Terrifying & True | The Kidnapping and Murder of Junko Furuta

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When it comes to real life horrors, it's often believed there's no limit to

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what men may do to each other. But what if the perpetrators of the

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crime of an unthinkable, vile,
heinous act were children themselves? What could

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make innocent minds turn so evil?
And why did it happen in nineteen eighties

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Japan? What you were about to
be ispuriity to you. Based on witness

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accounts, testimonies, and public record, this is terrifying and true. True.

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Welcome back, my dear listeners,
my spookies, to terrifying and true.

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We took a little hiatus after the
holiday season, which I sincerely needed,

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but we're back full force this month
with a truly heinous story about the

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evil committed by young men in the
late nineteen eighties and Japan, A story

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brought to my attention by our regular
contributor Morgan Moore. She dug deep into

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this story to bring us all of
the grizzly details, and believe me,

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there is no shortage of grizzly details. This is your moment of warning.

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This story has everything heinous you could
ever think of in it, and so

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much more. Listener discretion is indeed
advised. And we'll get to that story

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after these quick words. After World
War Two, Japan saw many changes as

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it moved forward, whether it was
from occupation by America until nineteen fifty two,

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the changing of accepted norms in their
media, or even down to the

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style of their buildings and clothing.
An aspect that did see arise was crime,

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and like many other countries after any
conflict, juvenile crime saw an uptick

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to terrifying levels. While Japan saw
major growth financially and a decrease in unemployment

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in the eighties, the end of
the decade saw what many described as the

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worst case of juvenile delinquency in post
war Japan. Like many other crimes before

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and after, its notoriety is such
that it has inspired many books and works

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of fictional media. It shocked the
community and country involved, and to this

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day remains one of the most chilling
acts of violence and depravity the world over.

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This is the story of how four
teenagers kidnapped, abused, and ultimately

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killed a girl who, by all
accounts, had a bright future ahead of

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her. A story about how so
much evil can exist at such a very

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young age. This is the story
of the kidnapping and murder of Junko Feruda.

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On November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty
eight, at around eight thirty pm,

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eighteen year old Hiroshi Miano and sixteen
year old Nobururu Minato were wandering around

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the city of Misato in Sayatama Prefecture
when they happened upon seventeen year old Junko

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Feruta on her way home from work. The two would later admit that they

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were walking around the city looking for
women to rob and rape, and once

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seeing Feruta, picked her out as
their target. Under orders from Miano,

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Minato kicked Feruta off her bike before
running off. Miano then approached her under

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the false pretense of being a witness
to the act. Once he gained Feruta's

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trust, he offered to take her
home. She agreed, and the two

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were on their way. However,
very quickly the situation turned to a terrifying

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one, as Miano took Faruta to
a warehouse where he proceeded to rape her,

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before taking her to a hotel and
repeating the act again. While at

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the hotel, Miano phoned his friend
Minato, seventeen year old Joe Ogura and

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seventeen year old Yasushi Watanabi, and
bragged about having raped the teenage girl.

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According to their accounts, Ogura requested
Mianu keep Feruta in captivity so that the

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group could all participate, an activity
they had a history of perpetrating. Around

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three a m. Miano took Faruta
to a park where the others were waiting.

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There, they told her that they
knew where she lived and that members

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of the yakuza would kill her family
if she attempted to escape. After threatening

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her, the four overpowered her and
took her to a house in aas district

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of Adachi. Once at the house, which was owned by Manato's family,

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the boys gang raped her. On
November twenty seventh, Ferruta's parents contacted the

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local police and reported her missing.
To make sure that the authorities wouldn't keep

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investigating her disappearance, the boys made
Feruta call her mother three times and state

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that she had simply run away and
was staying with a friend and was safe.

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When Manato's parents were around, she
was forced to act as if she

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was his girlfriend until the boys became
comfortable that his parents wouldn't report them,

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and at that point dropped all pretenses. Manato's parents would later claim that they

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did not intervene because they were afraid
as their son was increasingly acting violently toward

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them. On the night of November
twenty eighth, Miano invited two other boys,

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Tetsuo Nakamura and Koichi Ihara, over
to Manato's house. There, the

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six drank cough medicine and pretended that
they were getting high off of it.

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Scared for her life, Faruta attempted
to escape while screaming madly. She was

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caught by the group and pinned to
the floor with a pillowcase over her face.

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When Manato's parents went to check on
what was happening, he simply told

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them it was nothing, and his
mother and father left him alone. Afterwards,

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all six boys gang raped Feruta while
she was in a state of unconsciousness.

