by Susanne Bayly-Yukawa

I am the British widow of Akihisa Yukawa who was one of the 520 victims who died in the Japan Airlines Boeing 747 flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka crashed into Mount Osutaka – the world’s largest single aviation disaster.

I came to Japan to fight for justice – 34 years after his death. For the first time I have joined the Japanese bereaved to request a reinvestigation of the crash based on new evidence.

On 16th July I participated in a symposium at Waseda University which outlined the need for information disclosure of the Japan Airline flight 123 crash. The details of the symposium are here and why we feel that the real cause of this terrible disaster is still not known–please read here or read the Professor’s comments at the bottom of this post.

I am aware the Japanese government announced in 2000 that the documents about the crash were copied onto microfilms and would never be destroyed. I am joining the bereaved in asking for these documents to be released now. We all know that part of the plane is still in Sugami Bay, I am campaigning to have it salvaged and re-investigated. There is considerable evidence that was not included in the original crash report – these significant new facts simply cannot be ignored. In accordance with international guidelines there is a necessity to re-open the crash investigation based on these facts. This is the worst single Boeing crash in history, the bereaved – and the world deserve to know what really happened. It is a human right to know the truth. Powerful corporations over the world over continue to escape accountability and victims have no route to remedy. I am calling for a new international law to protect everyone from the harm caused by the lack of truth and accountability. I am speaking with a number of Japanese journalists/documentary makers and have agreed to be interviewed on the 12th August on the anniversary of the crash in Gunma. 

I am campaigning for the bereaved and my own personal case – both issues are about corporate accountability and transparency. 
Akihisa Yukawa and I lived together for seven years as de-facto man and wife and bore him two daughters, we could not have been happier, we had every intention to marry. Akihisa was working as a senior Sumitomo executive at the time of his death, he was building the aviation leasing business for his company. He was working very closely with Japan Airlines before the crash as the lead of the syndicate which led to the largest order of Boeing aircraft on record from Japan in 1985.
This order was announced just nine days before the crash, the aircraft were delivered after his death:
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1985/1985%20-%202341.html?search=JAL

On Monday 12th August 1985, Akihisa was requested by his company to attend a business meeting in Osaka.
He was feeling unwell that day and had a very strong sense that he should not go – he tried his very best to cancel but his head office insisted it was necessary for him to go which led to his death in the JAL 123 crash.

I think it is time we all knew the truth about everything that happened.

“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

Tohko Aoyama, JAL 123 researcher–

“On July 16, the Waseda University Faculty of Law and the Waseda University Comparative Law Research Institute co-hosted an academic symposium asking for information disclosure of the Nikko flight 123 (JAL123). For the first time, UK bereaved Susan Bailey Yukawa (Susanne Bayly-Yukawa) came to Japan and issued a statement asking for a reinvestigation with Japanese bereaved. Professor Christopher P. Hood at Cardiff University in the UK also sent a video message. The keynote speech was held by Mr. Hiroshi Miyake, a member of the Cabinet Office Public Document Management Act, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications information disclosure system member, vice chairman of the bar association and chairman of the board. I also mentioned the necessity of the reinvestigation. The legal path to reinvestigation has finally come to light.

Now I would like to share with you overseas people about the Nikko123 Flight crash and the story that is not written in the official accident investigation report.

On August 12, 1985, Japan Airlines flight123 crashed in Ueno village, Gunma Prefecture, and 520 people were killed. This is the world’s largest single airplane crash still now. Twenty-two of the victims were foreign nationals, including the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Korea, China, and Italy. At the time I worked for JAL as a stewardess belonged to the same group of the flight attendants who encountered the accident, but I was relieved because of the duties for an international flight. 34 years have passed since then. I got married and retired, put myself in the education world, then got a doctoral degree from the University of Tokyo. In the meanwhile, I have always questioned the cause of the crash of the Nikko123 and continued my research. As a result, I wrote four books.

