Written by: Himani Bhattarai - 24021, Grade XI
Posted on: 07 December, 2022
Junko Furuta was a highschool student studying in Misato, in the Saitama prefecture of Japan. She was a 16 year old girl who was brutally tortured and murdered by a group of boys. She was raped and tortured for 44 days before she died; this is why her story is named “44 days in Hell”.
A boy named Hiroshi Miyano had a crush on Junko; one day he decided to confess his feelings. But Junko rejected his confession as she did not want any distraction and wanted to solely focus on her studies. This made Miyano feel humiliated: Soon after this incident, Junko was kidnapped by a group of four teens (Hiroshi Miyano, Shinji Minato, Jō Ogura and Yusushi Watanabe). They then raped her. After that, they took her to Minato Nobuharu’s house where she was introduced to Minato’s parents as his girlfriend. After a few days her parents informed the police about her going missing. The boys forced her to call her parents and tell them that she was fine and just wanted a break from her studies so she was at her friend’s house. Her parents seemed to be convinced by this. She kept on getting raped by the boys for days. Not only this, she was used as a punching bag; she was beaten brutally by the boys. Sharp objects were used on her body. The guys even urinated on her. They used to throw huge dumbbells on her stomach time and again. This completely destroyed her internal organs. Despite this, they continued to rape and torture her. Soon her health became really critical. She couldn't stand up. One day the boys were out and Junko was alone there. There was a phone nearby. She managed to call 911 but before they could pick up the call the boys were back. Seeing this, they got very angry. They burnt her body parts with matchsticks and sexually abused her. They tortured her physically and mentally. Junko even begged them to kill her at once instead of giving all this torture. But they did not stop. Her health became worse. Various objects like skewers, needles and other sharp and heavy objects were forced into her vagina. They even burnt her eyelids with hot wax; and finally after 44 days of constant torture, the boys burnt her alive. They spilled lighter fluid on her body and burnt her alive. Her health was already very critical so the fire incident killed her. When the boys realized Junko was dead, they dumped her body in a 55 gallon drum, filled with concrete and dropped it on a cement loaded truck in Koto tokyo.
The four teens were arrested and punished two weeks later on a separate gangrape charge. They were juveniles so their punishments were comparatively less than adults. They are roaming freely even today. Many books were written by authors inspired by this case. This incident can be considered as the most inhuman and brutal murder and torture case in humanity.
