Mystery Japanese Reporter Identified

Hideo Koike Stood Near Jack Ruby at Midnight Presser

FIG. 1 – Japanese reporter Hideo Koike (left, arrow) standing a few feet from Jack Ruby (right, glasses) at the midnight press conference held at Dallas police headquarters. Credit: WBAP-TV / G. William Jones Collection, Reel No. 5, Object No.2006.041.0007, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

BY DALE K. MYERS with HIDEJI OKINA

His identity has puzzled American researchers for more than six decades. But in Japan, the name of the bespectacled young reporter standing near Jack Ruby at the press conference held in the early morning hours of November 23, 1963, at Dallas police headquarters, has been well known for more than fifty-years.

 

His name is Hideo Koike. In 1963, he was a member of the Science Writers Association of Japan and a nine-year veteran reporter in the city affairs department of the Sankei Shinbun, a newspaper headquartered in Osaka, Japan. [1]

 

Arrival in America

 

On June 1, 1963, thirty-three-year-old Hideo Koike arrived in Los Angeles as part of a ten-person Sankei Shimbun overseas student program in which participants were expected to gain experience about American society in a grassroots fashion and to learn American English. [2] After touring the United States, the students would tour Europe and the Middle East for another six months before returning to Japan for assignments as foreign correspondents for the Sankei newspaper chain. [3]

 

In late July, 1963, Koike visited Boise, Idaho; then Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (August 17); and finally, Birmingham, Alabama (September 25) before returning to California to take a course in English at the University of California at San Francisco. After completing the English course, Koike planned to travel to New York to take a course in scientific writing at Columbia University. By the time he left the United States in July 1965, Koike planned to cross the American continent three times and would have studied at two universities. [4]

 

All his preparation was leading up to a career as an international correspondent and scientific writer with the Sankei Shimbun newspapers in Japan. [5]

 

Koike acknowledged in his 1985 self-published book, “Private Edition: The Kennedy Assassination Chronicles,” that he was in an unusual situation, writing: “I learned a lot about the language, as well as the geography, human nature, customs, and food. However, the problem was that wherever we went, people would ask me, “Who are you?” and would ask about my status and occupation. Although I was a foreign student, I was already 33-years-old, not enrolled in any school, and although I was a newspaper reporter, I wasn’t actually doing any interviews, writing articles, or sending them out. Who on earth was I? I was a strange foreign student...” [6]

 

November 22, 1963

 

At 12:30 p.m. (CST), on November 22,1963, Hideo Koike was eating a lunch of roast beef and pickles at Sam’s American Eatery, 1220 Market Street, in San Francisco. Suddenly, he heard a scream.

 

“What?! President Kennedy was shot? You’re kidding me!”

 

Koike dashed from the restaurant and ran eight blocks, back to his lodgings at the Columbia Hotel. When he arrived, he called the Washington Bureau of the Sankei newspapers. Bureau Chief Shunpei Kato answered the phone.

 

“I want to fly to Dallas,” Koike said.

 

“No, wait a minute, I’ll talk to the head office,” Kato replied.

 

Koike couldn’t believe that the bureau chief didn’t jump at the chance to send a reporter to the scene of the crime. What were they waiting for?

 

About thirty-minutes later, the bureau chief called back, “Head office has agreed. Go. They’ll cover all your travel expenses.”

 

Of course, the bureau expected Koike to front the cash for the trip to Dallas. Luckily, Koike had about $400 dollars of personal money that his wife had given him before he left Japan. He figured he could make it last a week to ten-days.

 

He quickly packed, made the trip to San Francisco Airport, and bought a ticket to Dallas – the last flight of the day – leaving at 5:25 p.m. (CST)

 

For a reporter trying to get to what might be the biggest story of the century, the wait was almost intolerable. To help calm his impatience, Koike bought every edition of the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, which were already hitting the streets with news from Dallas. The headlines came in bursts: “President Shot,” then, “Hit, Rushed to Hospital,” then, “Critical Condition!” and finally, “Dead.” So far, there was nothing about the culprit. [7]

 

Four hours later, Koike finally boarded an American Airlines flight to Dallas. During the flight, he pondered the steps he planned to take upon arrival, writing in his notebook, “First, I’ll visit the crime scene. Then I’ll head to the police station where the investigation headquarters is located. If I have time, I’ll see what the town is like and listen to what the citizens have to say. But who could the culprit be? His motive, his purpose, what was behind the events... I thought about all sorts of things endlessly, and read the extra edition over and over, so much so that it was all worn out.” [8]

 

The plane landed in Dallas, Texas at 10:27 p.m. (CST) It was well-after dark. Koike imagined that Japanese correspondents based in Washington or New York had probably already arrived and were busy filing their stories. Had he already missed the big story?

 

Koike grabbed an airport taxi and urged the driver to take him to Dallas. He told the driver that he was a Japanese newspaper reporter. The taxi driver talked non-stop on the drive into Dallas about how a suspect had been arrested and was at Dallas Police Headquarters.

 

“Who is he? Why did he do it?” Koike asked the driver.

