“I couldn't save the suspect” My brother should be regretful June 7, 15:41

"It's the lab coat that my brother, who was a doctor, wore at the time of the examination,"

said the woman.

She is the younger sister of the director who died in the arson of a clinic in Osaka.

Twenty-six people, including the director and patients, died in the incident.

It's been half a year since then.

"As a doctor, my brother couldn't save the suspect, who was also a patient. I must regret it."

Her sister has that feeling through interacting with the patient at the clinic.

Osaka Kitashinchi Clinic Arson Murder Case

December 2021.

A psychosomatic medicine clinic in Kita-ku, Osaka was set on fire, killing 26 people involved, including Director Kotaro Nishizawa (49 at the time) and patients.

Morio Tanimoto (61 at the time), who was a patient, was sent documents on suspicion of murder and was not charged due to the death of the suspect.

The incident happened at my brother's clinic

Nobuko, the younger sister of Director Nishizawa, who died in this incident, revealed her heart in response to our interview.

Nobuko:

"I feel like it's not real, and I feel like I've been dreaming for a long time, so I know my brother is gone, but I don't really think about it."

Kotaro Nishizawa, who was the director of the on-site clinic.

We have been close to and supporting people who have difficulty living and who are aiming to return to work.

Morio Tanimoto, who caused the incident, was also a patient at the clinic.

"I did my best"

The day when the incident happened.

Nobuko, who was about to have her lunch, caught the eye of the news "Fire in Kitashinchi, Osaka" and "Psychosomatic medicine" that she happened to see on her smartphone.

She says, "I had a bad feeling somehow."

When I searched online, the site was the clinic of her brother, Director Nishizawa.

Nobuko:

"I didn't think so. It wasn't a place to use fire, and I wondered if someone had set it on fire. I immediately went to the clinic with my family, but I was involved. Was already after being transported. "

"I want you to be saved somehow."

Even when I asked the police and fire department at the scene, I couldn't understand where Director Nishizawa was being treated or what kind of condition he was in.

Nobuko met Director Nishizawa that night.

The place was a police station, not a hospital.

Her brother's face, which closes her eyes, was so beautiful that she was about to get up.

Nobuko:

"I remember my dad saying," I did my best. "Sadly, I didn't have the expression I had imagined. It's okay to cry, but it's not. I felt like I was in a different world from Pokhan. "

Ale to my brother who is studying alone

Director Nishizawa and Nobuko are four years old.

When I was a kid, I was sometimes taught to study.

When my brother went to a university in Kanto, he was a junior high school student.

Nobuko sent a letter to her brother who was studying to become her doctor.

A letter from that time was found in her estate sale.

Director Nishizawa kept a letter from his sister in a safe place.

Nobuko:

"I think I sent it because I was lonely because I was separated. Originally, my brother wasn't very interested in me, and I didn't reply to the letter at that time. I'm glad to feel that he was doing it. "

"My brother as a doctor" I learned after the incident

Since becoming a member of society, we have been busy with each other, and we meet face-to-face several times a year, such as during the New Year.

It was after the incident that he learned of his brother as a doctor.

30 boxes of cardboard found in my parents' house by organizing relics.

It was packed with materials such as Chinese medicine and children's developmental disabilities.

He said he had a glimpse of the efforts of his brother, who had been studying since becoming a doctor, saying, "I want to help more patients."

In addition, the internet was flooded with words of gratitude from those who attended his brother's clinic.

“He was a patient-friendly teacher.”

“He was patient and listened to me.”

Nobuko:

"I think I was crying when I saw this. I had never seen or heard about my brother working before I was alive. For the first time, I knew that I was longing for it. I was surprised and happy that people who were not in my family could think so much. "

What I can do

About 800 patients attended the clinic.

After the incident, many of them had to find a new place to go to the hospital.

Some people go to many medical institutions.

You have to explain the symptoms from scratch each time.

It is a heavy burden for patients in psychosomatic medicine.

In addition, some people are worried that they may have been involved, and some people feel guilty about being safe without encountering an incident.

Nobuko herself has been involved in her medical work.

When she thought of a patient who had lost her heart, her chest hurts and she began to think about what to do with her brother.

She wants to support her as much as she can about what she can do, and she says Nobuko has come to think so.

Nobuko:

"I imagined my brother's feelings. When I thought about what I could do, I wanted to help those who went to the clinic and had a hard time. I wish I could feel at ease even for a moment, and I wanted to help. "

I want to inherit my brother's will

Two months after the incident.

Nobuko came into contact with the Osaka City organization "Persons with Disabilities.com".

I have been supporting the people who attended Nishizawa's clinic even before the incident.

This group was also worried about how to support the lost patients.

The group has been holding regular online exchange meetings for patients since March this year.

Ms. Nobuko is also participating, being pushed by an organization

that "wants to support patients as a substitute for Director Nishizawa ."

Participants will raise various voices such as the worries and thoughts they are facing.

Participant

"I have nightmares, I can't eat rice, and I cry because I remember"

Participant

"I thought it was very important to have a place where I could simply talk and connect."

Nobuko:

"I'm not a doctor, but I've decided what I can do, but I feel like my brother is telling me how important it is to listen to people."

Words spun with thought

At the exchange meeting, we will also talk about Tanimoto, who caused the incident.

The suspect was also a patient at the clinic, but it has been revealed that he was disconnected from his family, had no work, and was isolated from society.

Participant

"If not isolated, the incident might not have happened if someone had reached out. I don't think it can be said that a cornered human would not have a similar incident."

"I don't want to think about the suspect. I don't even want to have hatred."

