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Toshihiko HASEGAWA
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: To
collect insurance money
Number of victims:3
Date of murders:November 1979 -
December 1983
Date of birth:1950
Victims profile:Men
Method of murder:???
Location: Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Status: Executed by hanging at the Nagoya Detention Center
on December 27,
2001
Mass Murderer executed
Mainichi Shimbun
Dec. 27, 2001
A killer on death row since the mid-'80s were executed
Thursday, Justice Ministry sources said.
Thursday's executions ended a 13-month period since
the last death sentence was carried out.
They were also the first executions to take place
since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi assumed office in April.
Toshihiko Hasegawa, 51, conspired with a friend to
take out life insurance policies on three men they knew. From November
1979 to December 1983, he killed the three men and claim massive payouts
on the policies he had taken out on them.
Hasegawa was executed at the Nagoya Detention Center.
Unmasking Capital Punishment:
Victim's kin questions point of executions
Yomiuri.co.jp
January 2009
As his
body lay in the coffin, the man bore no traces of his agonizing death.
Instead, he had a subtle smile.
The
execution of death row inmate Toshihiko Hasegawa was carried out on Dec.
27, 2001, when he was 51. Two days later, his funeral was performed at a
church in Nagoya. About 70 people attended the funeral, including
Masaharu Harada, 61.
Akio,
Masaharu's younger brother, was killed in January 1983 when he was 30 by
Hasegawa and his accomplices. Akio was employed by Hasegawa as a truck
driver. Hasegawa had taken out a life insurance policy on Akio and had
him killed in collusion with two accomplices to collect the money.
Hasegawa and one of the accomplices also killed two other people.
In his
testimony at a district court hearing, Harada said he hoped Hasegawa
would receive the death penalty, saying, "I believe there can never be
any other punishment other than the death penalty."
After
Hasegawa was sentenced by the district court, he began writing Harada
letters of apology.
Harada,
however, would throw the letters away unopened. Only once did he unfold
one of the letters.
As his
anguish over the tragedy faded, he decided to reply to Hasegawa.
"I am
sorry for not to replying to you for so long," Harada wrote. The number
of letters from Hasegawa increased, with some containing drawings of
religious subjects that he drew "to express my feelings of atonement."
In the
summer of 1993, just before Hasegawa's sentence was finalized, Harada
visited the Nagoya Detention House.
Up
until the moment he entered the interview room, Harada felt he might
lose his temper with Hasegawa.
"I'm
incredibly glad that you are so kind as to come here to meet me!" the
death-row convict said to Harada.
Hasegawa seemed filled with joy while conveying his gratitude. Harada
found his anger dwindling. Even after the death sentence against
Hasegawa was finalized, Harada visited the detention house three times
under special permits to see the convict.
Harada
quoted Hasegawa as saying on one occasion, "Should I be allowed to get
out of here, I would like to give your mother a massage, as I have
learned massage techniques in my cell."
As
Harada listened to Hasegawa during these visits, he came to feel that he
was truly repentant and deeply cared about the bereaved families of the
victims of the murders he was involved in.
"Although
I had no intention of forgiving him, I wanted him to live and continue
conveying his atonement with all his heart," Harada said. "My mind
changed as I became aware that nothing worthwhile could come from his
execution."
Harada
has more than 100 letters and several drawings made with a ballpoint pen
from Hasegawa.
In
2007, Harada founded an organization to encourage dialogue between crime
victims and imprisoned criminals.
Once,
when he interviewed a convict sentenced to die, Harada advised him to
apologize from the bottom of his heart to his victims.
Death Penalty Does
Not Equal Atonement
by Masaharu Harada
Already, 3 years have passed since Toshihiko Hasegawa
was executed for killing my younger brother for insurance money in 1983.
Although the murder took place more than 20 years ago, it continues to
haunt me.
In April, a basic law to protect the rights and
interests of crime victimsçcame into force. Looking back on the anguish
and suffering I endured, I believe the enactment of this law is a
definite step forward.
But I am distressed that the basic law was enacted in
relation to the revised Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code that
incorporated measures to enforce more severe punishment on offenders.
According to the Justice Ministry, the revision was made because the old
laws "did not agree with the perceptions of crime victims." I, however,
am strongly against imposing more severe punishment.
As one who lost a family member to crime, I made
repeated pleas to hold off carrying out Hasegawa's death sentence. I
personally met the justice minister in 2001 and submitted a written
petition. Even so, the execution went ahead at the end of that year. My
opinion and feelings were completely ignored. It seems unreasonable that
officials of the same government office are now moving to impose more
severe punishment "in consideration for the feelings of victims."
At the time of the murder, Hasegawa was my brother's
employer. During the initial trial, I told the prosecution that I felt
he deserved only the death penalty.
The incident that took my brother's life also
shattered my everyday existence. I blamed everything on Hasegawa and I
felt my hatred grow daily. But about 10 years later, I started thinking
that I should learn more about the death penalty system. I also found
myself thinking strongly that I wanted to meet Hasegawa and ask him why
he killed my brother.
When I first met him, he said: "I am sorry for what I
did." I had previously read his words of apology in his letters. But
actually hearing him say those words carried more weight.
Looking at the man uttering words of apology and
trying to atone for his sin, I felt a sense of comfort and healing for
the first time. That is not to say that I forgave him. But by meeting
him, I felt as though I had finally found the key to setting myself
free.
When a person kills another, how can the killer make
up for the sin?
I don't have the answer. But when I heard that
Hasegawa was drawing pictures as a way to atone, I wanted to believe him.
It is my belief that people can compensate for their
wrongdoings only when they are alive. The death penalty is too
simplistic a way to settle crimes. As far as I am concerned, Hasegawa's
execution did nothing to put my mind at ease. On the contrary, I felt
that it deprived me of my chance to get back on my feet again.
I think bereaved families should be given the right
to personally meet "perpetrators." But under the existing system, once
the death sentence is finalized, they are virtually unable to make
contact.
It contradicts the principle that people are innocent
until they are proven guilty, because it is only after their guilt is
established that suspects can be considered perpetrators.
Furthermore, the court is not venue where defendants
can speak freely about what they think and how they really feel. I think
the current system should be revised to replace the death penalty with
life imprisonment. That would allow families who lost loved ones to
crime to meet with the offenders.
When I gives street speeches calling for an end to
the death penalty, I am sometimes approached by people who ask if I have
ever considered the feelings of bereaved families. Do people think all
crime victims want perpetrators to be put to death?
I was also asked why I use the honorific "kun" to
address the person who killed my brother. I felt like asking the person,
"Do you hate him more than I do?"
People tend to decide what victims are feeling to
suit themselves and in the process come to the conclusion that
supporting more severe punishments is a gesture of sympathy. This type
of thinking makes me feel uneasy. Rather, I want people to listen to
each individual victim to understand how each one of us thinks.
I want society and government policies to reflect
these various ideas as well as the true feelings of crime victims and
their families.
(source: Opinion; Masaharu Harada-- The author is a
company employee; Asahi Shimbun)
