Osaka school massacre
Coordinates: 34°49′15.16″N 135°26′22.28″E / 34.8208778°N 135.4395222°E
| Osaka School Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Ikeda, Osaka, Japan |
| Date | June 8, 2001 |
Attack type | Mass murder, stabbing |
| Weapons | Kitchen knife |
| Deaths | 8[1] |
Non-fatal injuries | 15 |
| Perpetrator | Mamoru Takuma |
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.
The attack
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.[2]
Aftermath
Takuma was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder. He was later convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on September 14, 2004.[3]
The Osaka School Massacre was the second largest mass murder, along with the Matsumoto incident, in recent Japanese history, both crimes 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.[3] 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.[4][5]
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 in Japanese schools.[3] Additionally, J-pop artist Hikaru Utada rearranged her song "Distance" in honor of Rena Yamashita, one of the murdered schoolgirls (because of an essay contest she had won, talking about how she respected and wanted to become like Hikaru), retitling it "Final Distance".
Fatalities
The boy was in the first year and the girls were in the second year.[6]
- Yuki Hongo (本郷 優希 Hongō Yūki)
- Mayuko Isaka (猪阪 真宥子 Isaka Mayuko)
- 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 Totsuka Takahiro) (the only male student to die in the attack)[3]
- Hana Tsukamoto (塚本 花菜 Tsukamoto Hana)
- Rena Yamashita (山下 玲奈 Yamashita Rena)
See also
References
- ↑ "At least eight dead in Osaka school rampage" June 8, 2001. cnn.com
- ↑ Struck, Doug (June 9, 2001). "School Stabbings Diminish Japan's Feelings of Safety". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 10, 2001. Also published online as "Diminished sense of safety in Japan".
- 1 2 3 4 "Japan mourns school victims." CNN. June 10, 2001. Retrieved on February 5, 2010.
- ↑ Human Rights in Japan - Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
- ↑ Watts, Jonathan (July 2001). "Japan reviews policy on mental illness and crime" (fee required). The Lancet 358 (9278): 305. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)05527-1. PMID 11498227. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
- ↑ "Knife-Wielding Man Kills 8 Children at Japanese School." The New York Times. 2.