Matsukawa derailment
| Matsukawa derailment | |
|---|---|
| Details | |
| Date | August 17, 1949 03:09 |
| Location | Between Kanayagawa and Matsukawa, Fukushima Prefecture |
| Country | Japan |
| Line | Tōhoku Main Line |
| Operator | Japanese National Railways |
| Incident type | Derailment |
| Cause | Sabotage |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Deaths | 3 |
The Matsukawa derailment (松川事件, Matsukawa jiken "Matsukawa incident") occurred at 03:09 AM on August 17, 1949 when a Tōhoku Main Line passenger train derailed and overturned between Kanayagawa and Matsukawa stations in Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, killing three crew members. Together with the Mitaka and Shimoyama incidents, it was one of three major criminal cases involving allegations of sabotage blamed by the government on the Japanese Communist Party and the Japan National Railway Union in the immediate post-war era. Twenty people were arrested and seventeen were convicted in 1953 (four of whom received death sentences), but eventually all were acquitted on appeal, and the case was closed without determining the real cause in 1970.
In 2009, Fukushima University announced that archive files detailing the incident were made public.