Kyodo News published an interview with Masaharu Harada,...

Kyodo News published an interview with Masaharu Harada, the brother of a murder victim, whose killer Toshihiko Hasegawa had been sentenced to death and executed on December 27, 2001. Almost a year had passed since the execution of one of his brother's killers, yet pain still lingered in Harada's heart. "Nothing has changed and I am still obsessed with the murder of my brother, despite the execution," said Harada. "I still hate him and cannot forgive him as he ruined our peaceful life. But it is true, on the other hand, that I have a kind of intimacy with him following our 20-year exchange." Harada received more than 100 letters from Hasegawa, in which the latter apologized for the murder, and dozens of pictures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary that Hasegawa drew in prison. Hasegawa was baptized after his arrest. These exchanges gradually made Harada wish that Hasegawa could have continued living and atoning for his crimes, and he submitted a petition to then Justice Minister Masahiko Komura in April 2001 asking him not to execute Hasegawa. But his efforts came to nothing and Hasegawa was executed anyway. "The government cites bereaved families' sentiments as a basis for maintaining the death penalty, but it completely ignored my wish when it executed Mr. Hasegawa," Harada said. Amid a series of reports that bereaved families of victims of crimes testified in court that they expect the culprits to be executed, Harada said, "I understand their sorrow and anger, but I want to tell them from my own experience that execution will bring about nothing and will not calm their irritation." "I would have supported the death penalty if my pain had been eliminated by the execution, but it remains," he said.