Victims of mass murder at Japan care home remembered on fifth anniversary

From Kyodo via The Japan Times

July 27 2021

YOKOHAMA – Bereaved families and local officials on Monday remembered the victims of a stabbing rampage at a care home for people with mental disabilities near Tokyo five years ago that became one of Japan’s worst mass murders.

Kanagawa Gov. Yuji Kuroiwa and Kazuma Otsuki, who heads a group formed by the families of victims, offered flowers at a memorial on the grounds of Tsukui Yamayuri En, where a former employee killed 19 residents and injured 24 others on July 26, 2016. Two employees were also hurt.

The home has been rebuilt and is due to welcome back residents there on Sunday.

“We must build a society where everyone can live together by gaining energy from (the determination) that such a tragic accident should not be repeated,” Kuroiwa told reporters at the site in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The former employee, care worker Satoshi Uematsu, 31, is on death row, with his death sentence having been finalized in March last year after he withdrew his appeal. He said during his trial that people with disabilities who are unable to communicate “create unhappiness in society.”

The memorial bears the names of seven of the people killed in the rampage after the prefectural government gained approval from their families. Out of fear of facing discrimination, many families are reluctant to reveal the victims’ names.

The seven include Miho, a 19-year-old girl whose family wished to reveal only her first name, and 49-year-old Toshikazu Yamamoto.

“I am dying to meet Miho,” said the victim’s mother in a statement released through her lawyer.

The parents of one of the survivors, Kazuya Ono, 48, who suffered serious injuries in the attack, also visited the site to pay their respects.

“These five years have passed rather quickly,” said Takashi Ono, 77 said the survivor’s father, adding that “although there were some tough and tormenting incidents, I want to continue” remembering what happened so that the incident is not forgotten. His son now lives alone at an apartment with the help of 15 care workers.

A 48-year-old former worker at the care home recalled that some of the victims had not been able to speak and used to express their feelings with gestures. “The deceased people taught me many things. I want to express (to the public) that everyone’s life has meaning.”

Kazuko Iwamura, a 60-year-old member of a local group of people with disabilities, said, “We are humans. We can’t forgive (Uematsu) and let this incident be forgotten.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato expressed “heartfelt condolences” to the victims at a news conference Monday, saying, “It is important to realize a society where all people can coexist without discrimination or prejudice.”

The Kanagawa Prefectural Government decided to build a new care home at the site of the facility and another in Yokohama. The survivors of the attack, who have been staying at temporary facilities, will enter the newly built homes and group homes after they begin the admission of residents on Sunday and Dec. 1.