日航 123便

Tohko Aoyama: Independent researcher, PhD, The University of Tokyo (Environmental Studies, International Cooperation Studies) Non-fiction writer, journalist

〚Profile〛

In 1985, she was a flight attendant for Japan Airlines international flights. A flight attendant from the same group as they were killed in the line of duty on JAL Flight 123. After getting married and retiring, she became an instructor for a human resources development program at a subsidiary of Japan Airlines.

She accompanied her husband to the US for work, and after returning to Japan, she enrolled in the University of Tokyo Graduate School, Japan's top university, and obtained her doctorate. She is currently conducting research on human rights and court cases. As an independent researcher with a doctorate in international cooperation, she aims to promote peace. As part of this, she was involved in a project to have US President Obama visit Hiroshima.

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〚Works〛

2010 - 25 years after the accident, she published "Memories of that day on Japan Airlines Flight 123 - To the stars in the sky".

Then it was renamed as a paperback and titled "The beginning of doubts".

2017 - She published "New facts about the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 - Approaching the truth from eyewitness testimony" and it became a bestseller. It was one of the final 10 nominees for the non-fiction category of the Booksellers Award. It was selected as a book selected by the National School Library Council.

2018 - She published "The crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 - Relics tell the truth". Also recognized as a book selected by the National School Library Council.

2019 - She published "Ripples from the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 - And to the courtroom". Also selected as a book selected by the National School Library Council.

2020 - She published "The crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 - Overturning the pressure bulkhead theory".

2022 - Publishes "Japan Airlines Flight 123 Crash: The JAL Trial."

2024 - Publishes "Japan Airlines Flight 123 Crash: The Hidden Bodies."

As a leading researcher into Japan Airlines Flight 123, she has written seven books and plays a role in supporting the surviving families in their lawsuits. All of the books he has written have been submitted as evidence in the lawsuit.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2025　The Truth of 40 Years

She has collected 40 years' worth of research papers, books, newspaper reports, Japanese and US official documents, Ministry of Foreign Affairs official documents, artifact research at university research institutes, related papers, and autopsy reports for 520 bodies related to Japan Airlines Flight 123.This year, marking the 40th anniversary, a new book has been published summarizing the incident and including new testimonies from members of the Self-Defense Forces.
She has conducted interviews with the then Minister of Transport of Japan, the Director General of the Defense Agency, a former Prime Minister, the British Accident Investigation Committee, lawyers, the Special Training Unit of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, the US Green Berets, and personnel related to the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

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[2010: Memories of that day on Japan Airlines Flight 123 - to the stars in the sky]

 

Paperback title changed: Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash - the beginning of suspicions Total number of pages: 528

​[Summary]

● Part 1

Memories to mourn the souls of the flight attendants who died in the line of duty

The group of flight attendants I was a part of was on board the crashed aircraft, Japan Airlines Flight 123.

At the time, I had just switched to an international flight, so I did not board the crashed aircraft.

However, I have many unforgettable memories of my colleagues. I can remember the faces of my seniors who taught me how to do my job as a new employee. A record of one of them trying to save passengers until the very end was also found at the crash site. One of them was a note for escape written in a red notebook. Among the documents found at the crash site were suicide notes written by passengers on the plane when something strange happened 30 minutes before the crash. In addition, the plane was almost full because it was the Obon holiday in Japan. There were also many children on board during their summer vacation. Many Mickey Mouse dolls were found at the crash site as souvenirs from children who had gone to Tokyo Disneyland, which had just opened.

●Part 2

 Looking back at the reports

This book summarizes the results of an analysis of all primary sources related to the accident over the past 25 years, including a huge number of newspaper articles and papers about Japan Airlines Flight 123 from August 12, 1985 to 2010.

I learned that there are still many questions remaining. I realized that we had simply accepted the information about the accident released by the government's Ministry of Transport Accident Investigation Committee. I later learned that no one was responsible for the deaths of 520 people.

All those involved in the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash were not indicted. In other words, no one was punished under the criminal law.

On the surface, it was found that Boeing's repair mistake and JAL's failure to prosecute were to blame, but no one was tried in court afterwards. In other words, no one was held responsible for the accident, and the cause of the crash remains unknown, and the case was forcibly closed.

The bereaved families were not satisfied with this outcome, and they started a petition campaign all over Japan, calling for a reinvestigation and the injustice of the non-prosecution. As a result, more than 270,000 people signed the petition, but it was all ignored by the government.