 

“We don’t know that much yet,” the cabby replied. He told Koike that the crime scene was on the way to police headquarters, so a quick stop won’t take up much time.

 

When they arrived at Dealey Plaza, Koike got out of the cab and looked around. A street sign said he was at the intersection of Elm and Houston. To Koike’s surprise, there were no police present, no areas cordoned off. The Texas School Book Depository building loomed over the scene with a seemingly devilish grin. Koike spotted several young men and women standing nearby. He asked them about the shooting. They provided a brief description of the chaos (“like a mental hospital”), Jackie Kennedy screaming out (“Oh no!”) and so on. There was no need to linger, so Koike urged the taxi driver to take him to police headquarters.

 

When they arrived at City Hall, the building was lit-up like a Christmas tree. Media vehicles surrounded the building. At the front entrance, two large Dallas police officers stood guard. Koike approached and called out, “Japanese journalist!” The guards allowed him to pass. As Koike did, he asked, “Are any Japanese here?” One of the guards responded, “A female Japanese journalist is here.”

 

Koike wondered, “What!? Is that really true?” He found it hard to believe that a female Japanese journalist had beat him to the scene, primarily because, in 1963, Japanese news agencies had yet to send a female correspondent to America.

 

Koike heard that a press room had been established on the third-floor, so he hurried up there. The third-floor was packed. He had to swim through a sea of reporters to get to the press room at the far end of the hallway. The press room was nothing special. There were three or four telephones and a small desk. The room was packed with reporters and cameramen. It was pure, noisy chaos; typewriters clattering, telephones ringing. The situation quickly became clear.

 

FIG. 2 – Reporter Hideo Koike in the third-floor hallway of police headquarters. Credit: WBAP-TV / G. William Jones Collection, Reel No. 5, Object No.2006.041.0007, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

The suspect in the assassination was Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old married man with children who worked as a warehouse clerk at the Texas School Book Depository, the apparent source of the shots. In addition to the assassination, Oswald was also suspected of murdering Dallas Patrolman J.D. Tippit who attempted to question him while he was on the run. Oswald had denied involvement in both crimes and had confessed to nothing.

 

Koike needed to call the Washington bureau of the Sankei newspapers but there wasn’t a single telephone available in the press room. Koike made his way back down the crowded third-floor hallway to the chief of police’s office.

 

“When I enter the room,” Koike wrote in his memoir, “there are about ten reporters gathered around. In a chair in the center of the room is a man in uniform, about 50-years-old, with a bulldog-like face, who is chatting casually with the reporters. When I explain my identity, he says, “I’m Chief Curry. Welcome,” and shakes my hand. When I ask, “Are there any Japanese reporters here?” he says, “You’re the only one.” [9]

 

Koike used a telephone in Chief Curry’s office to call the Sankei newspapers’ Washington Bureau. Correspondent Makoto Kawanago answered. Koike briefly explained that he had arrived in Dallas, that there were no other Japanese reporters there, and that the suspect was in custody at the police station.

 

A few minutes later, Chief Curry walked down the hall and joined Dallas District Attorney Henry M. Wade and Dallas Homicide Captain J. Will Fritz in the third-floor hallway. Together, they announced to the press that Oswald was being charged with the assassination of the president.

 

Koike made his first appearance on broadcast television at about 11:46 p.m., when he entered the field-of-view of a KRLD-TV camera positioned on the third-floor. Koike had just finished his telephone call to the Sankei newspaper and was attempting to make his way through the crowd toward the Homicide & Robbery Bureau office, where Curry, Fritz and Wade were gathered. But the crowd was so thick, he got no closer than the hallway drinking fountain. [10]

 

Reporters can be heard demanding to see Oswald and a press conference was hastily arranged in the basement assembly room.

 

Koike was among the reporters seen streaming passed two live broadcast television cameras as they made their way toward the basement assembly room. [11]

 

FIG. 3 – Four images of reporter Hideo Koike leaving the third-floor hallway, en route to the basement assembly room. Canadian reporter Peter Jennings is behind Koike. Jennings would later become the news anchor at ABC-TV. Credit: KRLD-TV Collection, Reel No. 23, Object No.1995.011.0200, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

A minute-and-a-half later, at 11:49:25 p.m., Koike was near the intersection of the third-floor hallway and the administration offices. He can be seen heading toward the grand-staircase which eventually leads to the basement assembly room. [12]

 

FIG. 4 – Panoramic composite image from news film of reporters gathered in the assembly room awaiting Oswald’s arrival. Koike is at right (arrow). Credit: KRLD-TV Collection, Reel No. 23, Object No.1995.011.0200, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza / Composite: Dale K. Myers

 

Midnight Press Conference

 

Just after midnight, nearly 100 reporters crowd into the basement assembly room – a room about the size of an elementary school classroom. Koike later wrote, “I tried to imagine what kind of man a suspected assassin of the president looked like. I couldn’t help but imagine a face resembling a gunfighter from a Western movie.” [13]

 

When Oswald entered the room, surrounded by homicide detectives, Koike couldn’t help but think, “Is this the man who killed the president? No way.” He looked more like a timid store clerk than a gunman.

