Second Dose

Koyo Bank branch in Shiinamachi, Tokyo, Tuesday, January 27, 1948, 9 am. The day before, at 3:40 pm, with the doors already locked, a man wearing a white public health armband, a gauze mask and glasses asked to speak to the deputy manager.

He said there was a dysentery outbreak on the street and that the occupation authorities had ordered everyone to be medicated. He gathered the fourteen employees, served two doses of a "preventive medicine" one minute apart, and waited.

Eleven died on the spot or on the way to the hospital, among them deputy manager Haruo Nishimura. The man walked out with 160,000 yen and a 17,000-yen check, and left more than that behind on the desk.

Three names cross the path of that bottle. One of them knew, drop by drop, exactly what he was serving.

Hall of a small 1948 Japanese bank branch, with teacups fallen on the wooden floor.