JAPANESE CRIME.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2062, 3 January 1925, Page 6

JAPANESE CRIME.

FAMILY WHO MURDERED CHILDREN ADOPTED THEM FOR DOWRIES. A case that reads like one of Cynthia Stockloy’s African horrors and makes the story of Bluebeard mild by comparison has been discovered in a Tokio suburb. Jukichi Tanaka, thirty-iive years old, and his wife, M'drty-oue, have been arrested on a charge of starving to dearth eight children whom they had adopted in consideration of dowries amounting to about thirty-five dollars each. The crimes, covering '(three years, were discovered by the police when they wore called on to investigate the rumour that the couple were starving two children whom they had recently adopetjd after receiving dowries. When the officers rescued the children one was so weakened by hunger that ho died and the other is being cared for by the authorities. According" to the Japanese institution of adoption, parents who cannot afford to give their children the best opportunities may offer them to more affluent families who are childless or lacking in a male heir. It is frequently customary for tho family to pay a dowry Vo the family adopting the child. The Tanaka family, represented themselves as being in prosporaftis circumstances.

A gruesome collection of liumau bones was discovered in a closet in the Tanugo house.