44 Days of Hell

Junko Furuta, a Japanese high-school student who was 17 years old, died at the hand of her abusers after 44 days of Hell.

📌HISTORY

Junko, a student of a school in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, was said to be a beautiful and active teenager who liked the attention and wasn't into any drug consumption which irked to her class bullies and some other classmates.

One of them— Hiroshi Miyano, was in love with her but did not want a
relationship. Junko didn't approve of this. Hiroshi did not accept anyone denying him.

📌THE RAGE

On November 25, 1988, she was abducted by 4 teenage boys and one of them was Hiroshi. They took her to one of the kidnappers' parents' house in the Ayase neighbourhood of Adachi Tokyo. The kidnappers forced Junko Furuta to call her parents and tell them she would run away and stay with a friend. Unable to understand what was coming and very frightened, Junko did exactly as she was told, thus preventing the first attempts to find him.

Nobuharu Minato's parents, in whose house Junko Furuta was kept, visited their son on several occasions. However, under threat of escalating violence against her, Junko was asked to claim that she was the girlfriend of one of the boys. Yet, even when it became clear that she was being held hostage at home, the parents did nothing for fear of revenge by Hiroshi.

During the 44 days after her abduction, Junko was forced to endure untold suffering.

📌THE LIVING HELL

Furuta was humiliated by being kept naked most of the time and was r!ped every day. It is believed that more than 100 men r!ped her, counting 500 r!pes. At one point, she was abused by 12 different men within a day. Physical beatings included hitting with golf clubs and slapping the face on the cement floor. Often to provoke her r!pists, she was forced to m!sturb!te in front of them and the "guests". The 16-year-old had various objects forcefully inserted into the vagina and anus, including a bottle, an iron rod, scissors, etc. There were confusing foods that included more water and milk. The kidnappers had removed her left nipple with pliers. She was kept in the refrigerator for several hours. There were also signs of burns in the intimate areas as well.

And these were just some of her tortures.

At one point, when the attackers were resting after drinking, she tried to call the police but was caught and punished by burning her legs. Severe leg burns and badly bruised muscles left her unable to walk for days. Since it was winter, she was even forced to sleep on a balcony, exposed to cold temperatures. After 30 days, Junko Furuta could not urinate properly due to damage to internal organs and vulva from the introduction of foreign objects and burns from cigarettes and lighters. Her hands and feet were badly injured and it took her more than an hour to crawl downstairs to the bathroom. Her eardrums were also damaged and her brain was reduced.

📌DEATH

During the 44 days when she was repeatedly tortured, beaten and r!ped, Junko begged her captors several times to simply end her life.

On January 4, 1989, they challenged her to a Mahjong diamond game in which she won. This angered the boys, so they beat her with iron barbells and burned her body parts. Already severely beaten, dehydrated, and malnourished, Junko Furuta died the next day. The killers put the body of the dead girl in a cauldron filled with concrete and threw it in Koto, Tokyo.

📌INVESTIGATION

On 23 January 1989, Miyano and Ogura were arrested for the gang-r!pe of the 19-year-old girl whom they had kidnapped in December.

On 29 March, two police officers came to interrogate them, as women's underwear had been found at their addresses.

During the interrogation, Miyano believed that one of the officers was aware of his culpability in Furuta's murder. Thinking that Jō Ogura had confessed to the crimes against Furuta, Miyano told the police where to find Furuta's body.

The police were initially puzzled by the confession, as they had been referring to the murder of a different woman and her seven-year-old son that had occurred nine days prior to Furuta's abduction, a case which remains unsolved.

The police found the drum containing Furuta's body the following day. She was identified via fingerprints.

On 1 April 1989, Ogura was arrested for a separate sexual assault, and subsequently re-arrested for Furuta's murder.

The arrest of Watanabe, Minato, and Minato's brother followed.

Several other accomplices who participated in abusing and r!ping Furuta were officially identified, including Tetsuo Nakamura and Koichi Ihara, who were charged with r!pe after their DNA was found on and inside the victim's body.

📌PERPETRATORS

The Japanese court hid the names of the four main captors who kidnapped, tortured, r!ped and killed Junko Furuta because they were minors.

Shūkan Bunshun's journalists dug up and published them stating that after what they did to Junko Furuta, they did not deserve anyone to defend their human rights.