 

The press corps shouted questions. In response, Oswald spoke in a surprisingly clear voice, proclaiming his innocence. Koike later wrote, “His voice was high-pitched and feminine. Under the intense TV lights and the heat of the press, his face began to sweat. As I listened to the back-and-forth between “Did he kill him?” and “No, he didn’t,” I began to think, “He did kill him, he’s the culprit.” It may be a small thing, but from my ten-years of experience as a reporter, I’ve noticed that criminals have a certain appearance. Also, when pressed about whether they killed someone, their mannerisms naturally reveal whether they’re lying or telling the truth. This is merely a hunch, but seeing Oswald up close and listening to his responses, I sensed something uniquely criminal lurking within this timid, emaciated man.” [14]

 

FIG. 5 – Lee Harvey Oswald at the midnight press conference. Credit: WBAP-TV / G. William Jones Collection, Reel No. 7, Object No.2006.041.0004, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

Reporters questioned Oswald less than three-minutes. As Oswald was led away, Dallas District Attorney began a make-shift press conference detailing the evidence against Oswald in the Kennedy assassination.

 

News reel footage captured Koike among the reporters listening to Wade answering questions. [15]

 

A frame from one particular WBAP-TV news film sequence, shot during the Wade press conference, became a Warren Commission exhibit. In the sequence, Koike can be seen standing on a table, high above other nearby reporters. Behind and to Koike’s right is Philadelphia Bulletin reporter John G. McCullough (wearing a fedora, pushed back on his head). To Koike’s immediate left is an unidentified photographer and Jack Ruby (wearing heavy, black-framed glasses). Below and to Koike’s left is Fort Worth Star Telegram photographer Anthony M. “Tony” Record, Forth Worth freelance cameraman Arthur M. “Dutch” Morrison, and WFAA-TV cameraman James R. Davidson. At the bottom-left of the frame is AP photographer Ferdinand Kaufman (looking to his left), and at bottom-right is another unidentified reporter (head bowed). [16]

 

FIG. 6 – Composite of Koike and others at the midnight press conference: (1) Philadelphia Bulletin reporter John G. McCullough, (2) Sankei Shimbun reporter Hideo Koike, (3) unidentified photographer, (4) Jack Ruby, (5) Fort Worth Star Telegram photographer Anthony M. “Tony” Record, (6) Forth Worth freelance cameraman Arthur M. “Dutch” Morrison, (7) WFAA-TV cameraman James R. Davidson, (8) AP photographer Ferdinand Kaufman, and (9) unidentified reporter. Credit: WBAP-TV / G. William Jones Collection, Reel No. 5, Object No.2006.041.0007, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

Koike later identified himself in the news film sequence, leaving no doubt it was him. [17]

 

At 12:27:42 a.m., Koike is seen in the basement assembly room, working his way through the crowd of reporters to get closer to Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. [18]

 

At the end of the press conference, at about 12:30:02 a.m., as Wade passes the KRLD-TV camera and leaves the assembly room, Koike is seen right alongside him, asking the Dallas District Attorney a direct question, though neither Koike’s question or Wade’s response are audible. [19]

 

As the KRLD-TV broadcast camera pans right to follow Wade, Jack Ruby can be seen following Wade out of the assembly room with reporter Hideo Koike immediately behind Ruby. All three men exit the room. [20]

 

FIG. 7 – Composite of Sankei Shimbun reporter Hideo Koike, Dallas District Attorney Henry M. Wade, and Jack Ruby (arrow) leaving the assembly room. Credit: WBAP-TV / G. William Jones Collection, Reel No. 5, Object No.2006.041.0007, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

After the press conference, Koike returned to the third-floor press room to contact the Washington Bureau of the Sankei newspaper. There wasn’t a spare phone to be had, so he left the building to find an outside phone. Koike spotted the White Plaza Hotel across the street from city hall, so he walked over and booked a room on the second-floor. From there, he telephoned the Washington Bureau and dictated his first report from the scene.

 

Sankei Shimbun | November 24, 1963

 

He feebly denies the crime.

Oswald is exhausted: Investigators are confident.

 

(Dallas, Texas, USA, November 23rd – Correspondent Tadashi Onodera) On the night of the 22nd, the Dallas Police Department in Texas officially changed the charges against Lee H. Oswald (24 years old), who had been arrested on suspicion of murdering a police officer, to the assassination of President Kennedy. Oswald was a surprisingly weak and effeminate man for a suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy.

 

The reporter participated in a special press conference with Oswald held at midnight on the 23rd (3:00 p.m. Japan time) in the basement of Dallas Police Department Headquarters, which was crowded with over 100 reporters.

 

The press conference lasted just two minutes. While investigators were already confident that Oswald was responsible, they were careful to note that he had not confessed and was merely a suspect before bringing him before the press corps.

 

Oswald appeared wearing a dirty white undershirt and a worn brown jacket, wrapping his small frame around 150cm.

 

He was confronted by a group of nervous reporters who thrust microphones at him and asked him pressing questions such as, “Are you the culprit?” and “How do you feel about killing the president?”