One of them “New facts of the Nikko123 crash -close to the truth at the eyewitness accounts” breaks through 100,000 copies, thereby making the general public aware of the cause of the accident different from the accident investigation report. After a 34 years survey, I was convinced that the crash of the Nikko123 was not an accident but an incident.

According to the accident investigation report of the official announcement at that time, the aft pressure bulkhead that had been damaged by a hard tail-hit against runway in the landing at Osaka airport in 1978, was repaired in the incomplete manner by Boeing. Its bulkhead broke again in the operation of the Nikko 123 due to a repair error and its mount of pressurized air in the cabin darted out and accumulated inside of the vertical fin, finally blew up the top corner of the fin with pressure. However, despite all this the Japanese judiciary did not prosecute anyone for this reason. In other words, no one had any responsibility for the death of 520 people. It was written that the reason for the crash is that Boeing made a repair mistake and Japan Airlines missed it. But even after the accident, Japan Airlines purchased Boeing’s airplanes in following year one after another. Not only JAL but all rivals of JAL and Japanese Self-Defense Force also purchased aircrafts under the intention of the government (Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone). As a result, Boeing’s sales in Japan were the highest which resulted in 520 victims.

In 2015, News reported that most of the vertical fin and tails constructions blew off were still in the sea. Despite the direct cause of oneself, it is still sunk to the seabed 160m of Sagami Bay, below the flight route. This is the origin of the accident, nevertheless the Japan Transport Safety Commission which is in the Ministry of (Land, Infrastructure,) Transport (and Tourism,) refused the wishes of the bereaved and rejected to pull them up from the seabed for the reinvestigation. It was natural to do so because of a lot of doubts and an unconvincing non-prosecution.

I will briefly explain why they refuse so much, based on the facts.

The accident investigation report disregarded all the testimonies of many witnesses.
According to them, immediately after the emergency happened on JAL 123, the two phantoms that were launched urgently tracked the JAL aircraft, and near the crash point, local children said “A large airplane and two small airplanes are chasing” they were sure to look the situation.

In the ultra-low altitude flight of JAL 123, it was observed that an elliptical thing like a red airplane was stuck near the fuselage. In the vicinity of the crash site, adults also witnessed a bright red small plane flying. A non-duty SDF member witnessed that two SDF Phantom aircrafts were flying in an unusual situation, and this was described in the police report too.

I interviewed the chief of Ueno village of a crash site (Takeo Kurosawa). He said that he called the central government many times for crashing in his village. Nevertheless, coverage of the unknown continued throughout the night.

In the village at the crash site, many people gathered, including many SDF vehicles, police and riot police and so on, all night long. There was a big fire at the crash site on the mountain and there were many helicopters on it. It had been witnessed that they were going back and forth and raising and lowering things.

According to Mr. Antonucci’s testimony of the US military, the crash site was identified in 15 minutes after the accident, “so I went for relief, but the Japanese rescue team came and ordered a return”. However, he knew a report next morning that it was unknown all night, and he was hampered to say nothing.

If the two Phantoms were flying with JAL 123 at a bright time before the crash, the location was identified and reports that “the crash site was unknown all night” would not be held. In response to this comment, the SDF’s official announcement said that one minute after the crash, we sent out two phantoms, but we did do nothing before that, we had not had even one fly.

So what did the Japanese government and the Self-Defense Forces do all night without saving the passengers? I also briefly report scientific findings.

(1) I examined the remains (a few rocky blocks) collected at the crash point with a university research institute. As a result, it was found that the material was made of duralumin and was the remnant of JAL 123. Further, when black deposits were analyzed, a large amount of benzene ring, sulfur, chloroform were detected. Jet fuel used by JAL was kerosene JTA-1, which was a good product of high purity refined from kerosene, so why is a large amount of gasoline component benzene ring and sulfur detected in the crash site? This is a biggest question. Naturally, there was no gasoline on the product also no sulfur component in this mountain. Furthermore, why was the non-load chloroform attached?

