When the Special Higher Police, the dreaded Tokko, returned his body to his mother and brother, it was hard to believe their official report that he had died of "a heart attack."
The skin at his temples had been stripped away, and there were 12 wounds from what a physician friend described as "coming from a drill." (The police had actually used metal brazier pokers on him.) His wrists and ankles bore rope marks from him having been suspended from a ceiling; and his lower torso, pubic area and thighs had turned an awful purple color from "relentless beating." The police had even taken the trouble to break his right index finger so that he would never write again.
This was the tragic end to the short life of author and agitator, Takiji Kobayashi (1903-33).