Mamoru Takuma

Mamoru Takuma
Born	Mamoru Takuma (宅間 守) (1963-11-23)November 23, 1963 Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Died	September 14, 2004(2004-09-14) (aged 40) Osaka, Japan
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Occupation	Janitor
Criminal status	Executed at 8:16 am on 14 September 2004
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Date	June 8, 2001 10:15 a.m.
Location(s)	Ikeda, Osaka, Japan
Target(s)	Ikeda Elementary School
Killed	8
Injured	15
Weapons	Kitchen knife

Mamoru Takuma (宅間 守^[a], Takuma Mamoru, 23 November 1963 – 14 September 2004) was a Japanese mass murderer who killed eight children in the Osaka school massacre in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture on 8 June 2001.^[1]

Takuma had a long history of mentally disturbed and anti-social behavior, and an extensive criminal record including a conviction for rape.^[2] He stabbed to death eight students and seriously wounded fifteen others at Ikeda Elementary School in a knife attack that lasted several minutes.

Takuma was convicted in August 2003 and executed on 14 September 2004.

Early life[]

Mamoru Takuma was born on 23 November 1963 in Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. As a child, he displayed unusual and anti-social behavior, including running into the center of a highway on a tricycle at the age of three to cause traffic jams, and wraping cats and other animals in newspapers and igniting them to kill them. In elementary school he was bullied by children as well as bullied other children himself, even after entering junior high school, he continued to bully other children. Takuma's father was violent against the whole family, and Takuma grew up being abused by his father (it seems that he was also left alone to grow up). Takuma recalls that he hated his violent father and even thought of stabbing him with a knife while he was sleeping. Takuma worked at a gas station for several months until enlisting in the Japan Air Self Defense Force, but was discharged a year later for having sexual intercourse with a minor.^{[citation needed]} In 1984, Takuma and his mother left his family house and purchased an apartment, leaving his oldest brother and father by themselves. They lived together for a year and a half, until his father came back for his wife.^[3] In February 1999 his brother died by suicide in his early 40s by slashing his neck with a knife. He was distressed by the existence of his bankrupt brother. His mother also suffered from mental illness for a long time, stayed in a mental hospital for more than several decades, and died at the end of 2016. His father was hospitalized due to drunkenness after the incident, but according to Takuma in prison, he said, "I wanted him to commit suicide like Tsutomu Miyazaki's father."^[4] His father died in April 2020 at the age of 88, and his parent's house in Itami, where he lived alone, was demolished in September of the same year. As of June 2021, the site is vacant^[5]

Criminal history[]

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On 21 November 1984, Takuma raped a woman while collecting rent for a condominium management company. After the incident, believing the woman had filed a complaint to the police, Takuma consulted a psychiatrist with his mother on 12 December and he complained about hearing hallucinations, "feeling that he's plunged into someone" and other complains. The hospital initially diagnosed him with anxiety, but later stated it was schizophrenia in the medical certificate and in response to police inquiries. Takuma, who was placed in a closed ward was dissatisfied with his hospitalized life. On 4 January 1985, he jumped from the roof of the 5th floor to the roof of a nearby garage to commit suicide, and was seriously injured, fracturing his mandible and maxilla. Takuma later wrote to his mother that he was hospitalized to avoid being pursued by the police in a rape case and jumped off the fifth floor to "harass his parents".^[6] After being discharged from the hospital Takuma decided to commit even more crimes for "revenge on the world," Later, the doctor in charge of the psychological examination during discharge pointed out that this may have strengthened his resentment towards society^[7]

Takuma was sentenced to three years in prison in November 1986 and was imprisoned in Osaka Detention Center until 11 March 1989. While in prison, he jumped out of the hospital ward, breaking his bone, explaining in a letter to his mother that he did it because she would not cooperate regarding his discharge. He demanded from his parents to take responsibility and pay for his living expenses after his release. However, the father refused him. Because he didn't show remorse, his father told him that he would hand over the money he traded in for his personal belongings to disown him. ^[8][9] After his release from prison, Takuma moved to Ikeda and found work as a bus driver, garbage truck driver, semi-trailer truck driver and dump truck driver. Takuma's coworkers described him as a quiet and unremarkable man, but a bit of a loner who did not like dealing with customers.^[3]

In addition, Takuma testified in a later psychological examination that he was involved in 2 fatal car accidents when he was a dump truck driver and a semi-trailer truck driver after he was released from prison. While working he needed to carry industrial waste driving dump truck in the mountains, he drove his dump truck in front of another truck, and then suddenly pressed the brake pedal on a downward turn, the dump truck began to rotate and collided with an approaching truck. All the passengers of the truck died the next day. In this case, he lied about stepping on the brake pedal and told the police it was their fault. He was not indicted on any charges. Also, while driving a truck near the Metropolitan Expressway, the other car collided with the side wall and the driver died. He left the scene immediately, so he never revealed it as an incident.^[10]

In 1998, Takuma was fired after assaulting a passenger over the smell of her perfume. Takuma found a new job as maintenance man at Itami Elementary School, 6 kilometers away from Ikeda.

