Formally the Ikeda Elementary School Associated with the Osaka
University of Education (Jp. Osaka kyouiku daigaku fuzoku Ikeda
shougakkou). Located in Ikeda city, Osaka prefecture, Japan.
Recorded in the
annals of infamy as the Columbine of Japan,
only worse.
Shortly after 10 AM
on June 8, 2001, a 37-year-old sick fuck
named Takuma Mamoru parked his car in front of the school's unguarded
east gate and snuck into the
first floor of the school building. Wielding a 28-centimeter knife,
he entered four first- and second-grade classrooms in rapid succession,
and without saying a single word systematically stabbed all
the students he could and any teachers who got in the way.
While most of the children managed to escape and Takuma was
eventually wrestled down by teacher Kawakami Yosuke and the school's
vice principal Yano Katsumi,
in 12 minutes he had managed to murder 8 children and wound
13 others, as well as two of the teachers. 7 of the dead were 2nd-grade
girls, all stabbed in the back or the stomach. The motive?
He wanted to
commit suicide but didn't have the guts to do it, so he figured
that this way he would get the death penalty.
To -brazil-: The primary source used for the
above was the Yomiuri Shimbun, in Japanese,
which I have consistently found to be way more accurate than the Japan Times. The case has been all
over TV news as well, and based on victims' pictures and
the -chan tagged to their names I can assure you
all of them except one were indeed girls.
Your comments about the impossibility of preventing
something like this, however, are spot on.
The media has also been tut-tutting over a Monbusho
memo from a few years back decreeing that all gates
should be guarded, easy enough to enforce with some
35000 schools in the country...
Also, take a look at Takuma Mamoru for a brief
biography of the killer, including his exact words
when arrested.