Photo/Illutration Miyuki Sakai's daughter visits her grandfather in his hospital room. (Provided by the family)

Singer Miyuki Sakai is a champion of people with disabilities.

Her story is worth telling, seven years after a horrific massacre threw light on careers like hers and attitudes toward people who cannot live unassisted.

In the early hours of July 26, 2016, care home worker Satoshi Uematsu stabbed to death 19 residents and injured 26 others after breaking into the Tsukui Yamayurien facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.

On March 16, 2020, a judge sentenced him to death.

Uematsu’s victims all lived with disabilities. He told investigators and journalists that he stabbed them to rid society of such people.

A month before the atrocity, Sakai, now 50, had performed for residents there.

Sakai was shocked by the stabbings.

In particular, she was horrified by Uematsu’s assertion that disabled people did not deserve to live.

She knew all about living with people with disabilities. Her 19-year-old daughter has Down syndrome.

But what sharpened the emotions for Sakai was, she said, remembering her own initial prejudice toward those with disabilities.

It was difficult at first for Sakai to read her daughter’s emotions. That often gave Sakai negative feelings.

Nevertheless, she persevered and found that she could raise her daughter with the support of doctors and social welfare workers.

Sakai had suspended her singing career when she married, but when her daughter turned 7 she began performing again. Sakai composed a song called “Gift” to mark her eldest daughter’s birthday.

The song expressed the joy Sakai felt after realizing that any one day, no matter how ordinary, is irreplaceable.

Sakai’s friends convinced her to post the song online. It was later chosen as an official song for the U.N. World Down Syndrome Day, March 21.

Now that she was performing again, Sakai began touring social welfare facilities.

“I wanted to be of help to those who were facing problems because of the lack of positive information related to raising children with disabilities,” Sakai said.

But difficulties remained. Her father-in-law could not accept the birth of his disabled granddaughter. He concealed it from his friends and acquaintances and kept his distance from the girl.

That all changed when the father-in-law himself became almost totally paralyzed in an accident that damaged his spinal cord. Unable to speak, he could only move his face and hands.

That was when he began asking to see his granddaughter.

Sakai watched them meet. They touched each other’s faces and were matched in being unable to converse.

“I believe he was finally able to accept the disability of his granddaughter when he accepted his own disability,” Sakai said.

The mass murder at Tsukui Yamayurien occurred about a month later.

Although Sakai’s father-in-law could not speak, his facial movements clearly showed the anger he felt toward the assailant.

As for Sakai, she was shocked not only by Uematsu’s anti-disability rant, but also by social media posts that agreed with him.

As unsettling as the incident was, what helped Sakai to pull through was seeing the heartfelt ties between her daughter and father-in-law.

“People can move closer together as long as they make the effort to communicate what they are feeling and to receive what the other person is trying to say,” Sakai said.

Since the massacre, Sakai has again performed at Tsukui Yamayurien. She remembers being heartened by the smiles of residents who listened and danced as she sang.

The facility has held several memorial ceremonies since the atrocity occurred.

A ceremony on July 26 this year was attended by about 80 people, including bereaved family members. Mourners laid flowers and prayed.

For the first time at such a ceremony, resident Yukari Okutsu spoke and expressed her hope that those who died would look after the residents from heaven.

Okutsu, 54, has an intellectual disability. She has lived at the facility for about 10 years.

The facility and its residents are thriving. About 60 people are currently living there.

(This article was written by Eiichiro Nakamura, Kazuya Miki and Ryoukei Ito.)