 

In response, Oswald repeatedly denied the crime, saying, “I didn’t do it. I don’t know anything.”

 

He kept his head down the whole time, muttered under his breath, and sounded almost inaudible, like an elementary school teacher. He seemed completely exhausted. He was the furthest thing from the image of a terrorist.

 

Investigative authorities then answered questions from reporters for 30 minutes.

• Oswald lived in the Soviet Union but had no direct ties to the Communist Party.
• On the 21st, the day before the crime, his wife saw him cleaning his rifle.
• Investigators are also confident that he is the culprit, based on the fact that employees at the Texas School Book Company, where the assassination took place, have determined that he was in the building at the time of the murder, even though he had left the company several months earlier.

The building where the fateful shot was fired at President Kennedy was located at the intersection of Dallas’ main street and the highway that leads to the suburbs. At the scene, a steady stream of cars continued to gather late into the night to express their condolences. Some people got out of their cars and stood on the road where the fateful shot was fired, offering a moment of silence and making the sign of the cross. Nearby, a group of young people was giving a speech.

 

“There could be no greater shame for America. The Soviet Union must be laughing at us. Dallas has become the graveyard of American freedom,” said one young man, waving his hand.

 

Ignoring all these people, the downtown shopping districts closed their doors as the sun set, their colorful Christmas choreography was quietly hidden in the darkened shop windows, and Catholic churches all held memorial masses to mourn the death of President Kennedy as Catholics.

 

It was striking that there was not a single black person among the crowd gathered at the scene. A recent poll in this town showed that one in two people recognized President Kennedy as a gentlemanly man.” [21]

 

Koike’s continued presence

 

On Saturday, November 23, 1963, television cameras captured Japanese reporter Hideo Koike’s presence throughout the day’s events – the early morning interview of DPD Deputy Chief M.W. Stevenson in the third-floor hallway, Oswald being led to and from the Homicide & Robbery office for further interrogation, multiple interviews of DPD Chief Jesse E. Curry, the interview of DPD Captain Glen D. King, Marina and Marguerite Oswald going up to the fifth-floor jail to talk with Lee Oswald, Marina and Marguerite Oswald leaving the third-floor to exit the building, Oswald emphatically denying the charges against him, and the evening interview of Dallas American Bar Association representative H. Louis Nichols. [22]

 

Eyewitness to murder

 

On Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, Koike walked over to city hall to cover the transfer of Oswald from the city jail to the county jail.

 

FIG. 8 – Sankei Shimbun reporter Hideo Koike (arrow) at the Commerce Street exit ramp just before the Oswald shooting. Credit: KRLD-TV Collection, Reel No. 14, Object No. 1995.011.0192, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

Koike was on hand as the armored truck arrived at the Commerce Street exit ramp and backed into place. Moments later, at 11:10 a.m., KRLD-TV live broadcast cameras captured Koike entering the ramp. [23]

 

He positioned himself at the base of the Commerce Street ramp, near the opening to the underground parking area, across from the area where Oswald was expected to emerge.

 

At 11:18:40 a.m., Koike, with an 8mm movie camera around his neck, took up a position behind and to the left of Detective William J. “Blackie” Harrison, at the base of the Main Street entrance ramp. [24]

 

Suddenly, at 11:20:53 a.m., [25] Oswald came out, sandwiched between two detectives. Koike later wrote in his memoir, “I had an 8mm movie camera with color film hanging from my neck. I’d already taken a few close-ups of Oswald with a black-and-white still camera [the previous day], but never on 8mm. He was a big shot: a suspected presidential assassin. It was dimly lit in the basement, and I thought I might not get a good shot, but I thought I’d give it a try. I picked up the 8mm camera and looked through the viewfinder. It was too dark, and the automatic exposure meter wouldn’t work. Just as I gave up and put the camera down, a man wearing a soft hat to my right took a step or two forward and thrust his right hand into Oswald’s side…

 

FIG. 9 – Sankei Shimbun reporter Hideo Koike (arrow) peeks around the left shoulder of Jack Ruby as Oswald comes into view (Frame 1), raises his 8mm movie camera to his eye (Frame 2), looks through the viewfinder as Ruby fires the fatal shot (Frame 3), lowers the camera from his eye (Frame 4), and recoils in horror as he realizes what has happened (Frame 5). Credit: KRLD-TV Collection, Reel No. 14, Object No. 1995.011.0192, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

“In an instant, the man shouted loudly, ‘You son-of-a-bitch!’ and at the same time there was a ‘BANG!’ sound.

 

“Oswald groaned and collapsed to the ground. He had been shot by the man to my right. The two detectives on either side of him stood there like sticks. For the first time in my life, I had seen a bullet fired at a living human being. It would be foolish to say I wasn’t surprised.

 

“Wow!” “Hey!”

 

“Screams rang out, and rifle-toting police and detectives surged toward me, roughly shoving me away. I nearly fell over. The man to my right and Oswald were pinned under the pile of police officers. From the human pyramid, an arm clutching a pistol shot out and approached me, aimed at my chest. I jumped back in shock, the pistol arm following behind. If the trigger was pulled, it would be the end of the world, the end of me, death. I tried to dodge the gun’s muzzle, but my legs got tangled and I couldn’t get free. The detective finally snatched the pistol away. This time was probably short, but it felt so long. I had no idea a gun’s muzzle could be so terrifying.

