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A man was arrested Friday for vandalising copies of Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" in Tokyo libraries, police said, a case that has sparked alarm over a rightward shift in Japanese politics.
More than 300 copies of the diary, or publications containing biographies of Anne Frank, Nazi persecution of Jews and related material had been torn at many public libraries in Japan.
Police on Friday did not supply a motive for the crime, or identify the suspect, whom they said has admitted to the vandalism.
Japanese authorities often refrain from naming a suspect when there are questions over the individual's mental competence.
"The suspect is a 36-year-old unemployed man who lives in Tokyo," the Tokyo metropolitan police department said in a statement.
It added that the investigation was still ongoing to find a motive for the crime and to confirm if the suspect was responsible for damaging other copies.
"The suspect allegedly got into libraries in Suginami Ward on Feb 5, and ripped pages off 23 books by Anne Frank," police said.
Suginami ward alone found at least 121 damaged books at 11 of its 13 public libraries, according to the local office.
In response, the Israeli embassy in Japan has also donated 300 copies of the diary to Tokyo libraries.
The Anne Frank House, a museum dedicated to the German Jew born in Frankfurt in 1929 and who later died in a Nazi concentration camp, also donated 3,400 copies of its catalogue to Japanese libraries.
Anne Frank's diary documented her family's experiences hiding in concealed rooms during the German occupation of the Netherlands where they settled in 1933.
They were caught and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Anne and her sister died of typhus in 1945.
Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" was added to the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's Memory of the World Register in 2009.
© (c) 2014 AFP
19 Comments
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HongoTAFEinmate
A jail sentence in the offering? Perhaps he will get time to work on his memoirs? No guesses for the title.....
Japan Yesterday
If he is mentally handicapped, doesn't that invalidate his confession to the crime. Seems awfully convenient to place the blame on a mentally handicapped person.
Daniel Neagari
Mentally handicapped does not mean.. not-guilty no matter what.
That being said... there must be some proofs to support the accusation.
smithinjapan
Ummm... yeah... a mentally handicapped guy just out of the blue decided to go into libraries and rip up copies of one specific book. I don't buy it. It sounds to me like the guy was paid off by some disgruntled types who somehow thought it would benefit the right wing... by... ummm... pitting everyone against them?
CrazyJoe
The fact that he tried to destroy evidence (the pages were torn off so finely that the letters were difficult to read and thrown away in various places) shows that he has a sense of judgement at least.
Lee Stutesman
Hum i don't think it's him. Has to be biger, i don't think it's that simple. Keep looking, dig deeper!
Ah_so
Always seemed the most likely thing to me. In an earlier thread on this topic I wrote:
Turns out I am right, although his internet viewing habits have yet to be revealed.
mataka
This is welcome news. It is strange some folks are fabricating stories about this criminal or claiming to have heard this or that. There is little or no benefit to the ultra ring wing cause. How ever naive those Japanese rightists are, it would hardly serve their interests would it? What rubbish. If this were true, they would have attacked Chinese and Korean interests instead. Everyday, our life is inconvenienced by screw ups who do this kind of thing. Japan, to its credit is very careful and supportive of people with mental disability but this criminal was fully conscious of what he was doing and the large scale of the damage he committed in such a short time is evidence of that. Whether he had an agenda or not, the police have charged him very quickly indeed. This means they must have received strong advice that the criminal is mentally fit to be charged. Throw the book(s) at him.
sighclops
As I mentioned yesterday...
Unemployed... Check Male... Check Early - Mid 30s... CheckSurely something's gotta be done about this?
chucky3176
This is the kind of right wing crap that's been going around in Japan. The accusations are that this was an act by the Koreans to make the Japanese look bad, by attacking the Jewish and by linking the Jewish holocaust with the Comfort Women cause. This rumor is ripping through the Japanese internet portals, and the right wing even making statement that their right wing movement would never target the Anne's diary, simply because the book is not true and there's no reason for any right wingers to damage a false meaningless book. Their logic defies belief. The Simon Wiesenthal center's Abraham Cooper issued a statement denying this Japanese rumor and pointed their fingers at the right wing movement in Japan.
Tokiyo
Jesus Christ, leave it alone, must you bring Korea into EVERYTHING.
CGB Spender
That guy picked the wrong kind of books! Next time vandalize books written by Richard Dawkins and I will give you a medal for it.
Tokiyo
chucky: not relevant to this article.
Open Minded
If convinced and mentally able, pay this guy a trip to Auschwitz, give him a WWII extensive seminar and done. This will cost much less and be more educative than a jail sentence.
Lowly
I don't know why everyone thinks a mentally handicapped guy couldn't/ wouldn't do it...
Some people get these weird obssessions or fixations and take their fixation to extremes. Doesn't mean he wasn't paid off, just that it's possible...
Tom_Mix
Why do we doubt? Well his confession seems rather weak. No motive has been offered. He was only caught on surveillance footage the day after the vandalism and that was to put up posters in a store. But we don't know what sort of posters. No fingerprints apparently. No torn pages found in his possession.
There is plenty of room to think this guy a patsy. Not saying he is, but far be it for me to deny the possibility at this stage.
jpreda
I'm so desensitized to TDOAF. As a child in gradeschool they shoved that story down my throat 4 times 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 6th grade. 2 field trips to plays, book reports, meh. i don't really care. I wish the same energy was spent on explaining civics and civic duty.
Lowly
Tom, well, sure it could be a forced confession, many are, but the fact that he is mentally handicapped is not a convincing proof of that, is all I was saying. It is one perfectly plausible possibility.
WilliB
I am glad they found the nutcase.