Jan. 4
JAPAN:
UNMASKING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT--Irreparable losses-- Bereaved tired of wait
for execution of perpetrators
In August 1975, a TV news program showed five extremists, including
members of the Japanese Red Army, boarding a Japan Airlines plane after
being released from prison by the government.
The release came after the government acceded to a demand from the
Japanese Red Army, which had seized the U.S. and Swedish embassies in
Kuala Lumpur and taken more than 50 people hostage earlier in the month.
The group demanded the Japanese government release extremists who were in
prison following the Kuala Lumpur incident.
The government yielded to the demand and permitted 5 extremists to leave
Japan after releasing them as an extralegal measure.
Masaki Matsuda, 62, watched the news on TV with mixed feelings as one of
the terrorists who killed his sister in a bombing attack boarded the
plane. Masaki Matsuda was 28 at the time.
About a year before, Matsuda's sister, Toshiko, 23, died in a bombing of a
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, in a
bombing carried out by the far-left group Higashi Ajia Hannichi Buso
Sensen (East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front).
Toshiko was on her way back from lunch to the accounting office where she
worked. She reportedly had been considering marrying her boyfriend.
Norio Sasaki, one of the extremists who carried out the bombing, was 1 of
the 5 who boarded the plane leaving Japan. Sasaki was 26 at the time.
Matsuda said he was bitterly disappointed to see Sasaki escape Japan,
thinking about his sister's death.
"But at the same time, I kept telling myself that I should consider the
lives of those still alive, rather than somebody who's already dead,"
Matsuda said.
After 2 years, the memories were brought back to Matsuda again, when in
September 1977, the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Tokyo-bound JAL plane
after it left Paris, forcing it to land in Dhaka.
The group's demands were again met and 6 extremists were released from
prison and taken to Dhaka. Ayako Daidoji, who was another member of the
criminal group who carried out the bombing of the MHI building, was one of
the 6. Daidoji was 28 at that time.
The whereabouts of Sasaki and Daidoji, and whether they are even still
alive, are unknown to this day.
===
21 years and counting
8 people died and 165 people were injured in the bombing of the MHI
building.
Masashi Daidoji--Ayako's husband--and Toshiaki Kataoka played leading
roles in a series of bombing attacks that targeted company buildings,
including the Mitsubishi building. Kataoka later changed his surname to
Masunaga.
In April 1987, the rulings of the lower courts to execute Daidoji and
Kataoka were finalized by the Supreme Court. However, more than 21 years
later, the executions have yet to be carried out. A Justice Ministry
official said, "One of the reasons their executions have not been carried
out is because there are accomplices that escaped to foreign countries."
Masashi, 60, reportedly spends his time in prison composing haiku, and has
even published a collection of them. In his letters to supporters, he has
criticized the government for not abolishing the death penalty.
Masunaga, also 60, accepted a Yomiuri Shimbun request for an interview via
supporters. He sent messages to them, saying, "I have concluded that the
death penalty should be abolished because it deprives people of life and
their human rights."
Matsuda said he often remembers his mother, who died at the age of 78 two
years after the Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings to execute
Masashi and Masunaga. "I can't forget my mother, who carried on bravely
after Toshiko's death, occasionally gazing at her picture," Matsuda said.
On Dec. 19, Masashi and Masunaga made their third requests for a new
trial.
In March 1976, explosives placed inside a fire extinguisher went off in a
lobby on the first floor of the Hokkaido prefectural government's head
office in Sapporo, killing 2 government officials and injuring 95.
In September 1994, the Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings to execute
Katsuhisa Omori for the bombing. However, Omori consistently pleaded
innocent to all the charges during the trials and has been appealing for a
retrial for more than 14 years since the Supreme Court's ruling.
Omori, 59, who is being held at a detention house in Sapporo, married a
supporter in 1985. According to sources, he owned shares in several
companies under his wife's name until recently. During her near-daily
visits, he would ask his wife about the latest stock prices and instructed
her to sell or buy new shares.
He also has a blog, which he updates with his opinions by writing letters
to his supporters who then put his writings online.
Last month, Omori answered questions by The Yomiuri Shimbun via a letter
sent to a supporter.
Omori wrote: "I believe the nation can't carry out my execution. I suppose
the government is waiting for me to die of natural causes. I don't think
about the execution in my daily life."
Takezo Uchiyama, a former Hokkaido government official, developed hearing
problems because of the bombing. Uchiyama, 69, said some of his colleagues
had suffered serious impairments because of the attack, and he had seen
many of them die in the 32 years since the incident.
Uchiyama's colleague Kiyotaka Okada died in 1999 at the age of 67. He lost
his right leg in the bombing and contracted hepatitis from a blood
transfusion during an operation. The disease caused his death.
"So much time has passed since the sentence of the execution. It's
difficult to grasp that I can do nothing about it," Okada's wife said.
Uchiyama said he expects some people to develop sympathies for death-row
convicts as the memory of the incidents fade with time. "I do understand
the government being cautious about carrying out executions because they
take away lives. However, it seems that only victims will ever have to
suffer unless the current situation continues."
(source: Daily Yomiuri Shimbun)
