Today, a breaking news shocked the world.
At 11:30 local time, Japanese media suddenly reported that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and fell to the ground while delivering a speech on the streets of Nara.
The incident happened too suddenly. In Japan, a place with a very low gun ownership rate, the sudden news of the shooting made people overwhelmed. The person who was shot was the former prime minister. Many people suspected that it was fake news.
But subsequently updated news proved the authenticity of the shooting incident: Abe was shot in the left chest and fell to the ground bleeding. He was still conscious when the ambulance arrived, but then fell into cardiopulmonary arrest and was unable to respond.
A chaotic crowd could be seen at the scene. People and staff gathered around Abe who fell to the ground, and emergency personnel hurriedly pressed on the heart and lungs.
Preliminary information stated that the gunman used a shotgun and fired two shots from a position 3 meters behind. The shots at close range were extremely lethal.
Japanese media reports mentioned that Abe suffered "cardiopulmonary arrest" after being shot. This description is similar to "no vital signs" in the Chinese context, but whether he died or not will still be judged by a doctor.
Government officials stated that Abe’s situation is “quite dangerous.”
Some photos and videos of the incident quickly spread around the world. Since the incident occurred in a very ordinary small square near the station, people coming and going quickly realized the seriousness of the matter.
Originally this was just a small speech gathering of about 30 people. After the incident, a large number of people came around.
Someone captured the moment when Abe was giving a speech before the shooting. Before the shooting, Abe was making an impassioned statement of his opinion and canvassing votes for the election of local congressmen.
About a minute or two after the speech started, the attacker's first shot caused a loud noise, smoke visible to the naked eye filled the air, and the crowd at the scene broke out in exclamations.
There was almost no gap between the two shots. After that, there was a second loud noise. Abe fell after the shot. The crowd at the scene immediately contacted the police and ambulance.
After that, Abe was sent to the hospital for treatment as quickly as possible.
However, the attacker did not escape from the scene. The security personnel worked together to knock him down and captured him on the spot.
An office worker in the front row of the audience described what he saw. Abe stood on the podium a few meters away from the guardrail and began to speak. About a minute later, a "bang" burst sounded. At that moment, he felt like he felt an explosion.
He thought to himself, "Is there a bomb thrown over?", so he bent down. After a moment of silence, Abe fell forward and the scene was in an uproar.
The Senate candidates present were red-faced and ran towards Abe while crying.
He originally came to Nara for a trip, and happened to meet Abe’s speech, so he stood nearby and listened, never expecting that he would encounter such a thing.
"There are also high school students in the audience... I have only heard that there have been many shooting incidents in the United States. Who would have thought that such a thing would happen in Japan.
Although it has been an hour and a half since the incident, I still feel that I am still I can't stop shaking..."
A female high school student who watched Abe's speech at a cram school on the fourth floor of a building near the scene of the incident described that at that time, a man approached Abe from behind and shot with a gun shaped like a rocket launcher .
Perhaps the first shot missed, and Abe continued to speak after the gunshot.The man retreated slightly and fired a second shot. Abe fell down on the spot as if he suddenly lost strength.
Someone ran over with AED(automated external defibrillator), and some people may have been frightened and fainted on the spot.
After this, the man did not continue the attack, but chose to put the gun where he was.
Before the attack, the man lurked in the crowd and clapped with everyone. After the attack, he remained very calm.
The shooting target of the man was quite clear, and he went straight towards Shinzo Abe. After he succeeded, he did not take any further action against the people, and he also chose not to run away after the incident.
After investigation, the suspect is 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamayama, a local resident of Nara. He was previously a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force . He fired two shots in the neck and chest.
The "shotgun" mentioned in the initial report is actually a suspected homemade double-barreled gun. In the pictures provided by the media, you can see that the gun body is wrapped and fixed with tape. It is said that he once disguised it as a camera to relax the vigilance of the security personnel.
As for the specific motive for the shooting, the current interrogation only mentioned that the suspect had dissatisfaction with Abe other than political factors and planned to kill him.