 

“After being pushed away by the police, I felt the need to pick up my black and white camera and film the scene, but I couldn’t. My body was shaking.

 

“Oswald is pulled out from under the human pyramid and lies on the concrete floor, clutching his stomach and writhing around, groaning. He must be in a lot of pain,” Koike later wrote. [26]

 

By the time Koike managed to get out of the basement garage, it was 11:33 a.m. He ran back to his hotel room and telephoned the Washington Bureau of Sankei newspapers. Special correspondent Kawanaka Makoto, a member of the bureau, answered the phone and took notes from Koike’s dictation. [27]

 

That same day (November 25th in Japan), the Tokyo and Osaka editions of the Sankei Newspaper evening edition, as well as their sister paper, the Osaka Newspaper, gave Koike’s eyewitness account front-page coverage.

 

Sankei Shimbun | November 25, 1963.

 

Oswald is shot dead

Assassination suspect: about to be transferred to a transport vehicle

 

(Dallas, Texas, USA, November 24th – Reporter: Hideo Koike) Lee H. Oswald (age 24), suspected in the assassination of U.S. President Kennedy, was shot with a small pistol by a citizen at approximately 11:15 a.m. on November 24th (2:15 a.m. Japan time on November 25th) as he was being loaded into a transport vehicle from the basement of the Dallas Police Department to the county jail.

 

The assailant, a nightclub owner named Jack Leon Rubinstein (aka Jack Ruby), was arrested on the spot. Oswald was immediately taken to Parkland Hospital and treated, but died shortly thereafter. This is the same hospital where President Kennedy died.

 

“You bastard!” he shouted.

 

Press it against the stomach and hit it. [28]

 

Eyewitness account

 

Lee Oswald, the prime suspect in the assassination of U.S. President Kennedy, was shot and killed with a pistol on the morning of the 24th just before being transferred from Dallas police to a transport vehicle for transfer to the county jail. Hideo Koike, a reporter for the Sankei Shimbun newspaper who happened to be studying in the United States, was in the city and stood right next to the assassin, Jack Ruby, and witnessed the vivid scene of the crime.

 

(Dallas, Texas, November 24th – Reporter Hideo Koike) It was a clear autumn day in Dallas, and early in the morning, churches across the city were holding memorial services for the late President Kennedy. Citizens listened to the ringing of church bells in deep sorrow.

 

Oswald, who continued to deny the crime, was being transferred from the police interrogation room on the third floor to the prison just after 11 a.m. He was led down the elevator by two plainclothes detectives, led by the chief of detectives, and taken to the underground garage where he was about to be loaded into a police van.

 

Around him were around 50 newspaper reporters, ordinary citizens, detectives, and uniformed police officers, and Oswald, clad only in a dirty shirt, sported his usual sarcastic smile. The moment a question was about to be asked by a reporter, a man to the right of this reporter in the front row jumped out. He yelled, “You bastard!” There was a loud thud, and Oswald groaned, clutching his stomach, and collapsed to the ground. The man pulled what appeared to be a small Colt pistol from his pocket, pressed it against Oswald's stomach, and fired a bullet.

 

The man was of medium height and slightly overweight. He looked like a gentleman, wearing a soft hat and a dark brown suit. No matter how you looked at him, he looked like a newspaper reporter.

 

The detectives tackled the man and arrested him. He was silent and would not let go of the pistol.

 

Meanwhile, Oswald was rushed to the emergency room and, five minutes later, was taken by ambulance to Parkland Hospital. As he was placed on a stretcher, his face was pale and he already showed signs of death.

 

Oswald was taken to the hospital where he died at 1:07 pm, just 10 feet from the room where President Kennedy died.

 

Police identified the man who shot Oswald as Jack Leon Rubinstein, 52, a Dallas nightclub owner.

 

Police were on high alert after Oswald’s arrest because there was a risk of him committing suicide. Police officers were present 24 hours a day while he was being interrogated in the detention center. The police were also wary of lynching’s by ordinary citizens. They required each journalist to submit a pass and requested that no one step beyond the designated line during press conferences and that they not ask Oswald any direct questions outside of designated sessions, which the journalists agreed to.

 

The police and prosecutors had concluded the day before that “Oswald acted alone,” but Oswald himself continued to deny it, so the press corps was getting nervous. The police said, “We thought Ruby was a journalist,” and the press corps assumed he was a detective. Reporters from Canada and South America were flocking to the police station one after another. The number of journalists was increasing every day. Meanwhile, the police had parked an armored vehicle at the entrance to the garage to block the entrance and prevent civilians from entering the station from the road.

 

Ruby’s motive for the crime is still unclear, but some believe it was a personal crime motivated by hatred for Oswald, who assassinated President Kennedy. He was a nightclub owner in Dallas and was known in the city as a member of the Yakuza (gangster) gang. He has had trouble with the police before.

