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The Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, one of the largest international contemporary art festivals held in Japan, has received 770 threatening emails since the event began on Aug 1.
Aichi prefectural police said about half of the emails which were directed at the Aichi Triennale Organizing Committee, contained threats ranging from “I’ll spray gasoline and ignite prefectural facilities and schools” to “I’m going to spray sarin and gasoline around the prefectural office.” In addition, one email targeted Aichi Triennale employees by threatening “to shoot and kill staff.”
Police said most of the threatening emails were sent between Aug 5 and 9 to the Aichi prefectural government and its secretarial department.
The festival has already attracted a lot of controversy after it removed the "After 'Freedom of Expression?'" exhibit which featured the "Statue of a Girl Of Peace,"symbolizing wartime “comfort women”— women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japan’s military before and during World War II.
That decision has become a heated topic as the Aichi Triennale prides itself as a cutting-edge international art festival that celebrates the values of freedom of expression.
A man was arrested on Aug 7 for sending a fax containing an arson threat against the museum over the “comfort woman” statue. The “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” was removed on Aug 3.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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sakurasuki
A threat is a threat, in Japan standard treatment for these threat should be followed up for investigation, no matter the number is.
Toasted Heretic
This is quite sinister and the the threats are very specific.
Sounds like a very angry and powerless individual with narcissistic tendencies.
HBJ
I presume the 770 threatening emails are all being investigated, right?
It shouldn't be too difficult to track down the sender(s) of the emails - sure it takes man hours and detective skills, but you can't go sending threats like that and expect nothing to come of it.
Anyone who sent threats such as “I’ll spray gasoline and ignite prefectural facilities and schools” or “I’m going to spray sarin and gasoline around the prefectural office” or “[I'm going to] to shoot and kill staff” should be arrested and prosecuted.
DaDude
My prediction is man, 30's, single, living alone and neighbors ever see him but see him when he lashes out about trash problems.
Vince Black
770 emails? After the first fifty or so and nothing happens it's probably ok to ignore the rest.
the show must go on !
blue in green
People were pretty aggravated when they added a statue of a defiant little girl facing down "The Charging Bull" near Wall Street, it made headlines, and drew much controversy.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/12/523592057/sculptor-of-wall-street-bull-says-fearless-girl-horns-in-on-his-work
I don't know why art has to pander.
It seems creating art high in technique and appearance is never enough,
there has to be a gimmick, a way to "truly" catch attention...
I wonder if there was no "comfort women art" would there be another thing that would set someone off to this degree...
Stirring the pot brings more attention = more customers.
drlucifer
Is it indicated in the article that it is one individual making the threats?
Christopher Pelham
The purpose of art is to inspire experiences that bring people closer to some aspect of truth. The comfort woman statue has certainly brought into the light continuing feelings of contempt for women and guilt for what happened in the past for all the world to see.
Fox Sora Winters
I hope the culprit(s) is/are caught and imprisoned immediately. Regardless of one's views on comfort women, there is no justifiable excuse to threaten to murder children or to release sarin gas. If you have a complaint, file it in a rational and mature manner. You do not threaten murder. Setting fire to schools? What would be the point in that? The schools are innocent. If the culprit(s) makes good on those threats, they will be carrying out acts of terrorism, pure and simple. A life-long prison sentence would give them plenty of time to reflect on their actions and where they went wrong in life, because it sounds like they've gone very, very wrong to make these kinds of reprehensible threats.
Yubaru
Which is in effect a lie. If they have actually received THAT many threats they should be closing the show down due to concerns about the safety of the people! The mayor of Nagoya made the demand, the organizers received 700 COMPLAINTS on August 1st and they removed the display.
THESE are threats that came AFTER the removal.
No to mention that while the festival is going on advertising these threats publicly is NOT a smart move on the part of the organizers, as it will feed those fanatics here who will copy the threats as well!
Luddite
So much for freedom of speech. Nutters want to stifle it so they give in and remove an exhibit.
Mister X
Nothing justifies sending out threatening mails but the decision to remove the statue was wrong.
And the Japanese government should never had used the term comfort women that's what caused the controversy in the first place.
Ex_Res
770 emails? After the first fifty or so and nothing happens it's probably ok to ignore the rest.
the show must go on !
The show is going on with the statue removed. Intimidation seems to work in Japan.