Police on Thursday said they were questioning an unemployed man over the vandalism of more than 300 copies of Anne Frank's “The Diary of a Young Girl” and books related to the Holocaust in eight libraries and several bookstores in two wards of Tokyo.
The man, who is in this 30s, was arrested last Friday. Fuji TV quoted police as saying that store surveillance camera footage showed him illegally entering the Junkudo bookstore in Minami-Ikebukuro, Tokyo, on Feb 22, the day after copies of the diary were vandalised in the same store.
Police said the man was trying to put up posters in the store.
According to police, the suspect has vaguely admitted vandalizing the books but has been speaking incomprehensibly most of the time, Fuji reported.
Anne Frank, a German Jew born in Frankfurt in 1929, 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.
Anne’s “Diary of a Young Girl” was added to the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Memory of the World Register in 2009.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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HongoTAFEinmate
Based on the news reports this morning, this chaps sounds as though he is few stormtroopers short in the Kampfwagen. A nutter rather than a Nazi (well one is actually synonymous with the other).
DaDude
Would like to hear more details like what type of posters he was putting, what do you mean by illegally entering a bookstore(breaking in?) and why is their surveillance of the day after and not the day the books were destroyed?
Jimizo
This man sounds mentally ill. I suppose it's less disturbing if it is the work of an unwell loner rather than an organised hate group. I hope this is the case and he can be treated.
sighclops
Man these unemployed loners need help...
Almost every crime story I can recall reading in the past 12 months has involved unemployed males in their late 20s - late 30s...
Nessie
They're hoping for a Frank admission.
wildwest
Wow that SO was quick catching him.
GalapagosnoGairaishu
Wonder if the guy was a follower of the nutter political party, the Aikoku-to. Their führer is a right-wing looney-tunes who even claims PM Abe is a Jew.
Scrote
On their arrest these people immediately become "former" members of fascist groups.
mataka
If the perpetrator of this heinous crime is capable of doing it. If he is capable of insulting the memory of Anne Frank, then he should be punished under the law. How much damage has he already done to public property? How much money has he wasted in police efforts to apprehend him. Hearing words such as "treatment" only serves to justify why such misfits and criminals do what they do. I hope the man will be severely punished for what he has done and face justice. I hope he will be unable to do such actions again.
B.B.Q.Demon
Another unemployed, yet somehow pays rent, weirdo. As a society, Japan is failing.
mataka
I wonder if the suspect is speaking incoherently and being vague to avoid punishment, as some have already suggested. If they are found to be guilty, their right to benefits / welfare support could be cut permanently. Or many other rights afforded to law abiding folks could be cancelled for such a person. Watch how suddenly the number of these screw ups would diminish if you introduced such a disincentive system.
LAcajun
Sounds this person is from left wing
smithinjapan
This isn't a conspiracy theory but something that was suggested to me by a couple of Japanese I talked to about the issue (they brought it up in telling me the guy was caught). They seemed to think the guy was hired by ultra-right wingers to do what he did.
Viclovesdrama
Good that they caught the guy.
I admit I had a bit of a giggle thinking about the "expert" claiming the perpetrator was likely to be woman in her 30ties, working in researche and because she failed to get married, she was jealous of Anne Frank.
taj
I wonder if he's a schizophrenic who is off his meds.
Used to know a lovely old lady who'd sometimes forget to take her stuff and then she'd start showing up where I worked with scrap books and news paper clippings about a famous comedienne who was after her and had poisoned her husband. She'd talk your ear off about the big global conspiracy if you had the time and patience to listen. We'd give her a cup of tea. Call her son to come get her. And then she'd be gone for a few months and then she'd be normal for again.
There's a woman around where I work now who is incoherent when she's off the meds. And kind of scary. She doesn't try to talk to the people around her. Too busy arguing with the ones only she hears. She also appears and disappears on about 6 month cycles. I have no idea if she has family or who could see to her medication needs.
LFRAgain
Yeah, that one made me giggle a bit too. I wonder if that "expert" has considered updating his profiling techniques since this story broke.
Kabukilover
The "expert" was in wingy-dingy land from the start. Ann Frank did not have a chance to get married.
Anyway, this guy is most likely out of his mind. Thank goodness he was caught before he started tearing up people.
If he had an ideological ax to grind it is likely that he would have used the opportunity to expound upon it.
It remains to be seen if someone put him up to it.