Police have arrested 37-year-old Kuniko Sakuma for abandonment of a corpse after the remains of a second newborn baby were discovered buried in a flower planter on the balcony of her Nishiyodogawa Ward home on Tuesday.
Sakuma was quoted by police as saying that the bones belong to another child she gave birth to. She was arrested Wednesday under suspicion of leaving the body of a child she gave birth to in mid-January inside the large flower pot.
Her 13-year-old son found the infant's body on Tuesday while his mother was out, and called police.
Sakuma lived together with her son and ex-husband. Sakuma told police she gave birth to the child in the bathroom in January and that the father was not her ex-husband. She said she had tried to hide the fact that she was pregnant from her ex-husband and her son. The boy was quoted by police as saying that his mother and her ex-husband hardly spent any time together.
Sakuma has so far declined to comment on the remains of the second infant.
© News reports
41 Comments
Login to comment
timorborder
Let's just hope this "planter" was only for growing flowers. Imagine if this woman was growing some veggies and distributing them to the neighbors.
"Sakuma-san, how do you get your tomatoes to grow so well?"
Canukle
Oh dear god, this just keeps getting gorier. Poor babies. Stupid woman. Oblivious housemates - seriously...NO ONE noticed that she was pregnant....twice???? I know you can maybe hide a belly but the throwing up, swelled feet, etc, etc?? Can they charge people with conspiracy or reckless endangerment? If the ex knew, is he assiociated with the crime?
KyokoSmile
shameless piece of garbage sakuma kuniko佐久間邦子. hope she rots in hell. may the 2 babies rest in piece.
KyokoSmile
sorry I meant "peace" not piece.
Alphaape
KyokoSmile, You had it right with piece the first time. Peace is something that this lady should not find in this life or the next.
From my comments on this story yesterday, I still find it hard that two people could not tell that this woman was pregnant, twice. Either the ex-husband really didn't care or he was just one cold SOB. As for the 13 yr. old, he needs to get out of that household immediately.
kirakira25
OK, so TWO tragic stillbirths in one person who was obviously in a position not to want them anyway??? Not a chance.
May she swing for this. I can`t begin to get my head around what kind of woman conceives a child, carries it for 9 (10) months, gives birth - and then murders and buries it. Twice. This is beyond sub-human.
fishy
cant agree with you more, kirakira.
cmeandu09
They should just hang her and get it over with. There is no reason this women should live. She showed no compassion.
fishy
According to Yahoo Japan, the second body the police found was of a 7 to 8-months-old baby, so it means that she had the baby for 7 to 8 months? and nobody noticed that the baby was gone all the sudden?? lots of questions here.. In any case, this mother needs to be punished seriously.
Darren White
I'm completely speechless. This is sub-human !
Apsara
Actually I think it would be much harder to hide the belly at 9 months pregnant. Not all women suffer from morning sickness, and swollen feet (which again not all women get) would surely be a lot easier to hide than a huge tummy!
Kudos to the son for calling the police when he found the baby.
Madara
She's a very sick creepy woman. Just keep on wondering how she hide her pregnancy.
Badge213
Well considering the nature of the relationship as mentioned they barely talked or even saw each other, I know people in that type of relationship. The other person might have noticed (or might not have noticed) either way they probably didn't care or care to ask.
smithinjapan
The government won't charge her with anything serious... you watch. I find it hard to believe they won't be able to charge her with anything more than abandonment of corpses, but they probably don't want to do the work to charge her with anything else, and a judge will say something like, "There's still a 13 year old boy who needs his mother".
We'll see. In either case, as I said yesterday, this woman is sick, and I hope the babies are resting in peace.
IronBeard
Sick, yes... ... but back to the Japanese police - why didn't they find the baby in time for the first article, posted yesterday? Surely the first thing you do if you find baby remains in a plant pot is to check the other plant pots...
Ironic thing is that the woman probably couldn't afford an abortion. A good defence for when this goes to court... Abortions, sexual health checks, etc, should be given free of charge and in total anonymity - would help avoid many of these cases.
whyamiinjapan
Now, I'll never be able to walk past a planter . . . The kid must have know something was up. Otherwise, how could he know?
bamboohat
at least she buried them. there was that woman last year in tokyo that had four decayed kids in her closet...
fishy
IronBeard - The second baby was found yesterday and also the news were updated yesterday. the police found the second body shortly after the first one, it just wasn't announced for several hours. By early afternoon yesterday, all J-media reported that there was the second body found on the same balcony.
according to another article, the 13-year-old boy was cleaning the balcony when he found the body.. i wonder if normal 13-year-olds would clean balcony while parents are out.. I suspect he could smell something and decided to clean (only to find a baby brother there). Sad.
misoshiro
We can put all the blame on her, yet a lot of these problems arise from the nature of a greater beast: the disfunctionality of the Japanese society. She probably did not have resources for an abortion, no friends to confide to, and no social support.
Bholder
another deluge of sickening moralising in the comments, denouncing the “cruelty”, “inhumanity" (my personal favourite is the one that calls her beyond sub-human, which would make her what-human?) and “criminality” of the woman diverting attention from the underlying social crisis that drives individuals to such lengths. alienation and atomization of society as well as individualization of responsibility for collective problems that systematically places unfair burden on the weakest should be addressed rather than going for skin deep corrections and scapegoating. notwithstanding, the woman should be held criminally responsible; but we should also recognize that anyone, including -god forbid the very thought- ourselves (ouch) might as well come to similar decisions in similar circumstances.
gogogo
Seriously she cheated on the ex-husband thus the hush hush, probally told everyone around her it was the husbands fault and tried to hide the fact it was actually her fault. This woman needs some mental health. So strange how her do that and continue to live a normal life, something is mentally wrong with this woman.
