The Sugam incident with abandoned children ( 巣 鴨子 供 置 き 去 り 事件 sugamo kodo okizari jiken ) occurred in Japan in the late 1980s. It caused a wide public response and has long been widely discussed by the Japanese media . In 2004, based on this story, a film was created, called " Nobody Knows ."
The incident occurred in 1988 in Tokyo, in the district, located in Toshima . Mother abandoned five minor children. The police did not disclose their names, reporters called them by numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Content
Background
In the story appear two sons and three daughters:
- 1, the eldest son, was born in 1973;
- 2, the eldest daughter, was born in 1981;
- 3, the youngest son, born in 1984, died shortly after his birth;
- 4 and 5 (both girls) were born in 1985 and 1986, respectively.
All children were from different fathers. There is evidence that in addition to child 1, several (possibly all) children were not registered at birth, not a single one attended school. In the fall of 1987, having met a new love, the mother appointed child 1 as the main child and left the children, leaving them 50,000 yen to live in an apartment in Tokyo .
Child Detection and Follow
In April 1988, a friend of his eldest son became angry with his two-year-old youngest daughter (No. 5) and threw her from the closet several times, as a result of which the girl died.
On July 17, 1988, acting on the complaint of the landlord for non-payment of utilities, officials from Sugamo opened the door to the apartment and found exhausted children there: a 14-15-year-old child 1, a seven-year-old 2, and a three-year-old 4. They also found the body of their second son (No. 3). Children could not clearly tell what happened. It was found that they were starving, eating mainly products from the nearest small store .
After the news was widely publicized, the mother of the children surrendered to the police. During interrogations, she admitted that the children were alone for nine months, and also that she did not know where the youngest daughter was. On July 25, the eldest son testified that the youngest sister was killed by his friend, coded under the pseudonym “friend 2”, and that he and “friend 1” buried her in thickets in the city of Chichibu . Both friends were later sent to a special school for participating in the murder of a minor.
In August 1988, the mother was deprived of parental rights . She was sentenced to three years in prison with a four-year suspended sentence.
It was found that, most likely, the eldest son was not present at the time of the death of his sister, but participated in the burial of the body; he was charged with unlawful burial, but he was detained in a preventive institution for the circumstances.
After three years in prison, the mother returned custody of her two daughters. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the eldest son.
A film based on the events described above
In 2004, the film " Nobody Knows " was directed by Hirokazu Koreeda . The plot of the film is softened compared to the source. It does not mention the youngest son whose mother kept the skeleton in the apartment after his death. The youngest daughter in the film does not die because of injuries, but because of an accidental fall from a chair. No one finds children in the apartment, so they continue to live unattended.
Literature
- 少年 事件 を 考 え る ｜ 「女 ・ 子 供」 の 視点 か ら (Shōnen Jiken o Kangaeru: “Onna-Kodomo” no Shiten kara, Asahi Shimbun-sha, 1989)