Bobby Fischer claims he was 'kidnapped' by Japanese government
Incarcerated chess genius Bobby Fischer has claimed from his immigration bureau
detention cell that he was "kidnapped" by the Japanese government.
"I am a kidnap victim of the Japanese government and they have kidnapped me at
the behest of a corrupt, criminal U.S. regime," Fischer said in an Aug. 31
interview with Radio DZRH released on the Internet over the weekend.
Fischer was arrested July 13 for using a passport the U.S. government says it
revoked, but the chess grandmaster argues had been perfectly valid until it was
destroyed.
He has since played several moves aimed at preventing his deportation to the
United States, where he has been indicted by a grand jury for playing chess in
Yugoslavia in 1992, when that country was under U.S. sanctions.
Among Fischer's gambits aimed at avoiding expulsion have been announcing his
intention to renounce U.S. citizenship, making public his intention to marry
long-time companion Miyoko Watai and seeking German citizenship.
Fischer believes he would be murdered if returned to the United States, where he
was once hailed as a national hero for claiming the world chess championship
title from the Soviet Union by defeating Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972.
With the Tokyo District Court last week granting an injunction against the
deportation order issued to the grandmaster on Aug. 24, Fischer seems as adept
in the courtroom as he is at the chess board. The injunction paves the way for a
long-term stay in Japan and opens avenues, such as marriage to local chess champ
Watai, that could allow him to ultimately avoid the U.S. authorities pursuing
him.
In the lead-up to the court's ruling, however, Fischer was clearly bitter at the
treatment he has received since his arrest at Narita Airport as he tried to
leave for the Philippines.
"I was kidnapped by the Japanese government. That's the story. There is
absolutely nothing legal about my being detained here. There is nothing legal
about the cancellation of my entry visa to Japan and my exit visa to Japan.
There was nothing legal about the total destruction of my passport. This is all
totally illegal and a violation of Japanese immigration laws and a violation of
American laws," Fischer said in the live, 50-minute interview given from the
East Japan Immigration Bureau Detention Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Typical of the many interviews Fischer has given Radio DZRH, the chess genius
let loose with a tirade of anti-Jewish, anti-U.S. invective, but also gave a
particular tongue-lashing of Time magazine for the article entitled "King's
Gambit" that it ran on his plight in its Aug. 30 edition.
"(Time) want to fill out the story with quotations from people who are not
involved in the arrest. There's not a single quotation from either the U.S.
government, or the Tokyo Embassy or the Manila Embassy and there's not a single
quotation from the Japanese government or the Japanese immigration authorities,
which is absolutely unbelievable. But the reason there's were quotations from
them is because it's all totally illegal and they don't want to put anything on
the record," Fischer said. "If you look through the article, there's not one
quotation from the U.S. government and not one quotation from the Japanese
government."
U.S. officials have refused to comment on Fischer's case, saying that he has not
signed a privacy waiver act that would allow them to make a statement. Japanese
government officials are typically reluctant to go on record.
Time Tokyo bureau chief Jim Fredrick, who wrote the story on Fischer, was out of
the country on Sunday and could not be reached for comment.
Fischer spent much of the interview talking about the process involved with
renouncing U.S. citizenship. He said an official from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo
had come to visit him, but he had turned the official away because he had not
received prior notification and wanted his attorney, Masako Suzuki, to be
present. He also complained about the paperwork involved in giving up his
American nationality. Fischer has since appealed against the revocation of his
U.S. passport. (By Ryann Connell, Mainichi Daily News, Sept. 12, 2004)
Bobby Fischer