Word: ikedas
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When a knife-wielding madman attacked and killed eight children at an Elite elementary school in Ikeda, some Internet users in Japan had a sinking feeling. Six days before the bloody rampage on June 8, visitors to a popular bulletin board server called Channel 2 had seen an ominous rant. "My pride has been destroyed. I hate university-affiliated schools," the anonymous writer raged. "Some may say my anger is misplaced and misdirected, but it's all their fault. I am very vindictive...
...Could the chilling note have been written by Mamoru Takuma, the 37-year-old man police say confessed to the knifings? Ikeda Elementary School, where 21 second-graders were stabbed, is affiliated with an Osaka university. Other evidence suggests Takuma, a drifter with a history of psychological problems, harbored resentment against the school. His father, long estranged from his son, told Japanese newspapers that Takuma once took, and failed, an exam there. Takuma was also accused, in 1999, of poisoning four teachers at another school by spiking water for tea with drugs. Osaka police refused to comment on the bulletin...
...What made last week's tragedy so hard to comprehend was the young age of its victims. Why this school? Why these kids? Ikeda Elementary School, affiliated with a teacher-training college, Osaka Kyoiku University, is a competitive preparatory school where kindergartners take entrance exams and interview for the coveted 688 spots. Their parents are Japan's educated Elite?doctors, lawyers, professionals?and the school is located on a spacious, leafy campus in a quiet neighborhood. Graduates often eventually go on to enroll in top universities. "If it were a person who had something specific against the school, maybe...
...death penalty." According to police, Takuma said he had taken an overdose of tranquilizers before going on the knifing spree. No one really knows what twisted logic motivated Takuma, although Takuma's father told Japanese newspapers that his son once did poorly on a test at the Ikeda school. But armchair psychologists are already diagnosing the case. "The noises children make sound good to many people, but for someone who feels victimized?and I think this suspect is probably one of them?those noises sound like children are mocking him," says Susumu Oda, a psychiatrist specializing in criminal cases...
...emergency task force to investigate the incident and provide counseling to the children. "Schools should be places where children feel safe and secure." Will they ever feel quite as sheltered again? Or, like the Columbine massacre in the U.S. state of Colorado two years ago, will the Ikeda episode inflict Japan's schoolchildren, teachers and parents with long-term emotional scars? Until last week, Japanese schools, including the one in Ikeda, were typically open and easy to enter. During school hours, gates and doors are left unlocked. There are no security guards posted. So it was no trouble for Takuma...