Midnightpromise
No one has asked what the kid was doing digging around an otherwise innocuous flower pot? Sweeping and decided to have a dig? I had some boring days in my youth, but never were they bad enough to get to the let me go snoop around the flower pot pastime.....
fishy
Midnightpromise- the kid was cleaning the balcony and the baby's head was sticking out of the dirt in the planter. the balcony might have smelled terribly.. If the mother was home, she probably wouldn't have wanted him to do that, but since she wasn't home, he decided to clean it up.
HeyLars
As per my other post on this subject, some guy was either an idiot twice or two guys were. Preventing unwanted pregnancy is easy for men and they deserve condemnation too, not just the woman. Its not like a woman is greeted with beaming smiles for being pregnant with another man's child. Its not like support checks flood the mailbox. Not to justify the woman, but the only person who seems justified is the 13 year old son here.
goddog
Were they still born or did she kill them? Infants usually cry immediately, so how did she time the birth to not have anyone home? Also, why didn't anyone question her about her sudden weight loss?
fishy
goddog- the second body that has been found was of a 7 to 8-months-old baby according to japanese news. the body that the 13-year-old found was of a newborn baby and the mother said that the babyboy did not cry when he came out and she thought he was dead (to me, that sounds like a lame excuse, though) also, a J-article says that the ex husband had once asked the woman if she was pregnant and she said no. it was stupid of him to believe her...
wontond
One dead newborn found in a planter in Japan wasn't that shocking to me, but now this story has skyrocketed to the top of my bizarre list. The 13-year-old should consider himself lucky to be alive, all things considered.
as_the_crow_flies
I don't think any of us know what the situation was in this ex-family. All we know is the couple were divorced and she says it's not the ex's child. If they were divorced and living under the same roof, it's hard to know on what kind of basis. Maybe just sharing the same space because both refuse to move, and they can't afford to buy the other half out, and they were both just ticking over and hoping for a resolution further down the line. In the meantime hardly on speaking terms. It happens, and people on this forum are very judgemental. Relationship breakups are often messy, and people organise things in different ways.
Anyway, don't know how anyone can be sure she cheated on the ex-husband, unless you know they divorced after the babies were conceived. One thing's for sure - It sounds a terrible trauma for the 13-year-old, living in that situation, and then finding a body on the balcony, probably his brother. Though nothing is for sure with this story.
fishy
now the updated article says that the 13-year-old boy has been abused by the mother and his school mates have said that he often had bruises on his face and the boy had been telling people that he often gets hit by his mother whenever the mother is not in a good mood and social workers had visited the apartment 10 times in the past. the mother threw away the boy's "randoseru", the leather school backpack for elementary school kids have so the boy went to school with a regular backpack. the mother also thew out some of his school text books as well according to the boy's classmates. the junior high school the boy goes to was aware and reported it to the government and that was why social workers went to talk to the mother, but they did not notice she was pregnant. the mother had told the social workers that she didn't know how to interact with her child (the 13-year-old).
fishy
above post is according to sankei newspaper, btw.
fishy
and please ignore my post that says the second body found was of a 7-8month-old baby, it was a of a newborn baby (gender unknown), and the first body found was of a newborn baby and the test result showed that the baby was alive when he was born and the police is going to charge her for murder shortly.
the 13-year-old boy had been abused and he had no lunch to bring on field trips and his teacher gave him some of his food and one time his school mate's mother offtered to make lunch for him for field trip..
butterfly1
just awful.
i can see how the 13yr old found the remains though... havent you ever knocked over a planter? --> i didnt it a few times when i was a kid.
butterfly1
did it, actually.
cactusJack
I wonder if this story will promote copy-cat crimes of this nature. Purely sick.
kirakira25
Er, no. Sorry. I can honestly say hand on heart that no matter how bad my situation I would never give birth to my babies and then murder them and bury them in a flower planter on my balcony. Nor would anyone I know.
flamnhead
Birth control and the morning after pill is available in Japan. Learn to use it instead of being a "baby killer".
IanMcGhee
She should be charged with double homicide and spend the rest of her days in a cell the size of a planter
greensatindress
It always amazes me whenever I read about women (not only in Japan) covering up their pregnancies and giving birth in secret. Something I will never comprehend. Not to mention the burying in a planter bit.
PearlsGrace
When the going gets tough to abort the baby, some people turns to old school infanticide. But to put it in the planter? and having your 13th year old child found it? o_O Jeez, this is creepy... planters are the gimmick of Ward living in Japan. Can't help to feel like sorting through some horror urban legend...
flamnhead
Betting many women removed their planters? Oh honey what happened to the tomato plants?
dolphingirl
kirakira: Couldn't agree more. I think this story gave me nightmares last night. I am so disgusted and appalled and I just cannot fathom this situation AT ALL. There is NO justification for burying the live baby that you just gave birth to.
Blame society? Lack of support? I don't think so. She was already a mother and as a mother you have the responsibility to build a support network around you. If you don't have any family, then make friends. Talk to your neighbours.
Can't afford an abortion? Then at least have the decency to put the child up for adoption or leave him/her at a hospital anonymously or at one of those baby hatches.
Blame the father for not using a condom? Well, in theory, I agree that the man should take 50% of the responsibility but in the real world, only women can get pregnant and therefore the woman is totally responsible for what happens to her body.
I think the ex-husband knew she was pregnant (I mean how can you not...really!) and just didn't want to get involved. I think the boy knew too either consciously or subconsciously. It took tremendous courage for him to do what he did.
The only thing that might make me feel empathy for this woman is if she has a mental disorder. Otherwise, she should be punished as any murderer would be.