Japanese Mayor Shot Dead
The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, a prominent anti-nuclear activist, was shot by a yakuza gangster on Tuesday, and news reports said he later died of his wounds.
Mayor Iccho Ito was shot twice late Tuesday outside the city's main train station by a gangster reportedly disgruntled over damage to his car at a public works site, according to Nagasaki prefectural (state) police official Rumi Tsujimoto.
Kyodo News agency and national broadcaster NHK said Ito died of his wounds early Wednesday.
Footage from the southwestern city of Nagasaki showed several officers wrestling a man to the ground and pushing him into a police car, and an ambulance leaving the scene as police shouted for bystanders to get out of the way.
Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organized crime group, was arrested on the spot for attempted murder, police said.
Shiroo has admitted to shooting Ito with a handgun with the intent to kill, Nagasaki chief investigator Kazuki Umebayashi said in a televised news conference.
One of the bullets reached the heart of the 61-year-old mayor, who went into cardiac arrest, according to hospital official Kenzo Kusano. He underwent emergency surgery and was on life support, but reports said he later died.
It was the second attack in recent years against a mayor of Nagasaki, which was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945 and whose leaders have actively campaigned against militarism and nuclear proliferation.
In 1990, former Nagasaki Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot and seriously wounded after saying Japan's emperor, beloved by rightists, bore some responsibility for World War II.
Tuesday's attack appeared to involve a more trivial matter, however.
Shiroo reportedly clashed with Nagasaki city over a traffic accident in 2003, when his car was damaged after he drove into a hole in the ground at a public works construction site.
The gangster tried unsuccessfully to get compensation for the damage after his insurance policy refused to pay up, according to NHK.
Shiroo had also sent a letter to broadcaster TV Asahi to protest recent money scandals linked to Ito, including hidden accounts and public works contracts, according to Kyodo.
Ito, backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was campaigning for his fourth term. He was an active figure in the movement against nuclear proliferation, heading a coalition of Japanese cities calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Peace activists expressed shock.
"Mayor Ito had a strong and boundless passion for peace," said Sunao Tsuboi, leader of a survivors' group based in Hiroshima, a city also flattened by an atomic bomb in 1945.
"The authorities must conduct a rigorous investigation and get to the bottom of this," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a statement late Tuesday.
Commonly known as yakuza, Japan's organized crime groups are involved in real estate and construction kickback schemes, extortion, gambling, the sex industry, gunrunning and drug trafficking.
The yakuza are also behind most shootings in Japan, where handguns are strictly banned. Two-thirds of the country's 53 known shootings in 2006 were gang-related, according to the National Police Agency. Police estimate that there are about 84,500 gangsters across Japan.
The yakuza have had a long-standing political alliance with right-wing nationalists, though authorities gave no indication that Tuesday's attack was politically motivated.
Though attacks against politicians are uncommon in Japan, three have been killed since World War II, including socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma, who was stabbed to death by a right-wing activist at a rally in Tokyo.
Another opposition lawmaker was killed by a mentally unstable assailant in 1990, while a ruling party politician was fatally stabbed in 2002 in a dispute over political funds.
Last year, a right-wing extremist burned down the house of ruling party lawmaker Koichi Kato after the politician criticized a prime minister's pilgrimage to a controversial Tokyo war shrine.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Mayor Iccho Ito was shot twice late Tuesday outside the city's main train station by a gangster reportedly disgruntled over damage to his car at a public works site, according to Nagasaki prefectural (state) police official Rumi Tsujimoto.
Kyodo News agency and national broadcaster NHK said Ito died of his wounds early Wednesday.
Footage from the southwestern city of Nagasaki showed several officers wrestling a man to the ground and pushing him into a police car, and an ambulance leaving the scene as police shouted for bystanders to get out of the way.
Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organized crime group, was arrested on the spot for attempted murder, police said.
Shiroo has admitted to shooting Ito with a handgun with the intent to kill, Nagasaki chief investigator Kazuki Umebayashi said in a televised news conference.
One of the bullets reached the heart of the 61-year-old mayor, who went into cardiac arrest, according to hospital official Kenzo Kusano. He underwent emergency surgery and was on life support, but reports said he later died.
It was the second attack in recent years against a mayor of Nagasaki, which was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945 and whose leaders have actively campaigned against militarism and nuclear proliferation.
In 1990, former Nagasaki Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot and seriously wounded after saying Japan's emperor, beloved by rightists, bore some responsibility for World War II.
Tuesday's attack appeared to involve a more trivial matter, however.
Shiroo reportedly clashed with Nagasaki city over a traffic accident in 2003, when his car was damaged after he drove into a hole in the ground at a public works construction site.
The gangster tried unsuccessfully to get compensation for the damage after his insurance policy refused to pay up, according to NHK.
Shiroo had also sent a letter to broadcaster TV Asahi to protest recent money scandals linked to Ito, including hidden accounts and public works contracts, according to Kyodo.
Ito, backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was campaigning for his fourth term. He was an active figure in the movement against nuclear proliferation, heading a coalition of Japanese cities calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Peace activists expressed shock.
"Mayor Ito had a strong and boundless passion for peace," said Sunao Tsuboi, leader of a survivors' group based in Hiroshima, a city also flattened by an atomic bomb in 1945.
"The authorities must conduct a rigorous investigation and get to the bottom of this," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a statement late Tuesday.
Commonly known as yakuza, Japan's organized crime groups are involved in real estate and construction kickback schemes, extortion, gambling, the sex industry, gunrunning and drug trafficking.