Japan Airlines has still not explained the cause of the crash to the bereaved families.

At the time, the New York Times published a scoop article positing that it was probably the destruction of the rear pressure bulkhead, but Japanese media followed up on that report without verifying it.

However, if you read the accident investigation report submitted in 1987, the theory of the rear pressure bulkhead was not a conclusion, but merely a presumption. Furthermore, the voice recorder was never made public, and no public hearings were held. There were many unnatural gaps in the written part of the report that contained the voice recorder, but the accident investigation committee stubbornly refused to make the voice recorder public.

The bereaved families, wanting to know the real cause of the crash, began a lawsuit in the United States against Boeing, but the case was sent back to Japan midway and they were forced to settle. The foreign bereaved families, who knew nothing about the cause of the crash or the situation in Japan, were simply paid a condolence payment from their insurance.

●Part 3

Shocking facts about Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone

After I retired from Japan Airlines, I was working as an instructor for a company that developed human resource development programs, and I wrote about my experiences teaching at various universities. The students researched the details of the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash from newspaper articles at the time. As a result, they wondered whether the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash was not an accident, but a crime. This was a question I had as well.

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's behavior at the time of the crash was that, even though the plane crashed in his own constituency, he did not go to the crash site. He was in the next town over, playing golf, swimming, reading books, and enjoying his summer vacation. The footage of this was later broadcast as evidence. He was the prime minister, but he was playing in the next town over, and in his own constituency, even though 520 people died in the crash. The students were angry that he had no awareness or responsibilities as prime minister. At the time, at the crash site of JAL Flight 123, it was extremely difficult to recover the equipment in the mountains, and the bodies of the passengers were in a gruesome state, charred and charred.

In fact, a few days later, there was an airplane crash in the UK, and then Prime Minister Thatcher gave up her vacation and went to the crash site with her husband to sympathize with the grief of the 54 victims' families. In comparison, Prime Minister Nakasone's attitude was extremely irresponsible. It was the world's largest single-plane accident, with 520 people killed, in Japan, and in his own constituency, so it is outrageous that the Prime Minister was playing during his summer vacation.

The biggest question was why Prime Minister Nakasone was playing with reporters from major media, friends, and entourage in a neighboring town about an hour's drive away, calling it a summer vacation. He did not go to the crash site, meet the bereaved families, or sympathize with their grief.

I have written about the extraordinary response of the Japanese government to the massively indebted Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. that went bankrupt in 2010. In the end, the government-funded bank simply forgave the huge debt, while pouring in a huge amount of taxpayer money. The airline was rebuilt as a private airline, JAL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[2017 New Facts About the Crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123: Witness Testimony Reveals the Truth]

Paperback edition, total number of pages: 248 pages, best-seller with over 200,000 copies sold

The theme of this book was to collect and verify eyewitness testimony that was not written in the accident investigation report. I have carefully examined the reports and papers of the Gunma Prefectural Police Doctor, the coroner, and the nurses, interviews with the autopsy chief, the autopsy reports of all the victims prepared by the Gunma Prefectural Police, the condition of the bodies, and photos of the bodies, and have found that, from a medical point of view, there were signs that about 100 passengers and crew were alive immediately after the crash. In the end, only four people survived because rescue was delayed until the next morning. In addition, the testimony of the four survivors revealed that they had heard voices calling for rescue from people around them after the crash, and that many people had survived. The testimony of Yumi Ochiai, a former JAL flight attendant who was on board as a passenger, also proved that she had heard multiple children's voices and screams.

However, the accident investigation report states that "everyone except the four survivors died instantly or in a situation close to it." Although the report must state all the objective facts, it is heavily responsible for ignoring the testimony of the survivors and writing "instant death." What was seen and heard that day is listed in a table of essays by elementary and junior high school students in Ueno Village and the testimony of 235 witnesses from Ueno Village residents. At the time, the target was a large Soviet transport aircraft, and a domestically produced missile was being developed for that purpose. On that day, the Self-Defense Forces' escort ship "Matsuyuki" was undergoing a test run for delivery in Sagami Bay. Suddenly, a loud bang rang out over Sagami Bay, and immediately afterwards the vertical stabilizer was destroyed, with parts of it falling into the sea and being retrieved by "Matsuyuki".

In the end, Japan Airlines Flight 123 was hit so hard by the smashed-to-pieces fourth engine that the aircraft fell headfirst and crashed.

