The Asahi newspaper published on Sunday photocopies of four sheets of paper where the enforcement of the two death penalties is described. Tomia Watabe, a Zorge biographer, found them by chance in an old bookstore in Tokyo among old papers of the U.S. occupation forces' HQ.
According to Watabe, these papers draw a line under uncertainty as to the Soviet super-spy's last minutes.
The death penalty log of the Itigaya prison and the Sugamo detention center for 1932-1945 reads:
"Warden Itijima, on checking the name and age of the convict, told him that the Justice Ministry had ordered to serve the sentence on the same day, and that he was expected to meet the death calmly. The warden also asked the convict whether the latter wished to add anything to his will, as to what should be done to his body and his things. Zorge answered, "My will is going to remain as written." The warden asked, "Do you wish to say anything else?" "No, nothing else," said Zorge.
"After that exchange Zorge turned to the prison men present and said, 'I thank you for your kindness.'"
"Then he was put into the death chamber where the sentence was served. Time: 10:20 to 10:36.
"Under the executed man's will, his body was buried."
Rihard Zorge was arrested by the Japanese counterintelligence in Tokyo on October 18, 1941, and executed on November 7, 1944.
His reports in the very beginning of war with the Nazis convinced the Soviet leadership that Japan would not attack the Soviet Union, which enabled the Russians to send forces from the Far East to protect Moscow where the Nazis were defeated for the first time in WWII.
