Father of Murdered Son in Kobe Still Seeks Answers, 29 Years On

Kobe, May 24 (Jiji Press)–Mamoru Hase, the 70-year-old father of a boy murdered in the 1997 serial attacks on children in Kobe, western Japan, is still trying to find the truth behind the tragedy. “We, the bereaved family, want to know ‘why’ the man who committed the crime killed my son,” the father said in a recent interview with Jiji Press, ahead of the 29th anniversary on Sunday of the death of his son, Jun, at the age of 11. “I haven’t received any contact recently” from the attacker since 2004, when he was provisionally released from a medical juvenile reformatory after committing the crime when he was 14 years old. Five elementary school children were attacked between February and May 1997, leaving Jun, then in sixth grade, and Ayaka Yamashita, a girl in fourth grade, dead. A part of Jun’s body was left in front of a junior high school, with a note confessing the crime being sent to a local newspaper. The attacker was exempt from criminal punishment under the juvenile law at the time. The serial attacks led to a revision of the law, which lowered the age at which people can be criminally punished from 16 to 14. Since being released provisionally from the juvenile reformatory, the man had sent letters on the anniversary of the 11-year-old’s death up until 2017. Since then, however, the family has not received such letters. “Realistically speaking, it’ll be difficult for (the man) to atone (for his crimes),” Hase said. “What we want is the truth,” he said. “I hope that he’ll send, even if it’s just one time, a convincing letter reflecting on what he did,” Hase said. The father, however, said that even that may be “difficult,” given that the man went ahead and published a memoir in 2015 without consulting the bereaved families. While saying that the murders themselves would “naturally” be forgotten eventually, Hase said that it is important to pass on the lessons, which led to changes in systems and laws. “Anyone could fall victim to a crime,” Hase said. “I hope people treat (the case) as something concerning themselves.” On victims experiencing online abuse and widespread speculation, Hase called on people to refrain from spreading rumors and “information” based on assumptions at a time when victims and their families are in deep sadness. Recalling Jun as “kind and adorable,” Hase said, “My boy would always be 11 years old (in my mind).” “I can’t and don’t want to picture what he would’ve been as a 40-year-old,” Hase said. “I think there’s no such thing as closure,” he said. “There’s no closure until I die.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]