In 1963, a woman wanted an abortion but missed the window, and a boy named Mamoru Takuma was born. Since he was an unwanted child, he never received a mother's love and was constantly cursed with words like 'You should never have been born' or 'I never wanted you.' His overbearing father beat him with a bamboo sword under the guise of 'building character,' but it was really just to blow off steam. In a normal home, the mother would have stopped the violence, but she joined in on the criticism instead.
Then in 1999, things exploded. While working as a school janitor, Mamoru Takuma spiked a tea kettle with tranquilizers, poisoning four teachers. He was forcibly hospitalized but later released due to a schizophrenia diagnosisโwhich in hindsight was the worst move possible. At that point, he already had 13 to 15 prior convictions. His record included damaging cars, placing rocks on train tracks to obstruct them, driving the wrong way on highways, charging onto sidewalks with a car, spraying 'unclean substances' on his crush's lunchbox, and getting fired from a bus driver job after fighting with a woman over perfume smells. He'd scream at kids for not throwing trash away properly, served 3 years for rape, and habitually kicked or burned animals like cats and dogs. He was basically a hopeless human being.
On June 8, 2001, at 10:10 AM, Mamoru Takuma broke into Ikeda Elementary School, an elite school attached to Osaka Kyoiku University. At the time, Japanese schools were easy to enter. They were operated with an 'open school' philosophy for the local community, so gates weren't strictly controlled, and residents often used the school grounds like a public park.
He didn't enter through the main gate but through the automatic parking gate at the east entrance. A teacher walking nearby saw him and thought, 'Is he a dad here for an observation class? Or a contractor?' but because he walked in so confidently and looked like an average man in his late 30s, the teacher passed him without suspicion. Once inside, Takuma checked the first floor, saw the faculty room full of strong men, and headed for the lower-grade classrooms at the far end of the hallway. At 10:12 AM, he slid open the glass door to the 2nd-grade South Class. That class happened to belong to the teacher who had just passed him; the teacher was away, and only the kids were there. When Takuma entered, the room went dead silent. A stranger with a blank expression had just walked in. After a second of silence, Takuma walked toward the back. The kids weren't on guard, thinking he was a parent or a worker. He approached a boy in the back row. The boy looked up, and Takuma suddenly stabbed him with a 15cm sashimi knife. The boy collapsed, and while the kids started screaming, some of the younger ones were too frozen to understand the situation. Takuma didn't chase those who ran; he focused on the frozen children, swinging his blade. Five kids died thereโmostly young girls, who were physically weaker. At 10:13 AM, he moved to the 2nd-grade West Class. They had already heard the screams, so the teacher yelled for them to run and went for help. The kids were paralyzed with fear, and in that teacherless room, Takuma killed two more children.
At 10:15 AM, he headed for the 2nd-grade East Class. However, teachers from other classes had arrived after hearing the screams and confronted him using chairs as shields. One teacher was slashed (requiring 3 weeks to heal). Due to the heavy resistance, Takuma retreated to the hallway and headed to the 1st-grade annex, where one more child was killed. At that moment, the vice principal and two male teachers tackled him with everything they had. Once fully restrained, Takuma took a breath and said, 'Ah, shindo' (Man, I'm beat). It's the kind of phrase a laborer says after a hard day's work. In just 10 minutes, 8 were dead and 15 were injured. The cause of death for most wasn't instant; it was excessive bleeding and shock.
At his first trial on December 27, 2001, Takuma tried to fake schizophrenia and the effects of medication to get off easy. However, detailed evaluations labeled him a psychopath with paranoid personality disorder. Since this didn't qualify as a lack of mental competency, he was deemed fit for punishment. Realizing he couldn't escape, he dropped the act and unleashed his pure malice.
The verdict was the death penalty. In Japan, killing two or more people usually leads to considering the death penalty, and killing three or four almost certainly guarantees it.
He said things like, 'Thanks for the death sentence, I want to die quickly anyway,' and 'I can die because of your 8 kids' deaths. 3 would've been enough, but the other 5 were a bonus.' In 2003, his sentence was finalized. While on death row, he actually married a woman in her 30s who had become infatuated with him. He was executed on September 14, 2004.
Letters he sent to his lawyer and acquaintances showed he was still delusionalโcomplaining about his life, saying he wanted to be a pilot, and asking for money. He wrote, 'Time goes faster here if you have money. 100 million won (approx.) should be enough.' Before his execution, when asked for final words, instead of apologizing to the victims, he said, 'Please tell my wife, who married me, thank you.' His father refused to claim the body, saying, 'Grind his bones and bury them in a ditch.' Since the family wouldn't take him, his prison-wife took the remains. Even then, ossuaries and cemeteries refused to take a murderer's ashes, so the remains reportedly wandered around in the wife's belongings for a while.
Additionally, the teacher from the West Class was heavily criticized for 'running away' instead of protecting the kids. Though the teacher explained they went to get help, the public didn't believe it, saying they should have locked the doors or fought back like the East Class teachers. However, opinions later shifted; considering the panic and the fact that fighting a knife empty-handed is nearly impossible, the teacher's screams actually alerted the rest of the school, minimizing the damage. Many people stopped hating on that teacher after this realization.
One of Takuma's motives was to make his family suffer because of him. After the incident, his mother lived in total isolation, consumed by the guilt of 'giving birth to a demon,' and died a lonely death in 2016. His brother also passed away due to the social pressure, the weight of his brother's crimes, and business failure.
After this incident, Japan was in shock and completely overhauled its education and legal systems. Schools became fortresses: gates are now closed except for commute times, visitors are strictly verified, security guards were hired, 'Sasumata' (man-catchers) were distributed, emergency bells were installed, and many classrooms were moved to the second floor.
Classroom doors were modified to open easily for escape, and hallway walls were made more open to eliminate blind spots so kids could be seen from anywhere. Also, a system was introduced where serious offenders who are acquitted or not indicted due to mental illness are not sent back to society, but are forcibly hospitalized and monitored by the court and doctors. The classroom where the incident occurred was closed, and a 'Tower of Prayer and Vow' with 8 bells was erected to honor the 8 children.
Every June 8th at 10:12 AM, the bells ring 8 times to pray that such a tragedy never happens again. The evil Takuma was executed, but 24 years later, the people left behind still remember and honor those children.
"Users are horrified by the 'weak-targeting' nature of the killer and are debating whether Korea's current school security and the 'nature vs. nurture' aspect of such monsters could prevent a similar tragedy locally."
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