 

He is said to have come from Chicago a few years ago, is white, single, and has an active and short temper. [29]

 

On Monday, November 25 (November 26th in Japan), the Sankei Newspaper ran a third article submitted by Hideo Koike.

 

Sankei Shimbun | November 26, 1963

Scene of the tragedy: The Citizens of Dallas

(Dallas, Texas, USA, November 25th – Reporter Hideo Koike) The city of Dallas, Texas, the crossroads between the West and South of the United States, became the scene of a tragic tragedy that claimed the lives of three people in just 50 hours. The perpetrators of this tragedy were a president, a police officer, a self-proclaimed communist, and a leader of the underworld.

“Of course, he’ll be killed.”

A strong hatred for Oswald.

According to a poll conducted before the late President Kennedy visited the town, one in two citizens expressed strong opposition to policies that granted equal rights to black people. When the incident occurred, people were under the impression that the president had been killed on enemy territory. However, ironically, Oswald, who was arrested as a suspect in the assassination, was not an anti-black conservative, but a self-proclaimed communist.

This reporter asked people in Dallas if they felt responsible for the incident. The majority of them surprisingly answered, “I don’t feel responsible.” This was because “Oswald was a communist, a man from a different world who had no friends with the people of Dallas.”

But the impression journalists got from Oswald’s press conference immediately after his arrest and before his murder was that he was more of an emotional, vulnerable American citizen than a Communist. Forty hours after his arrest, the man was shot dead in full view of newspaper reporters and police by nightclub owner Ruby “Rubinstein.”

Ruby has been arrested by police several times for illegal gun possession and violent acts. Nicknamed the ‘Chicago Cowboy,’ he is a well-known underworld boss even among police officers. His associates describe him as “cheerful, active, and short-tempered, a man of justice.”

During police questioning, he explained his motives, saying, “I just killed our enemy. I couldn’t stand Oswald’s unfair behavior.” However, authorities announced, “His actions were nothing more than grandstanding, and we will be seeking the death penalty.”

After Oswald was killed, when the opinions of the large crowd of ordinary citizens gathered in front of the police were sought, most people supported his actions, saying, “He deserved to be killed,” and “Rubinstein merely revoked the death penalty on behalf of the court,” and asked the reporter to describe what happened at that moment. When the reporter said that Oswald groaned in pain and collapsed, the men waved their cowboy hats and the women cheered.

Dallas is a modern commercial city with a population of 700,000 and many modern buildings, but the tragedy that took place there began with a rifle attack and ended with a pistol lynching, just like in the old pioneer days. Two stories comforted the reporter during this time.

One was the phone call from Washington from President Johnson and the Kennedy family to offer condolences to the family of the police officer who was shot and killed while questioning Oswald. The death of this police officer was swept away by a wave of big news stories, and even the local people for a moment forgot about it.

Another thing is that when Oswald was taken to the hospital and died, the doctor there announced to the press, “Mr. Oswald is dead.” Since his arrest, Oswald, the suspect in the assassination, had never been called “Mister.” [30]

 

With regard to the early cries of conspiracy, Koike later wrote in his memoir, “I myself was very attracted to the idea of a grand conspiracy theory, but when the local paper investigated so diligently and nothing of note came out of it, I thought I had to be honest about the facts. If I came up with a grand conspiracy theory, the head office desk might jump on it, but I couldn’t write an article based on unsubstantiated speculation. The Washington bureau had told me to send them any stories I had, since grand conspiracy theories were circulating in Japan as well, but I didn’t send any because I didn’t have any.” [31]

 

Unraveling the mystery

 

One of the earliest questions about the identity of the Japanese man standing near Jack Ruby at the midnight press conference appeared in the 1992 book, “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” wherein author Dick Russell suggested that the mysterious male might have a connection to Oswald.

 

Russell insinuated that Oswald’s connections with the Japanese, while stationed at the Atsugi Naval Air Base in the late 1950s, may have continued in some clandestine manner into late 1963. Russell never fully developed exactly what that connection might have been, but clearly, he thought that the as-yet unidentified Japanese man at the press conference was part of it. [32]

 

Russell also thought it suspicious that in January 1964, the Japanese government dispatched a special security agent, identified as Atsuyuki Sassa, from Tokyo’s National Police Agency to the United States to “join quietly with the American FBI in its investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy.” [33]

 

FIG. 10 – An FBI cablegram and Japanese National Police Superintendent Sassa Atsuyuki in the 1990s. Credit: National Archives at College Park, MD

 

The same theme was picked up in Jack R. Swike’s 2008 book, “The Missing Chapter: Lee Harvey Oswald in the Far East,” in which Swike wrote about Atsuyuki Sassa and the “mystery of the Asian journalist, or someone posing as a journalist.” [34]

 

The 1964 U.S. News and World Report article about Sassa’s trip to the FBI caused an unnecessary stir as it was quickly revealed that the Japanese security agent was only seeking information that might help the Japanese government prevent a similar attack in his own country and that Sassa’s contact with the FBI had nothing to do with Oswald, his military posting at Atsugi Naval Air Base, or the FBI’s on-going assassination investigation. [35]

 

Despite the fact that his contact with the FBI occurred from February 26 to March 26, 1964, Atsuyuki Sassa was later identified by some assassination researchers as the mysterious Japanese “policeman” seen standing near Jack Ruby on the night of November 22, 1963. The claim was short-lived, however, having been rejected by more informed scholars.