This is Nobuko's honest feeling.

However, when Nobuko heard the words from the participants of the exchange meeting, she imagined what her brother felt about the suspect.

If he was working to be close to each patient, listen to them, and help him, he probably thinks this way.

The words Nobuko spoke while choking her voice ...

Nobuko:

"Of course, the victims, but I also regret that my brother couldn't save the suspect as a doctor."

Was it possible to prevent isolation and poverty?

The incident caused by Tanimoto left many people with indelible sadness and suffering.

Tanimoto is believed to have attempted "murder-suicide" with many unrelated people.

Could he not prevent the incident?

Following the suspect's footsteps, it became clear that "social and psychological isolation" and "economic distress" overlapped.

Tanimoto grew up in a family where his father runs a sheet metal company in Osaka.

It is said that the junior high school classmates had an unobtrusive and quiet impression.

After graduating from high school, he worked at his parents' house and a sheet metal company in the city and got married at the age of 25.

Two sons were born and I bought a new house.

However, he divorced at the age of 48.

I hope to have a reunion with his wife, but it didn't happen.

President of the sheet metal company

"I was a little worried. I was flickering about the story of the reunion, but he did not accept it."

This is what the president of the sheet metal company he was working for at the time said.

It is said that he seemed to be lonely because he couldn't make a comeback.

And a decisive event.

2011, two and a half years after the divorce.

When she kills her family and kills herself, she causes an incident.

He unilaterally raised dissatisfaction with his family, visited his ex-wife's home with a knife, and attacked his eldest son.

The sentence was four years in prison for attempted murder.

At the end of the trial, the presiding judge advised him to find a way to rehabilitate, independent of his family.

Judge

: "There is a possibility that you will have to live a lonely life for the time being even after you have returned to society, but if you can get rid of your love for your family and have a relationship with someone other than your family, you should rehabilitate. Would be possible enough "

In a further predicament

However, the source, Tanimoto, falls into further "isolation" and "poverty."

In 2017, two years after the source, Tanimoto consulted with us about life support, and the woman who was responding to the interview responded.

"I was very well dressed. I could feel the consideration for this in the wording, and I had the impression that he was a very common sense person."

Tanimoto suspected that he had a conversation with a person for the first time in a long time.

He was sleeping at a simple lodging facility in Osaka city.

"I already had a little over 50,000 yen, and when I ran out of it, I was in a state of nothing." When I searched the internet for my name, I found a crime in the past, and my previous conviction was in the way and I couldn't find a job. "

I had no work, no income, and had no connection with my family, so I applied for welfare with the support of a woman.

However, she is said to have lost contact without receiving the benefits.

"I think he was a person who couldn't say" help me because it's painful ". What I didn't do was to go a little further and contact" what are you doing? " have been regretting"

Contact with the clinic Deepening isolation and poverty

Shortly afterwards, Tanimoto started going to the clinic saying, "I can't sleep at night."

Continue to visit the hospital once every two weeks.

After that, no job can be found, and "isolation" and "poverty" deepen.

Around February last year, Tanimoto began planning the case.

After repeated previews of the clinic, in September, I searched for "Kyoto Animation Arson Murder Case" on my smartphone.

I was preparing for "Murder-suicide".

Purchased 30 liters of gasoline about two weeks before the incident.

And December 17th.

At the clinic, he lit gasoline and attempted "Murder-suicide" with 26 unrelated people.

Tanimoto's smartphone was confiscated.

The number of registered phonebook entries was "0".

Only the gas company and the telephone company were calling, and there was no call history showing friendship.

This time, police spoke with about 200 people, including those involved in the clinic and those who may have had contact with the suspect, but have not found anyone with whom they have been friends in the last few years.

Furthermore, after withdrawing 83 yen in January last year, the balance of the bank account remains "0 yen".

Approximately two weeks before the incident, the cashing of the card company, which was used for living expenses, had reached the limit.

Did you have a desire for revenge on society?

Tanimoto did not speak about the motives of the case.

Tamami Katada, a psychiatrist who is familiar with criminal psychology, points out that it is highly likely that she had a unilateral "desire for revenge" for society as a whole in her isolation.

"While despairing that no one will help me and no one cares about me, I think I may have had a grudge that it was the society and others that made my life unsuccessful. In the midst of a desire for revenge on him, he may have attempted an "extended suicide" involving many people. "

On top of that, he points out that the key is how to take measures against "loneliness and isolation" in order not to repeat similar incidents.

"The final deterrent is, after all, a connection with a person.'Isn't that person sad when such an incident occurs?'," It doesn't bother him when such an incident occurs. That is the last stop. It is necessary to prepare a window that accepts anonymously and connect with experts, and to expand the safety net such as livelihood protection to cope with financial hardship. I think"

To avoid repeating the tragedy

This incident killed as many as 26 people without any fault.

A woman who lost her husband has made comments through her lawyer.

"A person who is very important to us has been killed by a malicious person in the future he envisioned. The reality is that the selfish person who messed up our lives died. I don't think I'll ever be free from this suffering forever. ”

The never-healing sadness of those who were suddenly robbed of their loved ones.

The wounds caused by the incident are too deep and large.

What can society do to avoid repeating the same tragedy?

We will continue to cover.

NHK Osaka reporter

Ryohei Kageyama joined

in 2014

Osaka Broadcasting Station Reporter

Horiuchi Shin

2016 Joined

Osaka Broadcasting Station Director

Sho Noguchi

Joined 2011

NHK Osaka Director

Shinjo Ho

2017 Joined