Hanging little
consolation to slain kids' parents
Takuma's
failure to apologize on way to the gallows means little
closure or relief for bereaved
The
Japan Times: Sept. 15, 2004
OSAKA (Kyodo) Parents
of the eight children slain in the June 2001 Osaka school
massacre expressed mixed feelings Tuesday over news that
the killer, Mamoru Takuma, was hanged earlier in the
day.
Yuki Tsukamoto, whose
7-year-old daughter, Kana, was among the eight children
stabbed to death by Takuma at Osaka Kyoiku University
Elementary School in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, said the
execution will not ease her hatred toward the
killer.
"The only change is
that I will no longer have to feel frustrated that Takuma
is still alive," Tsukamoto said.
Masako Totsuka, who
lost her 6-year-old son, Takahiro, in the massacre, said
the execution does not mean anything special to
her.
"I regret that
(Takuma) lacked a sense of atonement up to the final
moment," she said.
Many of the parents
wished to remain anonymous and some declined
comment.
The mother of a
7-year-old girl slain by Takuma said the execution brought
some sense of closure but no relief.
"(The execution) again
brought home the reality that my daughter is no longer
alive. I would not have had to feel this way had there been
no Takuma," she said.
A relative of one of
the victims said he wondered if Takuma had uttered any
apology before he was hanged.
"We made our
statements in court, but I wonder if our feelings reached
him," the relative said.
The father of another
slain 7-year-old girl said: "Takuma vowed to say everything
when he walked to the gallows, so what happened? I'm not
sure what I think (of the execution) if he was hanged
without offering words of apology."
The memory of the
massacre was still fresh in the school's
neighborhood.
"I cannot forget the
image of a boy with a bloodstained shirt running out the
school gate. It is only natural that Takuma was executed. I
believe (justice was swift) in consideration of the
sentiments of the victimized," said Kimiko Sasaki, 65, the
proprietress of a coffee shop near the
school.
A 53-year-old woman
recalled that a number of children from the Ikeda school
escaped into a supermarket where she was working. "I saw
blood flowing from the children's backs. I wanted (Takuma)
to feel the same pain suffered by the
victims."
Lawmakers
protest
Staff
report A nonpartisan group of Diet members opposed to
capital punishment on Tuesday protested the executions
earlier in the day of two death-row
inmates.
One of those put to
death was Mamoru Takuma, who massacred eight children at a
school in Osaka Prefecture in 2001.
Members of the group
handed a written protest to Justice Minister Daizo
Nozawa.
The group argued that,
since Takuma had been executed less than a year after his
death sentence was finalized, there was no possibility of
obtaining further details on the case.
Ikuo Yamahana, a group
member and House of Representatives lawmaker of the
Democratic Party of Japan, pointed out in a news conference
that executions had again been carried out while the Diet
was not in session and while the justice minister's term
was about to end.
Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet
later this month.
Just a week ago,
Amnesty International and members of Forum 90, an
organization dedicated to the abolition of the death
penalty, held a meeting with Nozawa, asking him to halt
executions in Japan.
"The justice minister
had said at that meeting that he was considering the timing
(of the executions) and carefully examining each case,"
Makoto Teranaka of Amnesty International told the same news
conference.
"But looking at the
two executions, it is obvious that he neither went over the
cases carefully, nor considered the
timing."
The two executions
were the first to take place during Nozawa's tenure as
justice minister.
The Japan Times: Sept.
15, 2004
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