Mayor Who Faulted Hirohito Is Shot
By DAVID E. SANGER, Special to The New York Times, Published: January 19, 1990
The Mayor of Nagasaki, who broke one of the nation's most sensitive taboos by saying a year ago that Emperor Hirohito bore some responsibility for World War II, was shot today, and the police arrested a 40-year-old ultranationalist.
The Mayor, Hitoshi Motoshima, was reported in critical condition but out of danger tonight after two hours of surgery. Mr. Motoshima, 67 years old, who received many threats after he refused to retract his unusually blunt comments about the Emperor, was shot once in the chest at close range as he left City Hall at 3 P.M. today.
Within five hours, the police had arrested Kazumi Tajiri, whom they identified as a sub-chief of a small right-wing group, the Spiritual Justice School. They said that Mr. Tajiri had been apprehended at an inn not far from City Hall, and that he had immediately volunteered, ''I shot Mayor Motoshima.''
The shooting sent a chill through Japan, a seeming echo from the 1930's when Tokyo was thrown into near-anarchy by a wave of assassinations by right-wing military officers.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/19/world/mayor-who-faulted-hirohito-is-shot.html
Funniest phrase I heard in Japan: "Half of Japanese are Shinto. Half are Buddhist. And half don't have any religion at all."
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