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The group held Faruta captive for forty
days. Throughout that time, she

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was repeatedly raped by the boys and
other various men, as well as beaten

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and tortured. According to various statements, the four mend, the ways they

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tortured and abused Feruta were varied.
These included force feeding her milk and alcohol

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and small amounts of food, with
her eventually becoming malnourished, burning her with

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lighter, fluid beatings, forced in
hailing of paint thinner, and smoking multiple

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cigarettes at once, as well as
being made to sleep on a balcony with

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little clothing in the cold. She
was also made to dance naked and masturbate

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in front of them. Other forms
of Feruda's torture included having her pubic hair

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forcibly shaven and having various objects inserted
into her vagina and anis, such as

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lit matches, metal rods, and
bottles. Due to her severe injuries and

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infected burns, she became unable to
go to the downstairs toilet and was confined

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to the floor of Manato's room in
a state of extreme weakness. Along with

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this, Feruta's appearance drastically changed due
to the nature and intensity of her attacks.

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Her face became so swollen it was
hard to make out her facial features,

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and her body became so severely crippled
that the boys eventually lost any sexual

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interest in her. They later stated
that her body also began to give off

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a rotting smell. Because of this, they kidnapped and gang raped a nineteen

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year old girl. January fourth,
nineteen eighty nine saw the conclusion of Feruta's

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torture due to losing a game of
majong the night before, Miano took his

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anger out on Feruta by lighting her
on fire. Supposedly, she attempted to

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pull herself out of the fire,
but slowly became unresponsive. The four boys

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punched her, ignited a candle and
dripped hot wax on her face, placed

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two short candles on her eyelids,
and forced her to drink her own urine.

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At one point, she was kicked
and fell onto a stereo unit and

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began having convulsions. Afterwards, because
of her body bleeding profusely and puss leaking

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from her infected burns, the boys
covered her hands in plastic bags before continuing

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to assault her. Her attack reportedly
lasted two hours before Feruta had an iron

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exercise ball dropped on her stomach several
times and succumbed to her wounds and died.

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In the aftermath, the gang wrapped
her body in blankets and placed it

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inside of a travel bag. They
then put her body in a fifty five

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gallon drum and filled it with wet
concrete. Around eight pm, they loaded

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it and eventually disposed of the drum
in a cement truck in Koto, Tokyo.

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During her being held captive, Feruda
had mentioned to her abuser several times

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that she regretted not being able to
watch the an alley episode of her favorite

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show Tonbo or Dragonfly. Miano found
the videotape of the episode and placed it

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in the travel bag. He would
later explain he did it not because he

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pitied Faruta, but because he did
not want her to return as a ghost

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and haunt him. Feruta died just
fourteen days before her eighteenth birthday. Miano

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and Ogura would be arrested on January
twenty third for the gang rape and kidnapping

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of a nineteen year old they had
committed in December. During an interrogation on

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March twenty ninth, Miano was told
by police that they had found women's underwear

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it his and Ogura's addresses. Believing
that the police were referring to Feruta and

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that Ogura had confessed, Miano told
them where to find Feruta's body. The

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police were initially confused by the confession, as they had been referring to the

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murder of a different and her seven
year old son that had occurred nine days

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prior to Feruta's abduction, a case
which remains unsolved. The following day,

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police found the oil drum where the
boys had put Faruta's body, and she

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was later identified by her fingerprints.
On April first, nineteen eighty nine,

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Ogura was arrested for a separate sexual
assault and re arrested for Feruta's murder.

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The arrests of Watanabi, Manato,
and Manato's brother followed. Several other accomplices

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who participated in abusing and raping Feruta
were officially identified, including Tetsua Nakamura and

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Koichiihara, who were charged with rape
after their DNA was found on and inside

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Feruta's body. The identities of the
boys were sealed by the court since they

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were all juveniles at the time of
the crime. However, journalists from the

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Shukan Bunschan magazine uncovered their identities and
public push them on the grounds that given

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the severity of the crime, the
accused did not deserve to have their right

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to anonymity upheld. All four of
the boys responsible for Feruta's kidnapping and torture

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pleaded guilty to committing bodily injury that
resulted in death rather than murder. In

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July of nineteen ninety a lower court
sentenced Hiroshi Miyano, the mastermind of the

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crime, to seventeen years in prison. He would appeal the ruling but was

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unsuccessful, with Tokyo High Court Judge
ryu Yanasi sentencing him to an additional three

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years in prison, to a grand
total of twenty the second longest sentence given

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in Japan before life imprisonment. After
being released from prison, Miyano moved in

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with his mother, but was arrested
again in twenty eighteen for the attempted murder

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of a thirty two year old man. Yasushi Watanabi, who was originally sentenced

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to three to five four years in
prison, received an upgraded sentence of five

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to seven years for his part in
the crime. Joe Ogra served eight years

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in a juvenile prison before he was
released in August of nineteen ninety nine.