 

It was puzzling that even after sixty-plus years, no one had identified the young Japanese reporter standing just a few feet away from Jack Ruby on the night of the assassination.

 

While working on a project involving films and photographs taken during the assassination weekend, I ran across the news film that depicted the unidentified Japanese man standing near Ruby. Who was he? I decided that it was time to find out, once and for all.

 

In September, 2025, researcher Fred Litwin posted an article on his website [36] in which Litwin gave a ‘hat tip’ to Hideji Okina regarding an excerpt from Stanley Karnow’s book, “Vietnam: A History.” Okina, a longtime Japanese researcher, had been a frequent poster on the many of the early JFK forums and even on my own blog-site for many years. There had been several occasions over the years when I wanted to reach out to Okina to assist me in helping to identify the Japanese reporter who appears near Jack Ruby, as well as several other Asian-looking men who appear in archival images taken at Dallas Police Headquarters, but I had no way to contact him as his email was masked by Google when posting on my blog. It occurred to me that Litwin might have his contact info, so I reached out to him. [37]

 

Sure enough, Litwin had an email address for Okina. I immediately wrote to Okina and discovered that he had unlocked the identity of the mystery man nearly 40-years ago.

 

Okina expressed surprise that American researchers did not know that the Japanese man standing near Jack Ruby was a reporter named Hideo Koike, who was working for the Sankei Shimbun newspapers in 1963. Koike had identified himself in his own 1985 self-published book, “Private Edition: The Kennedy Assassination Chronicles.” [38]

 

FIG. 11 – Sankei Shimbun reporter Hideo Koike and his 1985 book. Graphic: Dale K. Myers

 

Armed with the name, I quickly did a search of all U.S. newspapers and found four articles (some with pictures) regarding Hideo Koike’s travels throughout the United States shortly before the assassination. The Idaho Daily Statesman published a photograph of Koike in their July 30, 1963 edition. No question about it; Koike was the same man that would appear in news film, four months later, standing near Jack Ruby. I immediately responded to Okina, sending him copies of the newspaper articles along with images of Koike at Dallas police headquarters, culled from archival broadcast television tapes. [39]

 

FIG. 12 – Sankei Shimbun reporter Hideo Koike in July, 1963. Credit: The Idaho Daily Statesman / Newspapers.com

 

Upon receipt of the material, Okina offered to translate relevant portions of Koike’s 1985 book as well as to do additional research at Japan’s National Diet Library (NDL). The NDL, founded in 1948, is one of the largest libraries in the world and is comparable to the United States Library of Congress. I told him that his efforts would be very much appreciated! [40]

 

Okina became interested in the Kennedy assassination at the age fourteen, and like many newcomers to the subject, believed in many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination. However, when he visited Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination, in 1993 at the age of thirty, he was shocked by how small the plaza actually was, and immediately realized that claims of a sniper firing from in front of the motorcade or from the grassy knoll couldn’t possibly be true.

 

In late September, 2025, Okina reported that he had been to the NDL and “checked all of the articles in the major Japanese newspapers and the weekly magazines published by those newspapers,” from November 22, 1963, onwards. [41]

 

The Sankei Shimbun (newspaper) published three articles starting on November 24th:

• November 24th: Reporter Hideo Koike’s (attributed to correspondent Tadashi Onodera) report of Oswald’s press conference.
• November 25th: Reporter Hideo Koike’s report of Ruby’s eyewitness account of Oswald’s murder.
• November 26th: Reporter Koike’s interviews with Dallas residents.

Okina believed that Tadashi Onodera might be one of the three other Japanese reporters who appear in archival broadcast television images. [42]

 

A U.S. newspaper search turned up a photograph of a “Tadashi Onodera” among a group of nine Japanese educators on a two-day visit to Los Angeles in September, 1963, sponsored by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. There was no connection to the Sankei Shimbun newspaper chain (or any Japanese newspaper for that matter), and no reason to believe that the man pictured in the newspaper was the same man seen in Dallas television images, despite a slight resemblance. As it turns out, “Tadashi Onodera” is a common name. [43]

 

More important, Okina’s English translation of the three articles published in the Sankei Shimbun, shows that the first article, attributed to correspondent Tadashi Onodera, was a vivid description of the midnight press conference that could only have originated from Hideo Koike! By Koike’s own account, there were no other Japanese correspondents present at Dallas police headquarters on Friday night, nor do any other Japanese correspondents appear in photographs, news films, or live broadcast recordings. In fact, archival KRLD-TV broadcast videotapes, capturing a view of the assembly room from the only door in or out of the room shows just one Japanese reporter in the assembly room that night – Hideo Koike.

 

I can only conclude that when Koike telephoned the Washington Bureau of the Sankei Shimbun and dictated his report from his hotel room in the early morning hours of November 23, that his notes were ultimately written-up by correspondent Tadashi Onodera and that when the story went to print, Onodera was credited.

