Italian writer Maraini called to speak on student falsely accused of WWII spying in Japan

SAPPORO — More than 80 years ago, on the day the Pacific War began, a college student here was deprived of his future due to baseless spying charges. A group of citizens dedicated to passing this incident on to future generations plans to invite world-renowned Italian writer Dacia Maraini, who was acquainted with the student as a child, to Sapporo next spring in hope of conveying that even during wartime, there were heartfelt exchanges between foreigners and Japanese students.

In the so-called “Miyazawa-Lane incident,” Hiroyuki Miyazawa, then a student at Hokkaido Imperial University (now Hokkaido University), was arrested by Japan’s Special Higher Police on Dec. 8, 1941 on suspicion of violating the military secrets protection law. Investigators accused him of leaking information about a naval air station in the Hokkaido city of Nemuro, among other things, to American English teacher Harold Lane and his wife, Pauline, who were also arrested. Even though the information Miyazawa supposedly leaked was common knowledge published in newspapers and other media, he and the Lanes were sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.

Before their arrest, the Lanes had negotiated with the university to allow Maraini’s family to live in the foreign teachers’ dormitory. Her father Fosco, an anthropologist who researched the Ainu people, had come from Italy to Japan with his family to study at Hokkaido University in 1938.

As an engineering student, Miyazawa participated in gatherings where foreign teachers and students could talk freely with each other. Miyazawa’s photo album, stored in the Hokkaido University Archives, contains group photos from that time, as well as photos of Miyazawa, the Lanes, Fosco and a young Dacia, showing the friendship between foreign researchers and students.

In the spring of 1941, Fosco took up a teaching position at Kyoto Imperial University and moved with his family to Kyoto. After the Marini family left Sapporo, tragedy struck with Miyazawa’s arrest.

The war cast a dark shadow over the Maraini family living in Kyoto as well. Because Italy was an ally of Japan, the family was guaranteed a free life, but after Italy surrendered in 1943, they were branded traitors for refusing to be loyal to the fascist regime and were sent to a concentration camp in Aichi Prefecture.

Following their release after the war, Miyazawa and the Maraini family were reunited in Tokyo. However, their exchange did not last long. In 1946, the Maraini family returned to Italy. One photo of Miyazawa’s family and Dacia together is dated Jan. 23, 1946. Dacia was 9 years old at that time.

Miyazawa died the following year on Feb. 22 at the age of 27 from tuberculosis he contracted while in prison. Before his death, he had applied for reinstatement to the university and was also considering studying in the United States.

Dacia, now aged 87, was born in 1936 in Florence, Italy. She made her debut as a writer in 1961. Her works have been translated worldwide and she has been repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. Although she visited Japan after the war, she had never revisited Sapporo.

In order to pass on the memory of the false arrests to future generations, the “Miyazawa-Lane case study group,” a citizens’ group of university professors and others, approached Dacia through translator Noriko Mochizuki, 82, asking her to give a lecture in Tokyo and Sapporo next spring. According to the group, the writer is positive about coming to Sapporo, saying that she would like to help restore Miyazawa’s honor.

The incident had been buried for a long time. The citizens’ group has been calling on Hokkaido University to install an information board and monument where the foreign teachers’ dormitory used to be.

Toyo Okui, 76, the secretary-general of the group, stressed the importance of young people learning about the incident from the perspective of preventing war.

Meanwhile, Kunio Kitame, 76, deputy secretary-general, said, “Dacia-san is the last person who really knew Miyazawa. We want to convey the fact that there was a heart-to-heart exchange between foreigners and students that overcame the war.”

(Japanese original by Kohei Shinkai, Hokkaido News Department)