Paul McCartney in Japan 1980: drugs, gevangenis, deportatie

Inleiding

Paul McCartney werd op 16 januari 1980 gearresteerd in Tokio, Japan. Het werd al snel wereldnieuws. Het had ook gevolgen voor het verdere verloop van McCartney’s carrière en de toekomst van Wings.

Cannabis

Paul McCartney was nooit de grote drugsgebruiker. Hij heeft wat geëxperimenteerd met pillen, wellicht andere poeder, maar nooit in grote hoeveelheden en, voor zover bekend, is hij niet de grote verslaafde geweest, zoals er zovelen waren over de jaren heen.

Wel had McCartney al snel (vanaf 1964) een voorliefde voor cannabis. Deze liefde werd gedeeld door zijn partner en vrouw Linda McCartney. McCartney werd begin 1972 voor het eerst opgepakt voor zijn cannabis gebruik, in Zweden, en na betaling van een boete kon hij weer door. Later werden de McCartneys aangesproken op het verbouwen van cannabis op hun landgoed. In beide gevallen stelden ze dat ze goeder trouw iets hadden gekregen van fans. Waarschijnlijk wisten de autoriteiten zelf ook wel dat dit niet juist was, maar wilden ze het risico niet lopen ze te arresteren en op te sluiten, bang als ze waren voor een mediacircus, zoals dat in 1967 met The Rolling Stones was gebeurd, waar met name Mick Jagger als overwinnaar uit de bus kwam, zeker in de ogen van het publiek. Ook in 1975 werden de McCartneys gearresteerd (in de VS) en nam Linda McCartney de schuld op zich, die na betaling van een boete werd vrijgelaten.

Paul McCartney – Cannabis in de bagage

In 1975 wilde Wings optreden in Japan, als onderdeel van de wereldtournee die de band detijds deed. De aanvraag voor een visum voor McCartney werd geweigerd, met name vanwege de arrestatie voor bezit van cannabis in 1972 in Zweden. Vier jaar later vroeg McCartney opnieuw een visum aan (voor de geplande Wings tour in januari 1980) en deze keer werd deze wel uitgegeven.

Paul McCartney, vrouw en kinderen en de Wings bandleden arriveren op 16 januari 1980 op Tokyo Narita Airport, Japan. Tijdens de controle van de bagage ontdekt een douanier 219 gram cannabis in McCartney’s koffer.

Wereldnieuws, ook in Nederland: Paul McCartney – de Volkskrant 17-01-1980

Arrestatie

McCartney werd gearresteerd, geboeid, ondervraagd en, na overleg met de autoriteiten, overgebracht naar de gevangenis, waar hij als gevangene #22 werd opgesloten. De rest van het gezelschap werd in een hotel ondergebracht. Japanse wetten rondom drugsbezit en -gebruik waren extreem streng, zeker in vergelijking met de wijze waarop hier in Europa en delen van de VS mee werd omgegaan. Destijds stond op het bezit van cannabis een (maximum) straf van zeven jaar gevangenis en dwangarbeid.

Een dag na de arrestatie maakte het management van Wings bekend dat de geplande en uitverkochte Japanse tour, die zou plaatsvinden van 21 januari tot en met 2 februari, was afgelast. Op 21 januari vertrokken de bandleden van Wings naar andere oorden (later bleek dat McCartney dat niet heeft gewaardeerd).

Paul McCartney – Telegram George Harrison & Brief Lee “Scratch” Perry – 21-01-1980

Telegram & brief

Op diezelfde dag ontvingen de McCartneys een telegram van George Harrision en werd een brief van reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry afgeleverd bij het Japanse Ministerie van Justitie.

Telegram

Thinking of you all with love. Keep your spirits high. Nice to have you back home again soon. God bless. Love, George And Olivia

Telegram George Harrison, 21-01-1980

Brief

Dear Sirs,

I LEE PIPECOCK JACKSON PERRY would LOVE to express my concern over your consideration of one quarter kilo to be an excessive amount of herbs in the case as it pertains to master PAUL McCARTNEY.

As a creator of nature’s LOVE, light, life and all things under the creation sun, positive feelings through songs, good times and no problems. I find the Herbal powers of marijuana in its widely recognized abilities to relax, calm and generate positive feeling a must.

Herbs is his Majesty’s. All singers positive directions and liberty Irrations. Please do not consider the amount of herbs involved excessive.

Master PAUL McCARTNEY’s intentions are positive.

