Mitsuo Kagawa

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Mitsuo Kagawa (賀川光夫, 1923 - March 9, 2001) was a Japanese archaeologist and a professor at Beppu University in Ōita Prefecture, Japan. He committed suicide by hanging himself on March 9, 2001.

[edit] Life

Kagawa majored in archeology especially in the Japanese Paleolithic period. In 1962 he led an excavation in Hijiridaki cave site (聖嶽洞窟遺跡) in Ōita Prefecture. The team claimed that they discovered ancient human bones and stone tools dating back to the Paleolithic era, but later in 1999 other researchers questioned and argued that the claim could not be proven.^[1]

In a series of articles by the Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun published on January 25^[2], February 1 and March 15, 2001, it alleged that the stone tools discovered at the site were fabrication and indicated Kagawa had involved in that hoax. He committed suicide and left a suicide note to claim his innocence.

His family filed a defamation suit against Shukan Bunshun the same year. The Ōita district Court and the Fukuoka High Court decided to order the magazine to pay the damages and issue an apology to the family of Kagawa. The magazine appealed to the Supreme Court although the appeal was rejected in September 2004. An apology statement was published on September 2, 2004 issue.

On October 25, 2003, a project team from the Japanese Archaeological Association stated that they could not find any evidence to make judgments whether there is a fabrication or not. ^[3]