At the same time, the suspect repeated incomprehensible words and mentioned the name of a senior member of a religious group. It needs to be judged whether he is deliberately using his acting skills to avoid criminal law, or whether he really has a mental problem. The subsequent details of
may have to wait for further investigation.
Affected by the incident, the current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio gave up the originally planned street speech shortly after the shooting and flew back to Tokyo by helicopter from Yamagata Prefecture .
The Prime Minister's official residence urgently set up a crisis management center to deal with this shooting incident and other problems that may arise subsequently.
In the afternoon, Fumio Kishida responded to the media situation, saying that Shinzo Abe is currently bleeding subcutaneously on his right neck and left chest and is in critical condition, and all-out rescue efforts are being carried out.
Later Japanese media reported that the hospital was considering installing an artificial heart and lung device, supplemented by cardiac massage to make the heart beat again.
The aftermath of the incident continued to spread. To ensure safety, Abe’s wife left her home in Tokyo by car and was escorted by security guards to the hospital where Abe was staying in the evening.
At nearly 6 p.m. local time, news came from the media that Abe died after unsuccessful rescue efforts.
At this point, the incident has settled.
Japanese experts analyzed that this incident is likely to be the biggest political incident after the war: the use of violence to block speech is a challenge to democracy.
However, from the perspective of the public, similar analysis may be quite controversial. Some Japanese netizens mentioned that it is not so much democracy but the dissatisfaction of people living on another level, which is a problem caused by the intensification of social conflicts.
This part of the opinion mentioned that rather than broadly classifying violent acts into the realm of democracy, facing up to the problems that Japanese society is encountering today and caring about public opinion more broadly is the fundamental way to avoid similar acts from continuing to occur.
In addition, the Japanese people also raised many doubts. For example, many people questioned the defense issues at the scene:
The gunman did not approach from the audience, but approached from behind. In this way, he was able to walk to a very close distance and fired in one breath. Two shots.
This does not mean that strict security should be provided at all times, but even if the rear is slightly guarded, such an attack will not occur.
Judging from past history, attacks on Japanese politicians are nothing new.
The previous attacks on well-known politicians in Japan may be traced back to 15 years ago. In 2007, Nagasaki Mayor Ito Kazunaga was shot and killed after finishing his campaign.
Later investigation showed that the suspect was a member of Japan's largest criminal organization " Yamaguchi-gumi". He killed people with guns in broad daylight, which once caused panic to the people at the time.
Going back in time, what is more famous is the assassination of Japanese politician Inajiro Asanuma in 1960.
During his lifetime, Asanuma stated that he would promote the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, and the abolition of the US-Japan security treaty, saying that US imperialism was the common enemy of China and Japan.
During a speech in 1960, he was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old member of the "Great Japan Patriotic Party" who held far-right views. A Japanese sword with a blade length of about 33 centimeters was stabbed into Inajiro Asanuma's chest on both sides. times, the first time he punctured his aorta and almost killed him on the spot.
Inajiro Asanuma became the first politician to be assassinated after the war. After the assassination, demonstrations calling for peace and social order took place across Japan.
But despite this, in the following decades, there were only six or seven similar incidents in Japan.
Therefore, today in 2022, the former Prime Minister was shot and attacked, which still gives people a real sense of witnessing history.
Whether the reason is the so-called challenge to democracy or the intensification of social conflicts in Japan under the impact of the epidemic and the economy, there is no doubt that this shooting that spread around the world has indeed affected the psychological expectations of many people.
The world has been turning rapidly in the past few years, and it seems that we are in the midst of major events every moment.
The Russo-Ukrainian war, the Tonga volcano eruption, the abolition of abortion rights in the US Constitution, Sri Lanka economic collapse, British Prime Minister resignation... 2022 is just halfway through, and we have witnessed too many moments that are "recorded in history". When
laments that "we are witnessing history every day," perhaps we will also remember that in the torrent of the times, every moment we spend is proof of the real marks left by history.
also hopes that everyone will be well every moment when history turns over...