Brief Lee “Scratch” Perry, 21-01-1980

Paul McCartney – Het Parool 26-01-1980

Vrijlating

Op 25 januari 1980 werd Paul McCartney vrijgelaten en het land uitgezet. Net als zijn arrestatie was ook de vrijlating weer wereldnieuws. De Japanse aanklager stelde dat McCartney de marihuana voor zijn eigen gebruik had meegneomen en dat hij inmiddels genoeg was gestraft. Om 16:00 verliet McCartney het politie bureau. Iets meer dan een uur later was hij weer op het vliegveld, waar hij pas nadat hij in het vliegtuig zat, werd hernigd met zijn familie.

Op 26 januari 1980 landde het vliegtuig uit Japan op het Amsterdamse Schiphol. De toegang tot Nederland werd McCartney ontzegd, maar toch kon hij worden geinterviewed voor de Nederlandse televisie:

What happened ?
I was in jail for 10 days, didn’t you hear it?

Yes indeed… How did you get out?
How I did get out… Walking on foot.

What did the authorities do?
They dropped the charges.

Why?
Don’t ask me, ask them.

Don’t you know?
Yeah, it was because it was not considered… (pausing)… l don’t know. They just told me today that I get out…

Any idea of the consequences on the whole thing?
How do you mean?

Financially…
Yeah, you know…it’s a bit of a drag financially and stuff.

Do you think you’ll ever go back to Japan?
I don’t know.

You want to go?
Maybe… I’m not sure.

You left disappointed fans over there.
True but I’m disappointed too, so that makes two of us.

Isn’t it usual that somebody else carries the drugs for you into the country?
No, do you do that?

No, but that’s what I heard.
You hear a lot of things in the newspapers that aren’t true….and on TV.

How was your treatment in jail?
It was okay, it was not bad but it was a drag being in there.

Last question, what are you going to do now?
Sleep….and go home.

Paul McCartney – Persmoment Waterfall Estate, Woodlands Farm, Essex 27-01-1980

Thuis

Na een korte stop vloog McCartney door naar Engeland en ging, met zijn familie, op weg naar zijn huis. Hij schreef zijn verhaal op in een manuscript, dat hij de titel Japanese Jailbird meegaf. Volgens zeggen bestond het uit meer dan 20.000 woorden. McCartney heeft er publiekelijk nooit iets mee willen doen. Destijds stelde hij dat hij het had geschreven voor zichzelf en zijn kinderen, die alles van dichtbij hadden meegemaakt. In 2014 werd bekend dat McCartney’s kinderen een kopie van Japanese Jailbird hebben gekregen en dat daar niets mee mag worden gedaan zolang McCartney leeft.

Terugblik

Op 20 februari 1980 werd in Rolling Stone magazine een artikel/interview geplaatst, geschreven door Caroline Dale en Paul Gambaccini.

“This sceptered isle has never looked so good. I have never appreciated so much being able to walk in the woods and breathe English air.”

The speaker was neither Wordsworth nor Keats, but Paul McCartney. Prisoner “22” was happy to be home on his eight-acre farm in Sussex after spending almost ten days in a Japanese detention cell. The ex-Beatle had been arrested on January 16th by customs officers at Tokyo International airport for carrying almost 220 grams of marijuana – worth about $2000 on the Tokyo streets.

McCartney, now the world’s most famous pot smoker, was deported by Japan and flown to England via Anchorage and Amsterdam. He had hoped to spend a day or two resting in Holland [!], but Dutch authorities considered McCartney a deportee in transit and would not let him leave the airport transfer area (although they welcomed him to return after first touching English soil). He then flew by private jet to Lydd Airport in the County of Kent, just across the English Channel and near the family farm.

Though McCartney was, in fact, a deportee, his legal team seemed glad deportation was the worst of his troubles. “We were so lucky,” McCartney’s lawyer in Japan, Tasuku Matsuo, kept repeating after Paul left that country.

Japanese law is not known for its lenient treatment of drug offenders. And although McCartney spent time in jail and Wings was forced to cancel its long-awaited tour of Japan, in the end the Tokyo district prosecutor released him and rid him of all criminal charges. Since he was deported without charge or conviction, he should be able to enter the U.S. without difficulty.

The prosecutor’s decision was reportedly based on McCartney’s inadequate information on the legal status of marijuana in Japan and the prosecutor’s judgement that the detention and concert cancellation were ample punishment. Some speculated that an indictment was simply more trouble than a deportation. Matsuo said an important factor was McCartney’s claim that the marijuana found in his suitcase was for his personal use.

But according to John Eastman, McCartney’s lawyer and brother-in-law, Paul was deported because his visa was lifted when he was arrested and he was technically an illegal alien. Eastman had flown to Japan from New York to help sort out the complex legal problems facing McCartney and Wings.

After the arrest, the district prosecutor had ordered McCartney detained at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department while he decided what legal course to take. About fifty fans, mostly high school girls, kept vigil outside the station, singing Beatles and Wings songs and calling “Poru, Poru.”