At that time, a 1st Class Ground Sergeant of the 12th Reconnaissance Squadron (Somahara) wrote in a police booklet that he had witnessed an Air Self-Defense Force Phantom fighter (F-4EJ) flying low over his parents' house while on vacation in Higashimura, Agatsuma County, Gunma Prefecture, at around 6:40 pm, before JAL Flight 123 crashed. There was no way that an active-duty SDF member could have mistaken it, and he submitted a detailed document in court.

I also interviewed Norio Yamashita, who was the Minister of Transport at the time. What do the two Phantom fighter planes chasing the JAL plane and the orange flying object seen by many people mean?

Norio Yamashita, the Minister of Transport, told me clearly that a reinvestigation should be conducted if the bereaved families wished. And when the orange flying object was analyzed at a university research institute, it was found to be cylindrical and conical, and was captured on a photograph approaching JAL Flight 123. Therefore, it is highly likely that a military missile or a military dummy target aircraft collided with the vertical tail.

 

                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

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[2018 Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash – Relics tell the truth]

Paperback edition: Total number of pages: 232

Why did the bodies of JAL Flight 123 turn to charcoal?

The crash site was in the mountains in summer, where humidity exceeded 70%, and storms continued to fall day after day.

The bodies on the side facing the ground, made of damp soil, were also burning crispy. The human body was fleshy, and since it was summer, the clothes were simple. Naturally, clothes do not continue to burn, and raw meat does not burn easily. Next to it was a synthetic fiber Mickey Mouse doll that had been left unburned. A photo of a Mickey Mouse stuffed toy was also published in a weekly magazine at the time with the meaning that "children's souvenirs are painful to look at," but there was no description of the condition of the body. Usually, stuffed toys burn more easily, and fleshy humans do not burn as much.

There were other strange things at the scene. According to the local fire department, there was a smell of gasoline and tar in the air, but gasoline is a hazardous material and was not loaded on the plane. Moreover, safe jet fuel derived from kerosene does not burn that much. In addition, about 3.3 hectares of forest far from the place where the plane was stored had been burning for more than 10 hours.

Scientific analysis showed that the fire had spread beyond the distance that it would have been if fuel had not been brought in from outside. It was a place where it would not have burned until morning.

It was also a summer mountain with daily rain showers and humidity levels of over 70%. Kerosene, a safe jet fuel derived from kerosene that had been researched with passenger safety as its number one priority, could not have continued to burn for that long.

The issue of the body is best known by the family member, Ms. Motoko Kibi.

Ms. Kibi had been visiting the morgue for four months, but her beloved husband's body had been torn to pieces and she did not know where it was. When she visited the morgue in search of the body, she saw many bodies that had turned into pitch-black charcoal. Unlike a normal aircraft accident, even the teeth and bones had been carbonized. The coroner also had serious doubts.

Subsequent analysis of the components of the wreckage revealed benzene rings, sulfur, rubber components, and even chloroform, all of which were clear evidence that weapons fuel had been used.

 

 

 

 

                                                                               

 

[2019: The repercussions of the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash – and on to the courts]

Paperback edition: Total number of pages: 232

This book is a dramatic account of the suffering and life of the British family who lost their husbands on Japan Airlines Flight 123.

I went to the UK to do research and gave a lecture at Cardiff University. The British family members also attended. I have had a long and close relationship with Professor Christopher Hood of Cardiff University. He also has doubts about the cause of the crash. During this research, I met with the British Accident Investigation Committee, a BBC newscaster, and aircraft accident experts, and had in-depth discussions.

They were all surprised when I told them that the Japanese Accident Investigation Committee had not tried to raise the wreckage that is still submerged in Sagami Bay, and had written a report based only on armchair speculation.

They all said they couldn't believe why the Japanese government was not reinvestigating, and why the Japanese Accident Investigation Committee had not raised the plane from Sagami Bay. And they encouraged me.

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[2020 Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash: overturning the pressure bulkhead theory]

Total number of pages in paperback edition: 280

The public, and even the foreign surviving families, are unaware that no one has been held criminally responsible for the world's largest single-plane crash. It is unclear why 521 lives (including the unborn child) had to be lost, or who is responsible. Why doesn't the media report such important information? It seems the media and the government are in cahoots. Japan Airlines also did not report the inconvenient facts. Does the public know that the cause of the JAL Flight 123 accident remains a guess, and that no one has been held criminally responsible?

