We worked together closely for years and we spoke and consulted one another when I served as vice president. At a news conference at the hospital, doctors said the former leader died from excessive bleeding and the bullet that killed him had penetrated deep enough to reach his heart. local time, according to the head of Nara Medical University. Rushed to the hospital: Abe arrived at the hospital in a state of cardiac arrest at 12:20 p.m. local time, according to doctors at Nara Medical University.Ĭonfirmed dead: Abe was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m. He was taken to the hospital first by ambulance, then by medical helicopter.

He suffered a gunshot wound to the right side of his neck, according to officials in Tokyo. local time in Nara, east of Osaka, as he gave an election campaign speech on the street. The shooting: Abe was shot at about 11:30 a.m. The shooting suspect was arrested by police, who said he admitted to shooting Abe. He also wanted to visit Kyoto to find the hotel where he stayed while on postwar duties to thank them for their hospitality.Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot on the street in the city of Nara on Friday - a shocking act of violence in a country with one of the world's lowest rates of gun crime. Military officials from the embassies in Tokyo of former allied countries, including the United States, New Zealand and Australia attended the ceremony.Įvent organizer Akiko Macdonald, the daughter of a Japanese veteran who also survived the Battle of Kohima and now heads the London-based Burma Campaign Society, said the joint memorial in Japan for those lost in the battles of Kohima and Imphal was especially meaningful.ĭay was also set to visit and pray at Yokohama War Cemetary, where many of the buried were POWs, as well as Yamagata, Hiroshima. “As we foster friendship, it is important to remember the past, not just putting it behind,” Torikai said. He later said he is aware not everyone is ready for reconciliation and that it would have been even better if a Japanese veteran who survived the battle could come. The university professor shook hands with Day, expressing his appreciation of the British veteran’s trip to Japan.

Yukihiko Torikai, a Tokai University professor of humanities and culture came on behalf of his grandfather Tsuneo Torikai who returned from the campaign alive after his supervisor ordered a withdrawal. Hard feelings toward Japan’s brutal treatment of prisoners of war remained in Britain years after the fighting ended. Some 50,000 British and Commonwealth troops were also killed, nearly half of whom perished in brutal prison camps.

“(Otherwise) You are not hating each other, you are hurting yourself.”ĭay was in his late teens when he was sent to the notoriously severe battle, where he also faced harsh conditions, including contracting malaria and dysentery simultaneously while fighting the Japanese.Ībout 160,000 Japanese were killed during the battle, many from starvation and illnesses due to insufficient supplies and planning. He shook hands at the memorial and later conversed with relatives of the Japanese veterans who also attended the event. When he was laying flowers, he said, “I was remembering the screams of people … they were crying out after their mothers.” “It was very moving, but it brought back some terrible memories,” Day said after the ceremony.

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