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Countdownto murder - the final posts The knifeman who killed seven people in a rampage in central Tokyo yesterdaycharted the slayings on a weblog which he updated via his mobile phone evenas he drove to the murder scene.
Tomohiro Kato had hired a two-tonne truck to make the 100-km trip from Susono,in the foothills of Mount Fuji, to Akihabara – the capital's Electric Townwhich is famed as the cradle of modern Japanese youth culture.
In the days leading up to the spree, Mr Kato made several visits to "scopeout" Akihabara and establish its suitability for death. "I knew there wouldbe lots of people and I decided this some days ago," he told police afterhis arrest.
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"I came to Akihabara tokill people," investigative sources quoted Kato as telling the police."I am tired of the world. Anyone was OK. I came alone."
According to the police and hospital officials, six ofthe seven who died were males and aged 19, 20, 29, 33, 47 and 74. Theother was a 21-year-old female.
In addition to the seven, 11 people who were taken tohospital after the stabbing rampage. Of these, eight men and two womenwere injured, including a traffic police officer who was patrolling atthe time. The remaining male person had sustained no injury but simplyhad blood on his clothing.
The area was crowded with shoppers as Chuo-dori in theAkihabara district was vehicle-free for pedestrians. The scene was nearthe intersection of Chuo-dori and Kanda Myojin-dori streets, only astone's throw from JR Akihabara Station.
Japan Times <!--TEMPLATE:call prefix="/template/" sectionParameter="template.version" suffix="/element/mark-up/pictureGallery.jsp" />-->
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At 5.21am he posted his message of the day on a "moblog" or mobile phone blog.It read: ‘‘I will kill people in Akihabara, have a vehicle crash and, if thevehicle becomes useless, I will use a knife."
Subsequent postings released by police today provide a gruesome runningcommentary of his drive to central Tokyo, including the promise that drizzlyweather would not deter him in his "mission". The messages end just minutesbefore the attacks were unleashed.
"It’s time; I’m going," read the final comment, which is believed to have beensent just before Mr Kato drove the heavy truck into the crowded,pedestrianised streets of Akihabara. After running down several people andsmashing into others, he jumped out and started slashing at the crowds witha hunting knife.
The selection of Akihabara appears to have been a central part of the killer'sdark scheme.
As other chilling details emerged about the life of the 25-year-old arrestedfor the multiple slayings, Japanese are collectively recoiling in disgust atwhat their supposedly law-abiding, controlled society has produced.
Until this fatal weekend, Mr Kato appears to have led the average life of ayoung Japanese man from a small, provincial town: a serious boy whograduated from a good local high school in the northern prefecture of Aomoriand headed south to work in a car parts factory in Shizuoka. He likeddriving cars too fast and would often, according to work colleagues, becomedeeply immersed in online forums.
Perhaps most strikingly, he appears to have shared with tens of thousands ofyoung Japanese men a passion for Akihabara and its maze of shops andboutiques that helped create Japan’s otaku stereotype.
Originally, the word otaku referred to a sub-class of youth culture whichfocused on the minutiae of various hobbies – everything from manga comicsand video games to model robots and animated pornography. More recently,however, the otaku phenomenon has gone mainstream and even financialanalysts track the spending habits of its participants.
But early on Sunday morning, the facade of normality around Mr Kato finallyslipped. At 7.14am he is alleged to have sent a text message to a workcolleague, waking him up and informing him that he had something to handover.
When Mr Kato arrived at the colleague’s house at around 8.45am, there seemedto be nothing abnormal – he was wearing the same expressionless "pokerface" that he maintained every day in the factory.
The only obvious difference was the pale suit that Mr Kato had on, which werea stark contrast from his usually very casual outfits of T-shirts and cheapjeans. Mr Kato gave his friend a bag of DVDs, video games and left him withthe enigmatic message: "I’m going to deliver this truck to Akihabara. I’mgoing to stop there briefly and then I’m flying east."
Three and a half hours after that conversation, Akihabara had become abloodbath.
The Associated Press reports that a 25-year-old man went on a rampage in downtown Tokyo today, killing at least seven people in the famed Akihabara district.
The killer apparently ran over several people with his truck before stabbing 18 more. According to the AP:
[Akihabarais] Tokyo's premier electronics and video game district... known asElectric Town, [it] is wildly popular with Japan's cyber-wise youth.
A CNN report adds:
TheAkihabara district, where the attack took place, specializes inelectronic gadgets and video games and is popular with peopleinterested in comic books and distinctive fashion.
BLOG POSTS:
Messages that Japanese police say were posted by Tomohiro Kato from his mobilephone on to an internet message board on the morning of the Akihabaramassacre just minutes before he went on his killing spree.
Quote:
05.21 Sleepy. Will drive into (the crowd), and after the car gets unusable,I’ll use the knife. Goodbye everyone
05:34 I can’t get over this headache
05:35 Rain is forecast. Bad
06:02 I’m used to playing the role of good man. Everybody is so easilydeceived
06:03 Am I incapable of having friends?
06:10 It seems the road I planned to take is blocked. After all, everything isagainst me
06:31 The time has come. Let’s go
06:39 It seems I’ll be battling against my headache
06:49 ...against rain
06:50 ...against time
07:30 What a dreadful rain...even though I prepared everything perfectly
07:47 Even though the scale [of the massacre] is small, I’ll do what I decidedto in the rain
09:48 Into Kanagawa and having a rest. Things are going well at the moment
10:53 Awful jam. Will I be in time?
11:07 Shibuya. It’s awful
11:45 Reached Akihabara. It’s the day of “pedestrians’ paradise”, isn’t it?Just minutes left now.
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