Osaka school massacre
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The Osaka School Massacre took place on June 8, 2001, at Ikeda Elementary School, an elite primary school affiliated with Osaka Kyoiku University in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. At 10:15 that morning, 37-year-old former janitor Mamoru Takuma entered the school armed with a kitchen knife and began stabbing numerous school children and teachers. He killed eight children, mostly between the ages of seven and eight, and seriously wounded thirteen other children and two teachers. Takuma was later convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was executed on September 14, 2004.
The Osaka School Massacre was the second largest mass murder in recent Japanese history, exceeded only by the fatalities caused in the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. This incident, however, was set apart by the young age of the victims, by its occurrence at a school, and by the murderer's history of mental illness. Because of these factors, the Osaka School Massacre raised questions in Japan about the country's social policies regarding the treatment of mental illness, the rights of criminals and victims, and the accessibility and security of Japanese schools.
After the attack, Yoshio Yamane, the principal administrator of the school, announced that it would receive a security guard, an at-the-time unheard of feature of Japanese schools [1].
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[edit] Perpetrator
(Names are in Western order, with the given name before the surname.)
[edit] Victims, deceased
(Names are in Western order, with the given name before the surname.)
- Yuki Hongo (本郷優希 Hongō Yūki)
- Mayuko Isaka (猪阪真宥子 Isaka Mayuko)
- Mayuko attended the class taught by Sanai Kitahara [2]
- Yuka Kiso (木曽友香 Kiso Yūka)
- Ayano Moriwaki (森脇綾乃 Moriwaki Ayano)
- Maki Sakai (酒井麻希 Sakai Maki)
- Takahiro Totsuka (戸塚健大 Totsuta Takahiro)
- Takahiro was the only male student that perished in the massacre [3]
- Hana Tsukamoto (塚本花菜 Tsukamoto Hana)
- Rena Yamashita (山下玲奈 Yamashita Rena)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- CNN.com article - "Japan mourns school victims," June 10, 2001.
- CNN.com article - "At least eight dead in Osaka school rampage," June 8, 2001.
[edit] Trivia
- When famous J-Pop artist Utada Hikaru heard about the incident, she also heard that one of the victims (Rena Yamashita) won an essay contest about wanting to become an artist like her, so she rearranged her song Distance completely, creating the song, FINAL DISTANCE.
