Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh Murder

This evening, I was going through my photographs of my April 2007 trip to Japan. While doing so, my attention was directed to photos of the campaign headquarters of Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh, who was gunned down on April 17, 2007.

Mayor Itoh (left) was campaigning for a fourth term as mayor of Nagasaki when a man approached him from behind in front of the campaign headquarters and shot him at point-blank range in the back.

According to news reports, the assailant, Tetsuya Shiroo, shot Mayor Itoh from behind after he got out of his campaign car and fired another bullet into his back after he had already fallen.

Above, Mayor Itoh being administered first aid by paramedics following the shooting.

Mayor Itoh arrived at Nagasaki University Hospital around 8:00 pm in critical condition. His heart and lungs had ceased functioning. Itoh was placed on a heart-lung machine and doctors proceeded with fours hours of emergency surgery in an attempt to stop internal bleeding. Unfortunately, Itoh died shortly after 2:00 am on April 18.

Police investigators found that Tetsuya Shiroo, age 59, was a senior member of Suishin-kai, a gang organization. Shiroo was allegedly upset that his claims for damages to his car at a public works construction site were denied. Shiroo was tried and sentenced to death, but the Fukuoka High Court tossed out the death sentence in 2008.

This was big news throughout Japan. I was in Kumamoto at the time of the shooting and my next stop was Nagasaki.

Above, the front of Mayor Itoh's campaign headquarters, where the Mayor was shot two days before. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While in Nagasaki, I stopped at Mayor Itoh's campaign headquarters on April 19, two days after the murder. Flowers were beginning to pile up in front of the campaign office when I arrived. After taking a few photographs of the scene from a nearby pedestrian bridge, I went inside and signed the condolence book. The people inside the campaign headquarters were grateful that a foreign tourist would take the time to pay respects.

In a way, it is almost like being a witness to history.