On 3 March 1999, Takuma dissolved some of his own tranquilizer, temazepam, into the tea served in the teachers' room at Itami Elementary School, sending four people to the hospital. Regarding the tranquilizer contamination incident, Takuma said, "I was ignored by the teachers and did not go well with my family, and I wanted to relieve my anger due to human relationships." Takuma was arrested, however, Takuma was not criminally punished as was found "not responsible" (due to mental illness). In November 1999, Takuma was arrested on suspicion of burglary of a private house, but the charges were dropped. Takuma managed to get a job as a taxi driver in September 2000, but was fired on 16 October after he assaulted a hotel bellhop in Osaka and broke the bellhop's nose. Takuma was also kicked out of several apartments for, among other things, throwing his garbage out from the balcony. On 23 May 2001, Takuma voluntarily admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital for depression, but left the next day without treatment.

Out of dozens of companies, he had only remained with two for more than a year, the Air Self-Defense Force and part-time local government employer. In all others he had resigned or been dismissed within about half a year. In addition, except for the rape case of the first offense, he has been arrested 15 times, but all cases have been dismissed due to mental illness. He has also experienced four divorces and suicide attempts. In October 1998, Takuma was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his ex-wife. Takuma was also arrested for driving his car in reverse gear on the Hanshin Expressway but released after he was found mentally unfit.

Massacre[]

On 8 June 2001, the day of his court hearing for the bellhop assault case, Takuma went on a murderous rampage in the Ikeda Elementary School where he had worked as a janitor. Takuma began to attack students and staff with a kitchen knife until he was wrestled down by staff. In the quick attack, Takuma killed eight students (seven 8-year-old girls and one 7-year-old boy) and seriously wounded thirteen other children and two teachers. Takuma was described as being in an extremely confused state when arrested, at first repeating "I went to the elementary school", and then saying "I went to the train station and stabbed 100 people with my knife. I did not go to the elementary school." Takuma stated he "drank ten times the medicine" immediately after his arrest and a subsequent medical examination was performed on him. The medicine in question turned out to be three types: the antipsychotic Seroquel, the antidepressant Paxil, and the benzodiazepine drug Lormetazepam. Even in the instance all of these medications are taken at ten times their standard prescribed dose, they are more likely to cause somnolence or sedation, not psychotic behavior.^[11]

Takuma also stated:

「何もかも嫌になった。何回も自殺を図ったが死にきれない。捕まえて死刑にしてほしかった。」^[12]

Nani mo kamo iya ni natta. Nankai mo jisatsu wo hakatta ga shi ni kirenai. Tsukamaete shikei ni shite hoshikatta.

"I've become disgusted with everything. I've tried to kill myself several times, but couldn't. I wanted to be caught and be given a death sentence."^[13]

Takuma also hated elite children who attended Ikeda Elementary School.^[14]

Trial and execution[]

Takuma's lawyers argued that he was suffering from temporary insanity at the time of the attack, but the psychiatrist who had initially diagnosed Takuma as schizophrenic told the court he later determined that Takuma actually had paranoid personality disorder.^[15][16] At one point, Takuma claimed to have been influenced by the Shimonoseki Station massacre that had occurred two years earlier and sought to imitate it himself.

On 28 August 2003, Takuma was found guilty of multiple counts of murder and sentenced to death.^[17] Takuma remained unrepentant, refusing to apologize to the families of the victims, and asked only for the sentence to be fulfilled as fast as possible. In court, Takuma engaged in intentionally provocative behavior, including yawning, shaking his body, and staring at victims' family members. His statement was, "I should have used gasoline, so I could have killed more than I did."^[18] On the last day of the trial, Takuma still expressed no guilt or remorse, and continued to insult the victims' families until the judge removed him. The sentence was carried out unusually quickly by Japanese standards (condemned prisoners in Japan usually spend many years on death row); Takuma was executed at the Osaka Detention House only one year later, on 14 September 2004.^[19]

Influence[]

Kaoru Kobayashi, who sexually assaulted and murdered 7-year-old Kaede Ariyama in Nara in November 2004, considered Takuma to be a charismatic murderer and sought a speedy execution like him.^[20]

Kobayashi said:

I want to be sentenced to death as quickly as possible, and leave a legacy among the public as the next Tsutomu Miyazaki or Mamoru Takuma.^[21]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]

• (in Japanese) Takuma Mamoru
• (in Japanese) https://web.archive.org/web/20071228095650/http://gonta13.at.infoseek.co.jp/newpage203.htm
• (in Japanese) http://yabusaka.moo.jp/ikeda.htm