It is the worst mass killing in Japan’s history since World War II.
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The employee was quoted as saying to the police that a man had broken into the facility and that something awful was happening.
On Feb. 19, Uematsu was hospitalized for being in danger of harming himself or other people, in keeping with emergency measures designated in the law on mental health and welfare.
There have been conflicting reports about exactly how many people were killed and injured. In the letter he said he’d attack the center at night, tie up staff, and then turn himself in. In 2008, a man rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd of shoppers at a busy Tokyo intersection, then jumped out and began stabbing people, killing seven.
Uematsu also claims he carried out the attack and of the twenty-five wounded, 20 of them were seriously injured.
After the attack, Uematsu drove himself to the local police station, where he turned himself in. “I did it”, he told police.
White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that the attack was “all the more repugnant and senseless” as it had occurred at a facility for the disabled. He was employed for several years at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en home and didn’t initially cause problems, said officials of the home.
Japan is one of the most peaceful countries in the world, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, a think tank. The knives were left at the scene. Police got called to the facility by an employee.
According to the Kyodo news agency, Uematsu was in the hospital of the mentally ill in February-March.
Three people appearing to be a family showed up to lay flowers, but they were unable to do so, as police prevented them from coming close to the property. Eight staff members were on duty at the time.
The suspect had been working at the physically challenged facility since 2012.
It brought him to the attention of Tokyo police, who informed Sagamihara authorities that he was a potential threat to others, NHK and other media reported.
“It’s unthinkable that something like this could happen not just in Japan but, here in our community”, Mitsuo Kishi, a 76-year-old man who lives near Uematsu, also told the Post. “My daughter knew the culprit, I mean, they were acquainted”.
Because such massacres are rare, Japan has become overconfident about its safety, a Japanese criminologist said. “I still can’t understand why it happened here”, he said, recounting how he used to talk to the suspect often when he was a child. Because gun ownership is highly restricted, mass stabbings and poisonings are more common, CNN’s Paula Hancocks said.
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Officials have ruled out any link to terrorism. In February, he threatened to “obliterate 470 disabled people” in letters that he wrote and tried to give to the speaker of the House of Representatives.