“At first I thought it was barbaric,” said McCartney, back in England, about his time in jail. “I was woken up at six in the morning, then had to sit cross-legged for a roll-call. It was like ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’. They shouted out “22” in Japanese, and I had to shout back, “Hai.”

“I became matey with a chap next door,” McCartney told the London Daily Mirror. “He could speak a bit of English. Funnily enough, he was inside for smuggling pot.”

McCartney sang with the five prisoners with whom he shared a communal bath, working up renditions of “When the Red, Red Robin,” “Take this Hammer,” and, upon his mates’ special request, “Yesterday.”

But he spent most of his time alone in a four-man cell or answering questions about his case from officials of the Japanese Ministry of Finance, Health, and Justice. At night, he slept on a Japanese-stye mattress. Although officials denied his request for a guitar, or pen and paper to use for writing songs, they did allow McCartney to follow his vegetarian diet. He was even able to buy extra fruit and vegetables from the police.

According to Matsuo, Linda McCartney was visited her husband twice, and the couple amused the guards by pretending to kiss and touch hands through the glass that separated them. While detained, McCartney made a paper-clip wedding ring, since his real one was confiscated. “It’s the sort of gesture Linda and I will look back on rather romantically,” he said. The ten-day separation was the longest McCartney and his wife had been apart since their marriage almost eleven years ago. “It was terribly hard for Linda and it was terribly hard for me.”

In Japan, Linda took the couple’s four children around Tokyo and shopped for food to make vegetarian sandwiches, which she delivered to the police station daily. (McCartney responded by sending bouquets of flowers to his wife via Matsuo.) Linda spoke to the press once with Matsuo, Eastman and British promoter Harvey Goldsmith, appearing relaxed and vowing not to leave Paul alone in Japan, even if it meant waiting for years.

Also falling victim to the bust, of course, was Wings’ tour of Japan. The band had been scheduled to play eleven concerts, and around 90,000 were sold within a few days. For Udo Artists, the Japanese tour promoters, the affair turned into what one spokesman described as a “nightmare.” Udo claimed losses of about $2.5 million from the tour’s cancellation.

“Paul paid Udo every penny they were owed,” said Eastman, once back in New York; he would not reveal just how much that was. “Everyone involved with the tour was fully compensated. No one lost any money, except, of course, Paul. And nobody had to wait for their money. It was all taken care of before Paul left Japan.” (McCartney told Eastman he would still like to tour Japan if officials allow him to return.)

As for whether the affair gave McCartney second thoughts about marijuana, he said, “Yeah, and third. The whole thing was too severe. Marijuana is not as dangerous as some people make it. A lot of people, especially younger people, know that. In America, even president Carter, when asked, said he favored decriminalization. We’re all on drugs, cigarettes, whisky. I was in jail for ten days, but I didn’t go crazy because I wasn’t able to have marijuana. I can take it or leave it.”

But McCartney told the London Sun, “I was really scared thinking I might be in prison for so long…and now I have made up my mind never to touch the stuff again. From now on, all I’m going to smoke is straightforward fags. No more pot.”

Some people thought McCartney had provided a bad example for his young fans. Bertram Parker, head of Paul’s old school, the Liverpool Institute for Boys, was quoted saying so in the English press. Asked about the criticism, McCartney said, “They’ve been saying that about me for years. I have always been accused of setting bad examples. I think a lot of people set worse examples, like governments. They set an incredibly bad example.”

McCartney’s ordeal was an immediate sideshow in Britain. The day after his arrest, he was frontpage news on every tabloid, taking up the entire lead page of the Daily Mail. PAUL IN CHAINS, the headline screamed, above a picture of the handcuffed musician. Television reports from Japan were broadcast nightly.

In Japan, the national press reacted to the case with varying degrees of ridicule. McCartney was generally portrayed as either too ignorant to know the severity of Japanese drug laws or too arrogant to care about them. But if the Japanese dailies showed little sympathy, the weekly gossip magazines seemed downright anti-Paul. “Our Hero Betrayed Us,” read one headline.

Eastman, however, had nothing but kind words for the Japanese. “They’re very decent and civilized people. They wanted everyone to save face.”

Despite the mass interest in both countries, however, there was little public action in either. The Wings fan club in Japan collected a thousand signatures demanding McCartney’s release. A few pro-Paul fans turned up at the deserted Budokan on the night of the scheduled concert and annonced to reporters they were refusing a refund and keeping their tickets as a symbolic gesture. Although English fans were less demonstrative, McCartney’s release sent a wave of relief through the country. The London Sunday Times ran a front-page cartoon of a smiling politician saying, “Thank goodness something went right this week.”