The Self-Defense Forces personnel who arrived at the crash site first cut the rear pressure bulkhead, which is an important piece of evidence that is essential to determining the cause of the accident, along the cracks and radial framework with an engine cutter, and piled up the fragments at the site. Moreover, they cut it before the investigators dispatched from the United States on the 16th could see the site. The members of the Japanese Accident Investigation Committee who arrived at the site with them were very surprised that it was completely unclear whether the cracks in the bowl-shaped pressure bulkhead were caused by the impact of the crash, during flight, or while cutting with the engine cutter. The members of the Accident Investigation Committee themselves publicly stated this in their report at the time.

However, the accident investigation report eventually stated that replicas of these were made and their fractured surfaces were examined under a microscope. Make a replica? Examine the fractured surface of the replica? What on earth can we learn from that?

It is highly likely that there were nearly 100 survivors. The crash site was also identified that same day. However, the media reported that the crash site was unknown. When I interviewed the mayor of the village where the crash occurred, he said that the plane had crashed in their village and that rescue efforts had to be carried out quickly, and that he had even called the central government. Despite this, the crash site was reported as unknown. However, the Self-Defense Forces had gathered in the village where the crash occurred and were seen working overnight, hoisting something up with a helicopter.

In 2013, a separate volume of the accident investigation report was made public online, and it was stated that the vertical stabilizer may have been hit by an abnormal external force.

 

The black circle indicates the point where the abnormal external force was applied, and the shaded area indicates the vertical stabilizer that remains undiscovered and submerged in Sagami Bay.

The vertical stabilizer itself had a tail structure that could not be blown away by internal pressure, and it was not an enclosed space like a balloon. It can be determined that a force of one ton was applied from the outside.

And the people who brought that external force were probably "the Self-Defense Forces or the US military," as then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone wrote in his memoirs published around that time. We know that the Self-Defense Forces were conducting test runs of an escort ship below in Sagami Bay near Tokyo, Japan. Since this incident occurred right in the middle of Japan, it is clear that it was not caused by a foreign aircraft or a foreign missile. If that is the case, it can only have been an exercise by the Self-Defense Forces or the US military. The orange flying objects are all the color of mock missiles and mock target aircraft without explosives.

 I and the bereaved families decided to take JAL to court, asking them to let us hear the voice recorder, to show us the raw data, and to make the raw data of the accident investigation committee at that time public.

 

 

 

 

                                                                              

 

 

[2022 Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash incident - JAL trial]

Total number of pages: 384

I was very surprised to see the statement released by the Gunma Prefectural Police that "the fourth engine of the jumbo jet was blown to pieces by the collision with a single larch tree" and the accident investigation report. I also remember other researchers laughing hysterically when they said, "Even from a mechanical standpoint, the tree was broken, so it was a failure."

The biggest question was, what, if anything, other than a tree, had blown the fourth engine of the jumbo jet to pieces during the crash, which was the final blow.

The accident investigation report and the Gunma Prefectural Police documents state in words that the tree is a "200-year-old red pine." Ordinary people tend to imagine it as a thick and gigantic tree, but only the tip of the thin tree broke. There is not even a photo of the tree in the accident investigation report. It may have been omitted on purpose. A 7-ton object collided with a tree with a thin tip and broke it. It is common sense that the tree will lose because the one that breaks will lose. No one would disagree with this. A single jumbo jet engine weighs 7 tons (the equivalent of 7 cars), is 4 meters long, and has a diameter of 3 meters, making it the strongest object. Is it possible for a 7-ton sturdy object to be torn apart and shattered into pieces by colliding with the tip of a simple and soft tree that is not a steel tower? For example, if a 7-ton truck crashes into a wooden utility pole, will the body of the truck be torn into pieces and scattered, let alone dented or distorted? This is something even an elementary school student can understand. This unscientific fact is boldly written in the accident investigation report. In the end, judging from the remains of the shattered fourth engine, it is highly likely that the aircraft, which received a large impact from the missile, fell headfirst and crashed. Therefore, the prosecution requested disclosure of information in court. The information disclosure request documents submitted to the court dealt with the mystery of Captain Takahama. We pointed out that there was a "blank 3 minutes and 12 seconds" in the voice recorder with text that was made public. Incidentally, the captain of Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force. The voice recorder did not record any words, and suspicions arose that the captain may have been involved in some kind of training due to his connection with the Self-Defense Forces, which caused the accident. The most likely possibility is that the Phantom fighter that was tracking the JAL plane and the captain were talking to JAL Flight 123 on a different radio. It was also strange that the records of the three minutes of conversation before and after the emergency were not made public. Therefore, the purpose of the trial was to have the voice recorder played live for the bereaved family. However, all the presiding judges made unjust rulings. The reasoning was that the bereaved families had already settled and received their money, so they didn't need any more. However, none of the bereaved families knew that the military was involved, and if the military was involved, there would have been state compensation in addition to the settlement money. The bereaved families should have the right and eligibility to receive state compensation. That is our argument, and the foreign bereaved families who were forced to settle without being informed have a right to claim. In the end, no one involved in the operation of Japan Airlines Flight 123 was indicted, and no one was held criminally responsible. The cause of the crash, which killed 520 people, is still a matter of speculation. It should have been revealed in a disclosure trial, but the Japanese courts sided with the government.

