Photo/Illutration Police restrain a young man, later identified as Ryuji Kimura, suspected of hurling an apparent pipe bomb in the area where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was scheduled to speak. (Nen Satomi)

Takashi Hara (1856-1921), who was affectionately called the “commoner prime minister,” kept a journal--a practice he started in the spring when he was 19. He first made notes in his notebook and later made clean copies with a brush for daily entries.

The last word in his diary, which spans 82 volumes in total that read like a saga novel, was “departing,” scribbled in pencil. Thirty minutes after he left home one day, he was assassinated. He could never make a fair copy of his final entry.

It was in 1921. Hara died after being stabbed in the chest at an entrance gate at Tokyo Station, where he was to board a train to travel to Kyoto. The assassin suddenly emerged from behind a pillar and pounced on him. There is still a mark on the floor that shows the location of the attack. It is an ugly scar in the history of Japanese democracy.

I never imagined that the nation would witness a second incident within less than a year that harkens back to the fatal attack on a politician a century ago. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was attacked on April 15 by a young man in the city of Wakayama.

While Kishida was not injured, a cylindrical silver tube thrown toward Kishida, apparently made of a metal, exploded seconds later near spectators. It is horrifying to imagine what would have happened if it had been a more powerful explosive.

As I watched TV footage of the attack, I was disturbed by the creepy way the man behaved immediately after he threw the tube. He did not even try to flee and appeared to be trying to do something nonchalantly with another tube in his hand. What was his purpose in committing such an act?

No. What he did is totally unacceptable, no matter for what purpose he did it. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during his election campaign speech. The latest attack occurred amid the first major elections after Abe’s assassination. Anyone who tries to silence a politician with violence is a destroyer of democracy.

The dark shadows terrorism cast over society attract even more darkness. The man who stabbed Hara a century ago was inspired by an assassination of a famous business leader by a rightist. The chain reaction of violence must be stopped.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 16

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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