Latest news with #KonanUniversity
Yomiuri Shimbun
30-06-2025
- Health
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Efforts to Examine War Trauma of Former Japanese Soldiers Grow; Medical Records Provide Vital Insight
A move has been growing to examine the psychological distress and emotional suffering experienced by former Japanese soldiers as a result of exposure to traumatic events during World War II. War trauma has long been considered a personal issue although there have been many cases where former soldiers' mental anguish has made it difficult for them to perform their daily activities. In recent years, however, the public's understanding of the issue has grown, and efforts have been made to share the suffering of the soldiers among their families. The government is also planning to hold its first exhibition on war trauma later this month. Charts of 8,002 people Medical records called 'bedside logs' of 8,002 soldiers who stayed at Konodai army hospital in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, for mental illnesses during the war are stored at Asai Hospital in Togane, Chiba Prefecture. One such record contains graphic descriptions of how a private of the Imperial Japanese Army from Yamagata Prefecture is tormented by a sense of guilt. The soldier seems to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. 'He killed six innocent civilians in Shandong Province [in China], and this haunts him in his dreams,' the record reads. Immediately after the war, the army ordered the hospital to destroy the charts. However, Toshio Asai, who served as a military doctor at the hospital, and then the hospital director put them in a drum can and buried it underground, believing that the records must be preserved for future generations. The records were unearthed several years later and photocopied — a process that took more than five years. Since then, the records have been stored at Asai Hospital – which was founded by Asai, who passed away in 2000. The records are now considered important materials by experts studying war trauma. 'We want to continue safeguarding these valuable records,' said Yoshinobu Naganuma, 71, a hospital staff member who assisted with the preservation efforts. Father's experienceAccording to Shigeyuki Mori, professor emeritus of clinical psychology at Konan University, many former Japanese soldiers who had experienced harsh battles or the deaths of comrades exhibited symptoms such as hyperarousal, a state of heightened stress for prolonged periods of time, and emotional numbness. But the issue was never considered a social problem. Instead of focusing on the war trauma itself, society tended to focus on issues of alcohol dependency and domestic violence, which were caused by the trauma, according to Mori. The Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, played a significant role in raising awareness of war trauma. Comprehensive research on the matter was conducted after similar symptoms were observed in the United States among returning soldiers. The American Psychiatric Association officially certified PTSD as a mental disorder in 1980. PTSD among returning soldiers became a visible issue in the 2000s during and after the United States' military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. Efforts to examine war trauma began to emerge in Japan, too, as society's understanding of PTSD grew. Akio Kuroi, 76, of Musashimurayama, Tokyo, founded an organization in 2018 where relatives of former Japanese soldiers and others discuss war trauma. Kuroi's father, Keijiro, was sent to China during the war. Keijiro did not secure steady employment after the war and led a life of apathy. After his father's death in 1990, Kuroi saw video footage of U.S. military veterans suffering from PTSD after serving in the Vietnam War. Kuroi said he realized his father might have been in the same situation. His organization holds an annual gathering and organizes monthly meetings for those with similar circumstances to himself to connect with one another. Similar activities have also taken place in Osaka and Chiba prefectures. 'I want to convey the feelings of frustration of people like my father who suffered psychological wounds from the war,' Kuroi said. Government efforts In response to these efforts, the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry began a study on war trauma in fiscal 2024. It has collected analysis results of medical records stored at Asai Hospital and accounts written by the family about former Japanese soldiers' lives and feelings. The government will also start a panel exhibition on war trauma later this month at Shokei-kan, a national archive that houses information about sick and wounded servicemen in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. The exhibition is scheduled to run for about three months, but plans are underway to expand the content and make it a permanent exhibition next year.
Asahi Shimbun
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Court dismisses case on inmate executed while seeking retrial
OSAKA—The Osaka District Court on May 14 dismissed a case seeking a total of 16.5 million yen ($112,230) in state compensation for three lawyers who represented a death row inmate executed while his retrial request was active. In filing the lawsuit, the three claimed that the rights of their defense were violated and they suffered emotional distress due to the death of their client, a former yakuza member, during the request period. While the court said in its ruling that "careful consideration is required," it concluded that "the constant repetition of requests for retrial will make execution virtually impossible on a permanent basis." The three plaintiffs had served as defense lawyers for the retrial of former death row inmate Keizo Okamoto (nee Kawamura), a former high-ranking member of a crime organization. Okamoto's death sentence for robbery and murder, among other charges, was finalized in 2004. Even so, Okamoto said he did not intend to commit a robbery and sought a correction to his sentence. His execution in December 2018 occurred in the midst of his fourth retrial request. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that as defense attorneys they were "entrusted with the life of a death row inmate," and that executing Okamoto made it impossible for them to confirm the facts presented against their client. His death also 'made it difficult to pursue our mission of correcting the wrongful verdict,' according to them. The plaintiffs claimed that the central government was liable for 'obstruction of proof.' The state refuted this by citing that the Code of Criminal Procedure specifies that 'a request for a retrial does not have the effect of suspending the execution of a sentence." It expanded on its counterargument, saying, "There is no legal obligation to refrain from executing an individual during a request for retrial, and it does not constitute a violation of the right to counsel." The practice of waiting to execute death row inmates awaiting retrial occurred for some time after World War II, taking the possibility of wrongful convictions into consideration. However, criticism over "life extension" grew as many death row inmates began to request retrials. The execution of a death row inmate awaiting retrial in 1999 was the single outlier until 2017 where a series of executions were carried out. Kana Sasakura, a professor at Konan University and an expert on the death penalty, offered the United States' protocol for these situations—death row executions are put off until the court reaches a final verdict if there is a motion that constitutes a request for a retrial.
