Tsuyama massacre

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The Tsuyama massacre (津山事件 Tsuyama jiken) was a spree killing that occurred on 21 May, 1938 in the rural village of Kaio close to Tsuyama city in Okayama, Japan.

Mutsuo Toi, a 21-year-old man, killed 30 people,^[1] including his grandmother, with a rifle, Japanese sword, and axe, and seriously injured three others before killing himself with the rifle. Until the 1982 killing by Woo Bum-kon, this incident was regarded as the world’s worst massacre by an individual.^[2]

Contents 1 The massacre 2 Mutsuo Toi 3 Suicide notes 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Notes 5.2 Bibliography 5.3 External links

[edit] The massacre

Mutsuo Toi cut the electricity line to the village of Kaio on the evening of 20 May, which left the community in darkness. At around 1:30am on 21 May, he killed his 76-year-old grandmother by decapitating her with an axe.^[2] Then he strapped two electric torches to his head and prowled through the village like a youth engaged in "night-crawling" or "Yobai" (夜這い, "Yobai"^?), entering the homes of his neighbours. He killed 29 neighbours (27 of whom died at the scene of the incident, while two others were fatally wounded, dying of their injuries later)^[3]) and seriously injured three others in about an hour and half using a Browning shotgun purchased legally, a Japanese sword and an axe. This was almost half of the residents of the small community.^[2] He then shot himself at dawn.

[edit] Mutsuo Toi

Mutsuo Toi (都井 睦雄, Toi Mutsuo^?, March 5, 1917 - May 21, 1938) was born in Okayama Prefecture to well off parents. His parents died of tuberculosis when he was a baby, so he and his sister were brought up by their grandmother. He was originally outgoing, but at the age of 17 he became socially withdrawn (a widespead condition in Japan known as hikikomori)^[4] after his sister married in 1934.

He was interested in the story of Sada Abe, the prostitute who, in May 1936, strangled her lover then severed his penis. The story of which was the basis for the film In the Realm of the Senses (Japanese: 愛のコリーダ|Ai no Korīda). He started writing a novel Japanese:雄図海王丸 ("yutokaiomaru", Japanese:雄図海王丸^?).

He took part in a traditional rural Japanese activity of "night-crawling" or Japanese:"Yobai" (夜這い, Japanese:"Yobai"^?), which involved creeping into young women's beds during the night to seek sexual intercourse.^[5]

From his suicide notes it appears that after May 1937 when he was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis, the young women in the village rejected his sexual advances.

[edit] Suicide notes

Toi left several long notes which revealed that he was concerned about the social impact of his tuberculosis, which in the 1930s was an incurable fatal illness. He felt that his female neighbours became cold towards him once they knew of his illness, and that he was despised as hypersexual.

For revenge, he decided to enter their homes and kill them. He waited for the time when the women returned to their houses. The authorities were concerned, and his gun licence was revoked. He however prepared swords and guns secretly.

He regretted that he would not be able to shoot some people he wanted to, as that would have involved killing people he regarded as innocent. He also wrote that he killed his grandmother because he could not bear leaving her alive to face the shame and social stigma that would be associated with a "murderer's grandmother".

[edit] See also

• List of events named massacres

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Serial and Mass Murder: Theory, Research and Policy, Thomas O'Reilly- Fleming (Editor), Canadian Scholars Press (1995), ISBN 1551300664

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) Tsuyama 30 people murders