 

 

                             

                                                               

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[2024 Japan Airlines Flight 123 Crash: Hidden Bodies]

Total number of pages: 336

Where should the bereaved families turn for help? As a researcher, I wanted to help the bereaved families by unearthing, investigating, and analyzing Japanese and US official documents from an academic perspective. This is one of the ways of contributing to society that I have acquired through research. Also, since the bereaved families in front of me have questions, I thought that there was something I should do as someone who knew what happened at the time, so I have continued writing. Because I have a wide range of academic connections, I was able to meet Hirokazu Kato, who was the Director General of the Defense Agency at the time, when my paper was accepted for a policy competition. Furthermore, it was a valuable opportunity to meet and interview the Minister of Transport at the time. After that, I met with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife several times, and during the Abe administration, I invited Motoko Kibi, who was the head of the autopsy team for Japan Airlines Flight 123, and dentist Tsutomu Okuni to the Prime Minister's Office to talk directly about Japan Airlines Flight 123. I also met with many Diet members across party lines. However, Japanese politicians are reluctant to reveal anything out of consideration for the United States. Shortly after the start of 2024, a Japan Airlines flight had a major fire at Haneda Airport. I received important testimony from a nurse who witnessed the scene. It was about the autopsy of the bodies of JAL Flight 123. At the time, the news reported that Captain Takahama's body had not been found. However, in fact, it was first discovered the day after the crash. Why was it hidden? Captain Takahama was a former member of the Self-Defense Forces, and there was something on his body that suggested he may have cooperated with the Self-Defense Forces' training. In order to remove this, Captain Takahama's body was found naked, which is unusual. He was naked and not wearing a uniform. No one knew. Behind the scenes, they were secretly instructing the nurses to perform the autopsy. In recent years, there have been many blunders, especially by the military. The era in which it was okay to cover up military scandals because the government would solve them in secret and cover them up without informing the public is over. The era in which some sacrifices were unavoidable in order to strengthen the Self-Defense Forces and increase defense spending is also over. We must not treat aircraft accidents involving the Self-Defense Forces or other military forces as taboo and choose a political solution. Friendly countries should disclose more information through diplomacy. Until now, foolish people have made wrong choices, but from now on, science and the digital society will not tolerate that. The world is in a critical state with frequent unilateral destruction by the military and collisions with civilian aircraft, and no sign of a political solution.

 

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Message to foreign bereaved families

 

Why I am so committed to non-fiction I want to ask how those who have obstructed and cooperated in the investigation of the truth for 40 years, and those who know but pretend not to know, have deceived and driven the public out of control. The Internet is full of fake articles denying my lawsuit and those of my family, as well as slanderous articles in English that slander me, and the Wikipedia page for JAL123 also contains false information. There is only one thing we should do. Conduct a reinvestigation. To do this, we must continue to ask the government to let the public listen to the raw audio recorded on the voice recorder without hiding it. We must think more deeply about why innocent passengers had to die and why we can only speculate. In order to express our heartfelt condolences to the 520 people who died, we must not turn a blind eye to the "truth we do not want to see." Denying the past creates the future. Only when the cause of the crash of JAL Flight 123 is fully elucidated can Japan-U.S. relations truly aim for peace. Japanese and American lawmakers should join forces to encourage the American families of the victims to actively seek the truth. The National Transportation Safety Board has the original voice recorder from Japan Airlines Flight 123. The families should be allowed to listen to it. This lawsuit is worth filing, and if military involvement is proven, it could lead to state compensation from both Japan and the United States. It could serve as a catalyst to prevent military misfires and collisions between military and civilian aircraft around the world.

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