The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki died early Wednesday
after being gunned down by a suspected gangster, stunning a nation
where shootings are extremely rare.
Itcho Ito, 61, seeking re-election to a fourth term in an
election this Sunday, was shot at least twice in the back outside
his campaign office on Tuesday evening. Doctors said two bullets
had reached his heart.
As mayor of the second city to suffer an atomic bombing near the
end of World War II, Ito was a strong advocate of Japan sticking to
its decades-old ban on nuclear weapons.
His death sent shock waves across a nation where gun control
laws are strict and violent attacks on politicians infrequent.
Police arrested Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, who they said was the head
of a local gang affiliated with Japan's largest "yakuza" group, the
Yamaguchi-gumi, and seized a revolver he had with him.
The motive for the shooting remained unclear, and police
declined to comment on details of the case.
Some media said Shiroo had been upset at the city's handling of
a traffic accident four years ago in which his car was damaged as
it passed a public works construction site.
Other reports said Shiroo believed the city was denying contracts
to a construction company to which his gang was closely linked.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denounced the incident, as media
expressed concern that the death would stifle freedom of speech in
campaigns for local election across Japan on Sunday.
"The atrocity committed during an election campaign is a
challenge to democracy and it must never be forgiven," Abe told
reporters. "We must eradicate violence like this resolutely."
But these comments came some 12 hours after the shooting, and
later he responded to criticism that he had seemed to lack a sense
of crisis right after the incident, when he made only a terse
statement calling for a thorough investigation.
"I don't think we should be criticizing each other about
something like this," said Abe, whose leadership abilities have
been questioned before.
"It was 10 minutes after the incident took place (that I
commented), so I felt that making the facts clear came first," he
added, noting that a Molotov cocktail had once been thrown against
his house during an election campaign.
Calling the incident "base terror," the Asahi newspaper
said: "If the use of violence is tolerated when others do not do as
one says, the freedom of speech will be lost. It risks pushing the
country back to its wrong, dark years before the war."
Later Wednesday, mourners offered flowers and prayed at the site
of the shooting. The flag at the city office was at half-staff, and
city workers observed a moment of silence.
Ito's predecessor was also shot and seriously injured i n 1990
by a member of a right-wing group after he made comments that the
late Japanese Emperor Hirohito should be held responsible for World
War II.
Japan has strict gun control laws, and firearms are mostly in
the hands of hunters or yakuza gangsters.
Yakuza members are known for their short, tightly permed hair,
elaborately tattooed backs and missing little fingers from
digit-cutting rituals held to apologize for misdeeds and show
loyalty to the boss.
Police figures show yakuza official membership numbered 41,500
in 2006, down slightly from 2005, but the number of hangers-on rose
marginally to 43,200.
The last known murder of a politician in Japan was in October
2002, when lower house member Koki Ishii was stabbed to death by a
member of a right-wing group in front of his home.
Nagasaki, on the southernmost main island of Kyushu some 1,000
km southwest of Tokyo, was the second city to suffer an atomic
bombing by the United States, on August 9, 1945.
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Ito had previously been critical of US nuclear arms policies. Last
year, on the anniversary of the atomic bombing, he criticized Iran
and North Korea for their nuclear programs and had harsh words for
the United States for failing to halt nuclear proliferation.
Ito's son-in-law said late Wednesday that he would stand for
office in his place, vowing to carry on his policies.
(China Daily via agencies April 19, 2007)
