shimizu carries things out is too harsh. I can’t like his personality.” - 3-5．Failed escape attempt
On September 18th, when I was to be taken, under parents’ guard, to a study session called “Scions’ Association” of former UC members, on my way to the parking lot, I escaped. But because I was unable to run fast, I was caught up by my father. He asked a passing Brazilian man for assistance to capture me and I was seized. As my mother arrived, my father urged her to call the minister. As someone must have called police, a patrol car approached us. Two policemen and a female officer got out and asked what had happened. While I was telling them about my circumstances of abduction and confinement, the minister’s couple and ex-members came by a wagon car. Police officers began to talk with the minister, too. One of them said, “As quite a number of problems between UC members and their parents are taking place in Ota City, we are learning the UC doctrines to formulate our countermeasures.” I repeatedly appealed that my human rights had been violated, but the policeman would say, “I see your points, but don’t give your parents trouble!” The police officers decided to send me back to the confinement site. From my previous experiences, I knew they would not help me. So, I gave up and returned to the room. - 3-6． My escape
Around November 10th, the minister sounded like running out of materials to criticize the UC. He questioned, “How do you feel now?” Having abandoned a hope of escape on my own due to the strict surveillance, contrary to my own will, I replied weakly, “I am leaving the Unification Church!”
On November 14the about 10:00 AM, the minister came to the confinement site with a male ex-member. The pastor confided his mind about the abduction and confinement by saying, “Honestly, I don’t want to do this!” Late that night, he and the ex-member left the confinement site. Usually, immediately after the minister left, my father would lock the door with the chain lock and the padlock. Perhaps because of my confession of quitting, he did not lock the door right away. I inquired to my mother about whom they had consulted when they schemed the first confinement attempt. She said it was Pastor Koga. It could be Pastor Seiji KOGA of the United Church of Christ in Japan, a man known to be an anti-UC activist.
The entrance door was still not locked. When my parents were not watching me, I escaped through the entrance. Hitching several vehicles and taking a taxi, I could finally reach Tokyo. Thus, I got freed from the seven-month confinement and rampant violation of human rights.
- 3-1．Abduction and Confinement
end
December 9th, 1999
To: Consultation Office in the Eighth Civil Affairs Department
Yokohama District Court