(2) According to the detailed data for the condition of the body that was obtained and analyzed by the autopsy doctor, one third of the bodies were abnormal carbonized, one third of them were complete bodies, and another two thousand fragmental parts of bodies. The plane crashed on the summit of the ridge called “Osutaka no One” was broken into four parts, and one of them, the E compartment just in front of the rear pressure partition where the four survivors were sitting, slipped off from the summit and fell to a point completely invisible from the summit. It was deep bushes of trees.

Their tympanic membranes were normal despite the survivor experiencing a sudden decompression as the vertical tail blew off. The four survivors were listening to a large number of voices and encouraging each other. However, the helicopters flying above did not rescue them. According to the doctor, “100 people must be alive if they were discovered immediately after the crash”. In the crash site near the summit, the flames were rising until morning, and according to a local fire brigade who accidentally found a survivors, it was full of gasoline and tar odors. Why was the smell of non-load dangerous goods gasoline full? Tar was not a cargo. What did the existence of the SDF helicopters witness around the scene all night tell you? By the way, the components of the weapon fuel (flamethrower) possessed by the SDF members were gasoline and tar.

⑶ According to the autopsy doctor, there were many charred remains those completely carbonized on both the back and front near the summit. In addition, there were neither an engine nor a wing part (as storage located for kerosene fuel tank) in the vicinity. Carbonized to an extent that was clearly different from other aircraft accidents and traces of double burns.

⑷ The remaining fuel for about 1 hour flight rage burned for 11hours. The body must be burned twice. There was evidence that firearms were used, and material of the fuel promoter was discovered. Because of a component different from kerosene.

⑸ There is a shower toward evening every day at the crash site, the humidity is 75%, and summer mountain is not particularly likely to be a forest fire. In addition, it is obvious that summer clothes are not suitable for burning for a long time. The thick human body does not carbonize to bone, even if the surface is burnt and black. Why did you carbonize the bones?

All of the above are interviews with police doctor, local people, former SDF personnel, and transport minister at the time (Tokuo Yamashita), Secretary of Defense Agency at the time (Koichi Kato). Research were conducted at the professional research institute. The answer is that the SDF had some involvement in the crash. In fact, daily newspaper reports for a week before the crash were articles on domestic missile development and missile test success. On the day of the accident, the self-defense ship Matsuyuki was in public testing and was under missile testing.

This year, we are requesting disclosure of information, including a 34-year-old live voice recorder and the genuine flight recorder to clarify these in accordance with the law.
There should be no problem even if the materials and information are disclosed to the bereaved, since Japan Airlines and Boeing as the parties to the official cause of the accident have officially apologized and acknowledged. The government is obliged to answer the bereaved questions seriously. The reinvestigation is natural because it has not been prosecuted in the past. However, the accident investigation committee has refused to release materials for 34 years long with citing various reasons. This is the actual condition of Japan.

Japanese side bereaved family members are seeking to disclose information with their bereaved overseas, and formally request a reinvestigation regarding this unclear incident. There should be no reason for anyone to refuse this. There are many military involvement in what is considered to be an aircraft accident whose cause is unclear. This may be happening around the world. For that, Legal maintenance is indispensable in the international framework in the future, and British bereaved and Japanese bereaved are aiming for it.

August 1st, 2019″

• Please click the following URL for the text in Japanese.

Editor’s note: This article was submitted by Ms. Yukawa who has tried to hold a press conference in Tokyo. There are many theories about what happened to Flight 123, and many are dismissed as conspiracy theories. However, it seems reasonable that the information collected so far should be released to the public and to settle any doubts that the missing piece of the plane be recovered and examined. The blog below makes some interesting claims–the English is a little rough but read and reflect.

「日航123便墜落の波紋ー天空の星たちへ」公式ブログ