They all were arrested and tried. But being minors they were tried as minors. Eventually they faced adult sentences. Being a minor at that time, their punishment was handed down relatively low.

The boys' were:

Hiroshi Miyano - 18 years old at the time of the crime. He changed his name to Hiroshi Yokoyama.

Jo Ogura - 18 years old at the time of the crime. He changed his name to Jo Kamisaku.

Shinji Minato - 16 years old at the time of the crime, some sources refer to him as Nobuharu Minato.

Yasushi Watanabe - 17 years old at the time of the crime.

📌PROSECUTION

All four defendants pled guilty to "committing bodily injury that resulted in death," rather than murder. In July 1990, a lower court sentenced Hiroshi Miyano, the leader of the crime, to 17 years in prison. He appealed his sentence, but Tokyo High Court judge Ryūji Yanase sentenced him to an additional three years in prison.

The 20-year sentence is the second-longest sentence given in Japan before life imprisonment. He was 18 years old at the time of Furuta's murder.

After his release, Minato moved in with his mother. However, in 2018, Minato was arrested again for attempted murder after beating a 32-year-old man with a metal rod and slashing his throat with a knife.

Yasushi Watanabe, who was originally sentenced to three to four years in prison, received an upgraded sentence of five to seven years. He was 17 at the time of the murder.

For his role in the crime, Jō Ogura served eight years in a juvenile prison before he was released in August 1999. After his release, he took the family name "Kamisaku" when he was adopted by a supporter. He is said to have boasted about his role in the kidnapping, r!pe, and torture of Furuta.

In July 2004, Ogura was arrested for assaulting Takatoshi Isono, an acquaintance he thought his girlfriend may have been involved with.

Ogura tracked Isono down, beat him, and shoved him into his truck. Ogura drove Isono from Adachi to his mother's bar in Misato, where he allegedly beat Isono for four hours. During that time, he repeatedly threatened to kill the man, telling him that he had killed before and knew how to get away with it. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for assaulting Isono and has since been released. Ogura's mother allegedly vandalized Furuta's grave, stating the dead girl had ruined her son's life.

Miyano was denied parole in 2004. He was released from prison in 2009. In January 2013, Miyano was re-arrested for fraud. Due to insufficient evidence, he was released without charge later that month.

Nobuharu Minato (now Shinji Minato), who originally received a 4 to 6-year sentence, was re-sentenced to five to nine years by Judge Ryūji Yanase upon appeal. He was 16 at the time of the murder. Minato's parents and brother were not charged.

Furuta's parents were dismayed by the sentences received by their daughter's killers and won a civil suit against the parents of Minato, in whose home the crimes were committed.

Miyano's mother reportedly paid Junko Furuta's parents ¥50 million (US$370,000) in compensation, as ordered by the civil court, after selling their family home.

📌AFTERMATH

Junko Furuta's funeral was held on 2 April 1989.

Furuta's intended future employer presented her parents with the uniform she would have worn in the position she had accepted. The uniform was placed in her casket.

At her graduation, Furuta's school principal presented her a high school diploma, which was given to her parents.

The location near where Furuta's body was discovered has been developed since and is now Wakasu Park.

At the time Japanese people were concerned about a US-influenced epidemic of violent crime, what they called the "American disease".

At least three books have been written about the crime.

An exploitation film, Joshikōsei konkurīto-zume satsujin-jiken (女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件), about the incident was directed by Katsuya Matsumura in 1995.

Yujin Kitagawa (later a member of the music duo Yuzu) played the role of the principal culprit, and Mai Sasaki played the role of Furuta.

The case was also the inspiration for the film Concrete in 2004, where Miyano's name was changed to Tatsuo Oosugi, portrayed by Japanese Former Actor Sousuke Takaoka and Furuta's name was changed into Misaki and is portrayed by Japanese P!rn Actress Miki Komori.

And even a manga named 17-sai with the story by Seiji Fujii and art by Yōji Kamata, was published in 2004–2005.

It depicts the kidnapping and r!pe of a girl, based on the murder of Junko Furuta. It was published in Japan by Futabasha and serialized in Manga Action.

—

Case name:- 44 days of Hell
Sources:-Wikipedia, Anabelmagazine.com
Documentary:- Concrete