Show Notes
A licensed midwife in postwar Tokyo runs a maternity home where five infants are found dead-how did the cremation register expose her killings?
The cremation register that counted babies exposed her killings
In this episode, we follow how a licensed midwife and her husband ran a central Tokyo maternity home after the war and how routine paperwork and cremation records drew investigators into a wider mystery. The episode traces the social pressures, institutional processes, and the paperwork that turned up a trail of infant deaths and ash that investigators could not ignore.
Person: Miyuki Ishikawa Person: Takeshi Ishikawa Person: Dr. Shirō Nakayama Date: January 12, 1948 Location: Kotobuki San'in, Tokyo
- Two Waseda police officers found five infants together in one location with no signs of struggle on January 12, 1948. - Kotobuki San'in was presented as a home for birth and celebration run by licensed midwife Miyuki Ishikawa and her husband Takeshi. - Records show death certificates signed by Dr. Shirō Nakayama listing natural causes, filed and stamped in official channels. - Investigators found seven infants alive in the home when the Ishikawas were arrested on January 15, 1948; two later died. - The probe traced cremated remains and paperwork across multiple locations, revealing over forty infants’ ashes linked to the home.
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