The yakuza are also behind most shootings in Japan, where handguns are strictly banned. Two-thirds of the country's 53 known shootings in 2006 were gang-related, according to the National Police Agency. Police estimate that there are about 84,500 gangsters across Japan.
The yakuza have had a long-standing political alliance with right-wing nationalists, though authorities gave no indication that Tuesday's attack was politically motivated.
Though attacks against politicians are uncommon in Japan, three have been killed since World War II, including socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma, who was stabbed to death by a right-wing activist at a rally in Tokyo.
Another opposition lawmaker was killed by a mentally unstable assailant in 1990, while a ruling party politician was fatally stabbed in 2002 in a dispute over political funds.
Last year, a right-wing extremist burned down the house of ruling party lawmaker Koichi Kato after the politician criticized a prime minister's pilgrimage to a controversial Tokyo war shrine.
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The center for disease control tracks gun usage and effectiveness? Guns are not a disease, though mortality rates are a stat to be tracked.
Bottom line, CRIMINALS DO NOT WANT TO FACE ARMED VICTIMS BECAUSE THEY FIGHT BACK!
Posted by CharlesDJohn at 04:58 PM : Apr 17, 2007
A concealed weapon might deter an opportunistic criminal but it would probably not deter someone such as the man who just rampaged through the college campus at Virginia tech--such a person, deep within their psychosis and wanting to die anyway--could not care less if they get shot--in fact, they probably are hoping to--and the only way for a person with a gun to save all those people would be for them to be in the right place at the right time--ie., not easy on a 2400 acre campus. After all, campus security had the guns--but they were neither at the dorm that was attacked or at the engineering building or in that german class. chances are, with their guns drawn after hearing the killer was still out there, the concealed gun people would have created mass confusion and panic as people mistook them for the killer and eventually someone would shoot the wrong person. I am for having a gun in my home--but common sense says that this situation might have been better if there were other guns around OR...it could have been a he11uva lot worse.
Posted by Infidel_US at 04:24 PM : Apr 17, 2007
Please tell us you are very, very old as well as crochetty and you won't be with us much longer.....LOL
Posted by clevercandi at 04:17 PM : Apr 17, 2007
Or.. in the confusion that followed 2 people suddenly with weapons---they might have accidentally shot students themselves...or... the police might have gunned the protector down--thinking he was the shooter...or with multiple vigilantes and the need for split second decisions, they might have mistaken each other for the shooter and cancelled each other out and added to the carnage--while the shooter went on his merry way.
Posted by Infidel_US at 04:13 PM : Apr 17, 2007
You do realize that was an incredibly racist comment right? First you compare African American criminals then act as if they are the only criminals in America. Well...lookee here--this recent massacre--no African American criminal, the columbine shootings--no African American killer, in fact all the mass killings with the exception of 2 have been whites (usually white males) and now 1 asian. So now...let's compare the average white American criminal to a Japanese criminal--then let's pretend like a white American criminal is the only criminal kind there is....gotcha.
Posted by CharlesDJohn at 04:52 PM : Apr 17, 2007
I keep wondering about that incident. How many rounds are there in such a weapon and what did people do when he had to reload, just sit and wait expectantly to be killed? Surely at some point there was those few seconds where he had to reload? Or did I misunderstand something?
If you are going to be mowed down like ducks at a carnival--might as well go out trying to survive.
Posted by forgotmyid at 04:07 PM : Apr 17, 2007
Now be a pragmatist. Just how do you imagine the government will ever collect all the guns in America? And how will they know when they have them all. As for gun control and laws--only law abiding people obey laws. How many accidental deaths in a year in the US due to guns? How many due to violence?
I would submit to you--that every violent act with a gun would still occur--because the intent is to harm or to kill. The only number that would be affected by law abiding people having gun control is the number of accidental deaths--or do you imagine criminals will observe the 'no smoking' sign?
Posted by noaanhc at 08:20 PM : Apr 17, 2007
It's gotten worse in the past few years with Kansas City with the highest murder rate in the nation--more deaths than NYC or LA or Chicago. who would have 'thunk' it? Maybe the resident population is subliminally inspired by all the carnage we are inflicting over seas and after years of not fighting, the chicken hawks finally want to try their hand at "shock and awe" Those who live by the sword--die by the sword. we are a violent group and no matter how we cloak and sugar coat what we do in the world at large--we are a product of our own psyche and it is manifested in how we live and interact with each other. We kill for good reasons, dumb reasons--no reasons--we just kill.
Yes, but who wants the criminal to have such an effective means to commit the act? Posted by rudy654 at 06:37 PM : Apr 17, 2007
In most urban neighborhoods in America, a handgun can be purchased for as little as 20.00 with no background check, no prints--just cash and carry. of course one never knows how the gun was used--but.. there you are. The fact is, criminals will always be able to get guns, especially in this country. When ever gun clean ups occur, it is not criminals who turn in their guns. With a country over run with fire arms, unless one went house to house, land and forest and water and covered every square inch including caves and underground--you will NEVER get rid of the guns here.
Most Americans are pragmatic to realize that if gun control ever took place, it would leave ordinary citizens defenseless while the robbers, murders and other criminals would have the means to terrorize and would NEVer get rid of their weapons. It's too late for clean up of guns--who would cooperate? Only the bleeding hearts who already do not own guns. As for everyone else--they would hide their weapons, purchase new guns on the black market and just like in Iraq, the guns would flourish despite the public policy of banning weapons.
Guns would be the new "drug" of many Americans--illegal, dangerous, sold on the black market and with no tax revenue for the government once they are banned.