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Hello and welcome to this special edition of Witness with me, Mariko | :00:33. | :00:39. | |
Oi. I'm here in Tokyo to introduce you to five people who've | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
experienced extraordinary moments in Japanese history first-hand. We'll | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
meet a doctor who treated thousands of the injured at Hiroshima. Two | :00:48. | :00:54. | |
brothers who were among the first to learn the Suzuki method of playing | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
the violin. And a cameraman who captured Japan's royal wedding in | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
the nineteen fifties. But first, in 1995, this city's busy subway system | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
was brought to a standstill when the deadly nerve gas sarin was released | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
at this station behind me. It later transpired it had been released in | :01:17. | :01:31. | |
five locations across the network by the cult. | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
At the height of the morning rush-hour in the world's most | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
crowded underground system, the madness of indiscriminate murder. | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
More than 3000 subway passengers were affected. | :01:44. | :01:50. | |
TRANSLATION: At 8:12am I was told there was a suspicious object on the | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
train which had just arrived, so I went up to the platform upstairs and | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
I saw a train stopped right there. Several people had been seen | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
plotting packages at stations and on a number of trains. I saw a package | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
wrapped in newspaper, it was leaking, said this man, then the | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
stinging fumes hit my eyes. TRANSLATION: My colleague was | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
communicating with headquarters from the driver's cab. Another colleague, | :02:21. | :02:26. | |
Mr Takahashi, was wiping the platform with newspaper. I saw a | :02:27. | :02:33. | |
trail of spots. It looked like oil spilt as it had been carried out of | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
the train onto the platform. I put the crumpled newspapers which had | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
been used to wipe the floor in a plastic bag. The three of us put all | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
the newspapers in the bag. I was worried that these things might | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
explode so I took the bag downstairs to the office. Then I heard Mr | :02:53. | :03:02. | |
Takahashi had collapsed. The unseen chemicals striking people | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
down in a matter of seconds. They tripped and vomited, some were | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
blinded and paralysed. One of the first confirmation is that a deadly | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
nerve gas had caused the poisoning was given by this Doctor. It is | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
sarin, he said, it is one of the worst of all poisons. TRANSLATION: | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
by then my body had started shivering. I tried to make a report | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
about the A12 a.m. Train but my hand was shaking and I couldn't even | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
write eight -- 8:12am. So I took of my cap and uniform and washed my | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
face. I guess I was trying to pull myself together. Then I collapsed. | :03:44. | :03:50. | |
When I woke up I was in hospital. My staff were there. Because I knew Mr | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
Takahashi had collapsed, I was wondering how he was doing. I wanted | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
to ask but I had to sit in my mouth, so I got a pen and paper and wrote | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
his name. One of the staff made a sign like this. Then I wrote Mr He | :04:07. | :04:18. | |
Zi Numa's name. The worker made the same sign. Out of the three of us | :04:19. | :04:28. | |
only I have survived. My colleagues told me after I collapsed they | :04:29. | :04:31. | |
carried me upstairs together and they evacuated all of the passengers | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
from Kasumigaseki Station. There were no passengers killed at that | :04:38. | :04:42. | |
station. The leader of a Japanese cult has | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
been sentenced to death for masterminding a gas attack in Tokyo | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
nine years ago. He ordered the release of sarin into the | :04:53. | :05:01. | |
underground system. TRANSLATION: The pain never stops coming after me | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
because two of my subordinates died and me, the supervisor, survived. I | :05:09. | :05:17. | |
wish I'd known about salary and how to deal with it. I could have made | :05:18. | :05:24. | |
them washed their hands and faces. I feel I simply wasn't good enough as | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
the person in charge. Speaking to us from his home in | :05:28. | :05:40. | |
Tokyo. And next, in the post-war era, this musician developed a new | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
method of teaching the violin. The system would later catch on around | :05:48. | :05:55. | |
the world. The brothers were two of his first students. | :05:56. | :06:04. | |
I started the violin at the age of ten. I'm one of the first teachers | :06:05. | :06:12. | |
of the Suzuki method. I studied at the age of four. My brother was | :06:13. | :06:19. | |
already listening to my practice. The idea here is that from the age | :06:20. | :06:37. | |
of three, Japanese children can be taught to play simple tunes by ear. | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
As the Japanese teacher Suzuki says himself, they learn to speak with | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
the violin at the same time as they learn to speak their mother tongue. | :06:47. | :09:52. | |
Hideya and Toshiya there, still playing the violin 50 years later. | :09:53. | :10:01. | |
In 1956 reports came to urge about what became known as Japan's worst | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
case of industrial pollution in the town. These two were among those | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
devastated by the disaster. TRANSLATION: I can't tell you just | :10:13. | :10:23. | |
how much I hate a chemical factory. The corporation devastated the ocean | :10:24. | :10:31. | |
and our people. I just hate it. People used to say that life in the | :10:32. | :10:33. | |
town was wonderful. The corporation was the only company | :10:34. | :10:46. | |
in the town. We are still frightened by the awfulness of the mercury that | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
was leaked from the factory. It poisoned the fish and then people | :10:50. | :10:57. | |
who ate the seafood got disease. There had been no poisoning before a | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
chemical factory was built in the Bay. But the company denied all | :11:02. | :11:11. | |
responsibility and continued to pump its waste into the sea. TRANSLATION: | :11:12. | :11:24. | |
People went blind and danced round and round like crazy. Soon it was | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
clear that people were suffering as well. | :11:31. | :11:39. | |
TRANSLATION: She was my first daughter. | :11:40. | :11:41. | |
She couldn't eat fish well because she was only three years old, but | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
she could eat prawns by herself, so I let her eat a lot of prawns. We | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
thought something might be wrong with her. We thought she might have | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
the disease when her hand started shaking. I realised she had the | :12:01. | :12:07. | |
disease. She became unable to walk properly, unable to speak. | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
Doctors from the local university filmed the shaking fits. They | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
suspected metal poisoning. TRANSLATION: When I visited her in | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
hospital she had lost her sight, but she could still hear. I said to her, | :12:25. | :12:32. | |
your mum is here, you don't have to cry any more. | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
She gave me a sweet smile. It was her last smile. On January the third | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
of 1958, she died. By 1958 win you it was caused by the | :12:44. | :13:07. | |
company, by waste water pumped into the bay by the factory. They tried | :13:08. | :13:18. | |
to hide it. My second child is Shinovu. She contracted the disease | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
in the room. I didn't think it was possible. But three months after she | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
was born I noticed something was wrong with her. Shinobu is now 59 | :13:29. | :13:45. | |
years old. In 1959, the corporation offered some consolation money. | :13:46. | :13:47. | |
Human life cannot be | :13:48. | :13:48. |