Kobe child murders
The Kobe child murders happened on March 16 and May 27, 1997 in Suma, Kobe, Japan. Shinichiro Azuma would murder two children Ayaka Yamashita (10), and Jun Hase (11). He would also attack two other girls with a hammer.
| Kobe child murders | |
|---|---|
 Tomogaoka Junior High School, where Base's head was found. | |
| Location | Suma, Kobe, Japan |
| Date | March 16, 1997 (murder of Yamashita) May 24, 1997 (murder of Hase) |
| Attack type | Child-on-child murder, double-murder, attempted murders, beheading, bludgeoning, strangling, stabbing |
| Weapon(s) | Hammer, hand saw, knife |
| Deaths | 2 |
| Injured | 3 |
He was known by his alias "Seito Sakakibara" and as "Boy A" by police and media because he was underage when he had committed the murders. This case, along with the Sasebo slashing, would cause the Diet of Japan to lower the age where people are responsible for criminal acts from 16 to 14 in 2000.[1]
Events
He would torture animals such as cats, slugs, and birds when he was younger but he would grow tired of this and decided to move on to humans.[2][3]
On 10 February 1997, Sakakibara would be walking through Kobe and come across two girls. He would end up attacking the two with a hammer while they ran away. They would survive the attack.[4]
On March 16, he would be walking through a park in Kobe when he came across a 10-year-old girl named Ayaka Yamashita. He would ask her if she knew a place where he could wash his hands and she took him to a school. He would ask her to turn around and then he would end up attacking her with a hammer before running away. Ayaka would be very injured in the attack and would end up dying in the hospital. Sakakibara would admit to the murder in his diary.[5]
On May 25, Sakakibara would run into an 11-year-old boy named Jun Hase. Hase knew Sakakibara because he was a friend of his brother. He would ask Hase if he wanted to see a turtle and would lead him up to a shack in a secluded area of a trail. At the shack, Sakakibara would end up strangling Hase to death with a shoelace and hid his body under the shack. He left and came back with a hand saw and garbage bag. He would cut off his head, took the head back home and then put it in front of the main gates to the Tomogaoka Junior High School.[6]
On the morning of May 27, Base's head and the bodies of two cats were found. In his mouth, Sakakibara placed a note which said it was the "beginning of a game" and that he felt a thrill killing people.[2] On the note was broken English and cryptic symbols which seemed to have been inspired by the Zodiac Killer.[7]
Arrest and aftermath
On June 28, Sakakibara would be arrested by police. He was a minor at the time of the crimes so he was referred to as "Boy A". His name would eventually be leaked to reporters and public.[8] Police had suspected Sakakibara because of his connection to animal cruelty and because he had known Hase before the murder.[9] His lawyers tried to argue that he was too illiterate to write the complex words in the notes that were found and that he was also right-handed while the person who committed the murders was left-handed. He would admit to his crimes when his mother visited and asked him if he did it.[10]
He was sentenced to six and two-thirds years in the Kanto Medical Juvenile Training School. In March 2003, he would be paroled. This caused anger from the victim's families. [11] On March 11, 2004, he was released. This would further anger the families of the victims and public. This also came shortly after another event called the Sasebo slashing.[12]
Sakakibara would release in autobiography titled Zekka. In the book, he would say that he had felt bad about what he had done and described the murder in detail. Hase's family would try to block the release of the book because they didn't want him profiting from the murders but it released anyways. Zekka would become a number-one best seller in Japan.[13]
Sakakibara would later set up a website where he posted updates about his life and drawings he made including a photoshop of his naked body fused with a scorpion.[14] In response to this, Shūkan Post would publicate Sakakibara's real name, location and job at the time.[8]
References
- ↑ "Violent crime prompts debate over age of legal responsibility in Japan". Publique!. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Controversial autobiography of 1997 Kobe child killer released". Japan Today. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ 「少年A」14歳の肖像. November 1, 2001.
- ↑ Junior high school third-year student to receive psychiatric treatment and sent to medical juvenile detention center for serial child murders in Kobe. October 18, 1997.
- ↑ Shimada Makoto, ed. (May 1, 2015). "For the first time, the full picture of the case that shook the times has been revealed: The full text of the decision (verdict) in the Kobe Family Court trial of Juvenile A (Sakakibara Seito) serial child murderer is made public,". Bungei Shunjū.
- ↑ Kobe murder. July 24, 1997.
- ↑ "Zodiac Killer copycat, 14, decapitated victim with hand saw leaving head for caretaker". Daily Star. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Japanese tabloid defies privacy laws to expose identity of man who carried out the 'Kobe child murders' at age 14". South China Morning Post. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ "【神戸連続児童殺傷】「少年A」の犯行を確信したとき——遺体発見当日から捜査線上に浮上していた". Bungei Shunjū (in Japanese). Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ 一橋文哉 『未解決 —封印された五つの捜査報告—』 新潮文庫、2011年11月1日。ISBN 978-4-10-142627-3. p.378
- ↑ Fumiya Hitotsubashi, ed. (November 1, 2011). "未解決 —封印された五つの捜査報告—". Shincho Bunko.
- ↑ "Kobe killer set free". The Japan Times. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ "Family of victim of Kobe child-killer calls for ban on criminals' memoirs". The Japan Times. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
- ↑ "Child serial killer Sakakibara believed to have launched vanity website". The Japan Times. Retrieved September 29, 2024.