Hypothesis of a political motivation behind the assassination of Nagasaki mayor
Tokyo (AsiaNews) – It has yet to be proven, but appears plausible that there was a political motivation behind the assassination of Itcho Itoh (61), mayor of Nagasaki, and leader of the campaign against nuclear arms in Japan and across the world. What gives credibility to the hypothesis is the assassin’s link to the far right, in favour of a nuclear arms program for the country, which Itoh staunchly opposed.
When he was killed on April 18th, Itoh, defined by Editor Yomiuri Shinbun “a passionate politician at the forefront of the movement for the eradication of nuclear arms”, was closing his campaign for his fourth, almost certain, re-election.
Politicians across the divide unanimously condemned the infamous act as a grave wound to democracy. “A hateful act committed during an election campaign is a challenge to democracy” said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We must be decided in our actions to uproot this type of violence”.
The assassin, Tetsuya Shiroo (59) is a leader of Suishin-kai, a mafia clan (yakuza), linked to the infamous Yamaguchi gumi, the largest underground criminal organisation in Japan. Initial investigations show that, Shiroo carried out the crime in revenge for the city administrations refusal to pay out compensation: his car had fallen into a hole in a site zoned for public works. The assassin had never spoken to the mayor.
It’s the third time in 60 years that the city has had to face grave acts which have produced collective nightmares. The first, known to all, was the atomic bombing of the city on August 9th 1945, which incinerated thousands of citizens in a matter of minutes. The second, 17 years ago, was the grave wounding of Itoh’s predecessor, the Catholic Hitoshi Motoshima (80) by a nationalist fanatic, member of an extreme right organisation. Two years before, Motoshima, while being politically conservative, had told the Municipal assembly that Emperor Hirohito was partly responsible for the war. He felt he had said nothing wrong and that there would be no reaction. He was wrong, but the rectitude of conscience won over political opportunism. Seriously wounded and indicating the flow of blood visible on his shirt he said: “If it’s the last thing I do, I want to change Japanese people’s attitudes on the atomic bomb. They think they were only victims. They forget that they in turn made many people victims in the war”.
Itoh too displayed his moral integrity, by challenging the central government who tried to dissuade him from taking his initiative against nuclear arms to an international level. In November 1995, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb, he addressed the Aja International Court of Justice, to resounding national and international applause. He had said that the nuclear explosions constitute “an evident infraction of international law because of their indiscriminate nature and their damage of the environment”. Last October Itoh, while visibly condemning North Korea’s nuclear experiment, also openly criticised Shoichi Nakagawa, head of the political commission of the Liberal- Democrat Party (LDP), who had invited both politicians and the Japanese people to re-open discussions on the possibility of building nuclear arms.
Nishio Baku, director of Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, an anti-nuclear organization in Tokyo, declared that “Itoh’s problem was well known and his loss is tragic” and Rebecca Johnson, founder of Acronim Institute for Disarmament in London, who knew Itoh well said: “This type of violence, which silences important voices for peace and integrity such as that of Mayor Itoh, can in no way be tolerated”.
.png)
06/08/2020 10:04
