Rick Halperin
Sun, 4 Jan 2009 00:00:16 -0600
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)