The last word, though, must be McCartney’s. “All I want to do now is get home,” he reportedly said on the plane from Japan, “and hear the grass grow.”

Caroline Dale & Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 28-02-1980

De laatste opmerking is grappig, omdat cannabis ook vaak “grass” wordt genoemd. Geen idee of dat door McCartney ook zo is bedoeld. Wat wel zeker is, is dat zijn cannabis dagen nog lang niet voorbij waren. Volgens meerdere bronnen stopte McCartney met cannabis gebruik na de geboorte van zijn vierde kind, in 2003.

Paul McCartney – Japanse pers 1980

Waarom?

Gezien de problemen die hij al had met toegang tot het land in 1975 en de strenge wetten die daar golden, is de vraag waarom McCartney überhaupt cannibis meenam en dan ook nog in zulke hoeveelheden? Later heeft hij wel eens gezegd dat hij niet op de hoogte was van de strenge wetten, maar dat klinkt niet echt geloofwaardig.

Wellicht had McCartney het gevoel dat hij boven de wet stond, mede vanwege zijn Beatles verleden? Of is het omdat Yoko Ono de Japanse autoriteiten tipte dat McCartney een grootgebruiker was, een broodje-aap verhaal dat destijds de ronde deed? Of was McCartney onbewust bezig met sabotage van Wings, de groep waar hij toch al over twijfelde en geen energie meer van kreeg? Hier had hij een perfecte smoes gevonden om dat proces te versnellen.

De laatste woorden zijn voor McCartney:

Well, to this day I have no idea what made me do it. I don’t know if it was just arrogance or what. Maybe I thought that they wouldn’t open my suitcase… I can’t put myself back into that mindset now.

I could almost persuade myself I was framed. I don’t think I was, but when you see the news footage – the guy opens the suitcase and there, right on top… It’s like a pop-up book – here, check this!

It was the maddest thing in my life – to go into Japan, which has a seven-year hard labour penalty for pot, and be so free and easy. I put a bloody great bag of the stuff right on the top of my suitcase. Why didn’t I even hide it in a pullover? I look at the footage now, and I just think, ‘That couldn’t have been me’

Paul McCartney, Wingspan, 2002

Paul McCartney – Aankomst/transfer Schiphol Amsterdam 26-01-1980

Throughout my life, I’ve had a few of those “Oh dear, Oh God!” moments when I’ve gone too far and paid the price. I’m like some bloody Liverpool sailor that’s been to all these ports and brought back all these parrots. I’ve seen and done a lot of things and I feel good about most of it. I feel a bit stupid about some of it. Getting busted in Japan was right up there in terms of stupidity.

I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass. Excellent stuff. We were about to fly to Japan and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet. So I thought I’d take it with me. I was so warned against doing it. But I thought, “What the hell!” I was incredibly cavalier about the whole thing. In America, President Carter had come out and said he thought cannabis should be decriminalised. Maybe I was thinking, “Hey, it’s no big deal.” In my mind, I was only doing what everyone else was doing. It was like everyone was nicking sweets from the school tuck shop and I happened to be the one who got my collar felt.

Looking back, it’s not too wonderful being banged up in a Japanese jail. When I first arrived I was thinking, “This is a storm in a teacup, I’ll be out in no time.” Then the British Vice-Consul told me I could get seven years of hard labour. That’s when it got extremely worrying. I couldn’t sleep for the first three days. It was five days before Linda was allowed to visit me and I’d never spent a night apart from her since we’d married. It was pretty rough. Just a thin mattress on the floor. I had to wash using water from the toilet cistern. I had to share a bath with a bloke who was in for murder. I was afraid to take my suit off in case I got raped. But I’d seen all those prisoner-of-war movies and I knew you had to keep your spirits up. So I’d organise sing-songs with the other prisoners.

I had no idea at the time what the reaction around the world was. Some of it was obviously disapproving. But there was also a bit of, “Hello, Paul’s been a naughty boy, good for him.” For me, the most stupid thing about it all was that I put other people at risk. I’m the Liverpool sailor, right? It’s OK if I get nobbled in Morocco – I can handle that. But I’m married with kids and getting nobbled in Morocco – that just won’t do. Without doubt, it was the daftest thing I’ve done in my entire life.

Of course, it’s now one of the things I’m remembered for. Just the other day, I went for a walk on my own in the Hollywood Hills. This bunch of teenagers passed by me. One t of them turned to me and said, “Hey, Macca, you’re the man! Fancy joining us for a smoke?” To me, it’s a huge compliment that a bunch of kids think I might be up to smoke a bit of dope with them.

Paul McCartney, UNCUT magazine interview, juli 2004

Voor wie er geen genoeg van kan krijgen, hierbij een video met nieuwsitems uit 1980.