Japanese Teacher Terrorizes and Tortures Nine Year Old for Having American Great Grandfather

The Japan Times Online ^ | 09 OCT 03 | KYODO

[Mortimer Snavely]

Lawyers aid schoolboy harassed over American heritage

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) More than 500 lawyers have joined hands with a 9-year-old boy in a lawsuit filed Wednesday with the Fukuoka District Court demanding 13 million yen from his school and a teacher who repeatedly ordered the child to kill himself.

The boy, a fourth-grader who attends a municipal school in Fukuoka's Nishi Ward, suffers posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of his teacher's actions, according to the lawsuit.

In an effort to show solidarity with the pupil and to make him feel that he is not isolated, 503 lawyers from around the country have put their names to the lawsuit. It is rare for such a large number of lawyers to be involved in one case.

According to the suit, between May and June this year the 46-year-old male teacher repeatedly told the boy, whose great-grandfather is an American, to commit suicide, saying such things as: "Your blood is filthy, jump from your condominium and die," and "Haven't you died yet? Make sure you do today." The teacher has since been suspended from work.

Furthermore, the teacher injured him on several occasions by making the boy choose from five forms of punishment, when it came time to go home. In one such punishment, "Pinnochio," the boy's nose was pinched so hard that it bled, the lawsuit said.

Lawyers for the boy, who suffers convulsions and nausea and has said he wants to "change his blood" and that he does not deserve to live, made an appeal to colleagues nationwide asking for support.

The Japan Times: Oct. 9, 2003
(C) All rights reserved

[sushiman]

Cries of terror foil teacher trying to rape fifth-grader




A Tokyo teacher was arrested Friday after he tried to rape a fifth-grader, giving up only because she started crying as he ripped her clothes off, police said.

Taku Hashimoto, the teacher at a public elementary school in Setagaya-ku, was arrested for attempted rape.

He admits to the allegations, saying police claims that he had tried to rape the girl were "no mistake."

Investigators fear the married 33-year-old from the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji may have unleashed sex attacks on other girls and are looking into his past activities.

Hiromitsu Oka, principal of the school where Hashimoto works, was distraught.

"It rips my heart out that a painful act like this has occurred," he told a news conference at the Setagaya Municipal Government offices on Friday before expressing his amazement over what Hashimoto is accused of doing. "(Hashimoto) was so keen on education, so passionate. He was a teacher who really tried hard to manage his class. The kids loved him, too."

Hiroshi Nakamura, deputy director of the municipal government's office of education, was suitably outraged.

"It was a vile, unforgivable act," Nakamura said. "I can't apologize enough when I think about the agony the child and her parents must be going through."

Police said that following an after-school sports club activities he had supervised on Thursday afternoon, Hashimoto instructed the fifth grader to go to a meeting room in the school building where he would give her some private lessons.

Once he got the little girl into the room, Hashimoto tried to rape her, police said, adding that she began crying loudly once Hashimoto had taken all her clothes off, so the teacher decided not to proceed with his attack. The girl described her traumatic experience to her mother and father. Police were subsequently contacted early Friday by a friend of the parents who told them about the attack.

Officers contacted Hashimoto, who admitted to the girl's accusations.

Hashimoto did not turn up to teach on Friday, but classes at the school went ahead as scheduled. Hashimoto is married and has been teaching for about 10 years. He has been at his current school for the past four years.

It is the second posting of his career. He was in charge of teaching children in the higher grades at the elementary school. (Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports, Japan, Oct. 24, 2003)