 

In mid-October, 2025, Okina completed an English translation of pertinent portions of Hideo Koike’s 1985 self-published book, “Private Edition: The Kennedy Assassination Chronicles,” and sent me the translation. It is a fascinating, detailed account of Koike’s arrival in Dallas as well as the investigative actions he took throughout the weekend of the assassination. He confirmed, of course, that he was the Japanese reporter standing near Jack Ruby at the midnight press conference and that he was the only Japanese reporter in Dallas on Friday night.

 

He did offer a clue to the possible identity of two other Japanese reporters captured in archival broadcast images on Saturday, November 23, 1963.

 

“As I was chatting in the press room [on Saturday],” Koike wrote, “I heard a voice from behind me ask in Japanese, ‘Are you from Japan?’ I turned around and saw two Japanese reporters standing there. ‘Yes, we’re from Sankei,’ I replied, and they introduced themselves as reporters from the Mainichi Shimbun (newspaper) and NHK (Japan’s Broadcast Radio and Television Network). They then said with a puzzled look, ‘I’ve never seen you here before, either in Washington or New York.’ That’s only natural. Since they’re not correspondents, they’re not part of the Japanese correspondent community. They’re outsiders, unknown to their fellow correspondents. The two sarcastically commented, ‘Sankei has an unexpected “hidden card”.’… After inspecting the scene and the town, the two returned to the police station, but as there didn’t appear to be any new news to report, they decided to head back to Washington and left the press room. [44]

 

Indeed, five archival television broadcasts do show two Japanese reporters (and possibly a third) passing through the third-floor hallway on Saturday, November 23, 1963. All five sequences occur between 10:30 a.m. and 1:10 p.m.

 

FIG. 13 – An unidentified Japanese cameraman (left) and his Japanese companion in the third-floor hallway of Dallas police headquarters on Saturday, November 23, 1963. These two men could be the NHK-TV and Mainichi Shimbun (newspaper) reporters Koike met in the press room Saturday. Credit: KRLD-TV Collection, Reel No.73, Object No. 1995.011.0246, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

 

In the first sequence, a Japanese cameraman carrying a three-turret 16mm news film camera approaches a KRLD-TV live broadcast camera in third-floor hallway, and stops to shake hands with an unidentified man wearing a fedora. [45]

 

In the second sequence, a man who could possibly be a third Japanese reporter walks down hallway, passing a WFAA-TV live broadcast camera. [46]

 

In the third and fourth sequence, a tall, thin Japanese man wearing glasses walks down the hallway, toward a WFAA-TV live broadcast camera. A moment later, he returns walking back down the hallway toward the press room. [47]

 

In the fifth sequence, the Japanese cameraman and his tall, thin Japanese companion (wearing glasses), follow Marina and Marguerite Oswald to the third-floor public elevators, which the women take up to the visitor’s ward to see Lee Oswald. The Japanese men appear to photograph the two women while they wait for the elevator. After the women enter the left-most elevator car and depart, the two Japanese men enter the right-most elevator car and leave the floor. [48]

 

The Japanese men are not seen again in any photographs or videotaped broadcast footage, conforming with Koike’s recollection that the two men he met in the press room left the police department on Saturday and returned to Washington.

 

Although there’s no way to know for sure, it could be that the Japanese cameraman and his tall, thin companion might be the two men referred to by Koike – the cameraman being the one affiliated with the NHK broadcast radio and television network and the tall bespectacled companion associated with the Mainichi Shimbun (newspaper). Further research will need to be done to reject or confirm such speculation.

 

A dream fulfilled

 

For more than 25-years, Hideo Koike’s dreamed of having his story commercially published and made available to the world at large.

 

In the early 1970s, Koike wrote an account of his experiences titled “Five Days in Dallas.” In an effort to get it noticed, Koike submitted it to a non-fiction competition sponsored by the famous Japan publisher Bungeishunju. Four-hundred and fifty-two applicants submitted entries and just twenty-five – including Koike’s – passed the first preliminary round. Unfortunately, in May 1971, Koike’s submission was eliminated from the competition.

 

FIG. 14 – Koike’s article in Man and Japan Magazine, Oct.1973. Credit: NDL / Graphic: Dale K. Myers

 

Two years later, Koike again submitted “Five Days in Dallas” to a publisher. This time it was the monthly Japanese magazine Man and Japan. Success! The magazine published Koike’s story in their October, 1973 issue.

 

Encouraged by the publication, Koike made efforts to get it published in book form.

 

But after twelve years, and with little interest from the commercial publishing houses, Koike went ahead and self-published his article in book form in 1985 as Private Edition: The Kennedy Assassination Chronicles.

 

The sales from his self-published work eventually led to renewed interest in his story and in the last year of his life, Koike finally realized his 25-year dream – a 1996 commercially published edition of Private Edition: The Kennedy Assassination Chronicles. [49]

 

No longer would the story of the bespectacled young Japanese reporter in Dallas be a mystery. His rightful place in history had been secured; his dream fulfilled. [END]