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After his release, he took the
family name Kamisaku when he was adopted by

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a supporter. It is said that
Ogura, while in prison, boasted about

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his role in the kidnapping, rape, and torture of Feruta. In July

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of two thousand and four, Ogura
was arrested for assaulting Takatoshi Asano, an

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acquaintance he thought his girlfriend may have
been involved with. Ogura tracked Asono,

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down beat him, and shoved him
into his truck. Agura drove Asano from

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Adachi in Tokyo to his mother's bar
in Misato, Satama, where he allegedly

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beat as Ono for four hours.
During that time, Ogura repeatedly threatened to

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kill him, telling him that he
had killed before and knew how to get

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away with it. He was sent
to seven years in prison for assaulting Jesono

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and has since been released. Agura's
mother allegedly vandalized Faruta's grave, stating the

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dead girl had ruined her son's life. Nobuhuro Minato would change his name to

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Shinji Minato and was sentenced to four
to six years. He would later appeal

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his sentence and would be re sentenced
to five to nine years by Judge Ryuji

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Anasi. His parents and his brother
were not charged in connection to the crime.

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Faruta's parents were understandably not pleased by
the sentences the boys were given.

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They would file a civil suit against
the Manato family due to that being where

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their daughter was held captive, tortured, and eventually murdered a lawsuit in which

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they won. Miyanu's mother would be
ordered by the courts to pay the Faruta

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family fifty million yen or three hundred
seventy thousand U S. Dollars. The

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funeral for Djunko Forta was held on
April second, nineteen eighty nine. At

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her graduation, Feruta's school principle presented
her a high school diploma that was given

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to her parents. Additionally, Faruta's
intended future employer presented her parents with the

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uniform she would have worn in the
position she had accepted. The uniform was

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placed in her casket. The location
near where Feruta's body was discovered has been

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developed since and is now Wakasu Park. Since her murder, there have been

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various books written about the crime.
In addition to various fictional and nonfictional manga

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or comic books, there have been
various movies made about the case as well,

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with most of them being exploitation films
that focus on the sexual depravity that

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the boys committed, one of them
being directed by Katsuya Matsumura, who was

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the creator of the All Night Long
franchise. Of all the films and fictional

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works based on the crime. The
most accurate and quote pleasant is two thousand

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and four's Concrete. The movie focused
on both the abuse Faruta received in a

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non exploitive way and the possible social
factors and circumstances that led the boys to

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commit the crime in the first place. Crime can come in all sizes and

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ages. Crime can come in all
sizes and ages. Crimes committed by youths

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are an issue worldwide and vary in
severity and the kind of crimes committed.

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Yet arguably the murder of Junko Feruta
remains one of the most extreme and unsettling

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cases, next to perhaps war crimes
committed by children. It is a story

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that still manages to unnerve those in
its native country and those who have discovered

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it internationally in the years since.
While Japan has hosted many notable crimes over

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its history, most notably being their
various war crimes throughout World War II,

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Faruta's murder is perhaps the most disturbing, with only one other incie and murder

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possibly topping it. Stories like these
are one of the things that makes terrifying

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and true wa ay fascinating but darkly
disturbing job For me. Here at Weekly

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Spooky, I love telling stories that
make us think a little darker, that

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make us feel a little creeped out. You know. Fear, of course,

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makes us feel alive, but sometimes
sometimes the truth of the heinousness of

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a crime is a lot to take
in. This one I had never heard

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of until it was brought to my
attention by Weekly Spooky contributor Morgan Moore,

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and it certainly starts this season of
Terrifying and True off to a dark,

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sinister, and vile start. So
and the words of Abraham Lincoln. Probably

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it's the kind of thing you like, if you like that kind of thing.

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But I just want to remind you
out there that as we delve into

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the darkness of these times topics,
there's always a light at the end,

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and that light is the kindness of
our fellow human beings. For every story

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you read of a group of boys
being truly evil or war crimes being committed,

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just remember that we're not talking about
hundreds of thousands of people working in

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charities every day to help their fellow
man. Or at least that's what helps

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me sleep at night, and I
hope it helps you too. Terrifying and

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True is narrated by Enrique Kuto.
This episode is written by Morgan Moore.

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It's executive produced by Rob Fields and
Mark Shields. Produced by Daniel Wilder,

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with original theme music by Ray Maddis. If you have a story you'd like

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us to cover on the program,
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much, and we'll see you next
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