Memorial Service Held for 2016 Massacre at Sagamihara Care Home

July 24, 2018

Sagamihara, Kanagawa Pref.- A ceremony was held on Monday to pray for the 19 people killed in the 2016 knifing rampage at a care facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, ahead of the second anniversary of the massacre on Thursday.

The event was attended by 609 people, including bereaved family members of the victims of the attack by a former employee of the facility for the disabled.

It was jointly organized by the Kanagawa prefectural government, the Sagamihara municipal government and Kanagawa Kyodo-kai, a social welfare corporation that operates the care home.

"The sorrow of the families of the victims can't be healed in only two years," Kaoru Irikura, head of the facility, Tsukui Yamayuri-en, said during the ceremony.

"We never allow the abnormal, selfish belief that disabled people should be discriminated and removed," Junji Kusamitsu, the leader of Kanagawa Kyodo-kai, said, referring to the repeated claim by Satoshi Uematsu, a former caretaker at Tsukui Yamayuri-en who carried out the assault against the residents in the small hours of July 26, 2016.

Uematsu surrendered to police right after the crime and was indicted for killing 19 residents aged 19 to 70 at the care home and injuring 24 others. His first court hearing has yet to be scheduled.

"I recalled the incident and couldn't stop bitter tears from falling," said Takashi Ono, 74, the father of 45-year-old son Kazuya, who was seriously wounded in the attack.

In the memorial service, the names of the 19 victims were kept unknown, as were in the previous year's ceremony.

"Although I wanted to mourn each of the victims by name, the bereaved families' will was respected," Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa said at a press conference after the event.

The names of the victims could not be disclosed due to deep-rooted discrimination against people with disabilities in society, he stressed.

"Yamayuri" origami lilies with 19 colors folded by the rest of Tsukui Yamayuri-en residents, now living in facilities in other locations, were displayed on an altar for the ceremony.

The Sagamihara facility is expected to reopen during fiscal 2021 after the completion of work to rebuild buildings where the attack took place. Jiji Press