A supporter of five deceased people who were convicted in the 1945 "Yokohama Incident" holds a sign reading "dismissal" outside the Yokohama District Court on Feb. 9.

Some 60 journalists, editors and other publishing workers were arrested between 1942 and 1945, and taken to police stations and a jail in Yokohama, with seven of them allegedly dying from torture.

By dismissing the case, the court avoided any judgment on whether the five were guilty of violating the notorious 1925 Peace Preservation Law, which was aimed at clamping down on communists, labor activists and anyone who opposed Japan's militarism.

Relatives of Toru Kimura, Eizaburo Kobayashi, Hiroshi Yoshida, Kenjiro Takagi and Toshio Hiradate argued the five were framed. The sentences were handed down in 1945, shortly after the end of World War II.

The families had hoped to clear the names of the five via a retrial.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 18, 2006
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