Murders Japan

Valan Cain went to Sasebo, Japan, last year to entertain U.S. troops and vacationing Japanese who flock to the seaside village for rest and relaxation. With a five-month contract, the singer and dancer figured that his stint in Sasebo would provide him with plenty of good stories to tell back home in Irvine. But the story Cain became embroiled in was not at all what he had in mind--the brutal slaying in October of 22-year-old Seaman Allen R. Schindler. Slashed and beaten beyond recognition Oct.

A man wearing a ski mask broke into a house and stabbed three siblings, two fatally, on the northern island of Hokkaido, domestic media said. Killed in the attack were a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, police official Katsuya Nakano said. A 6-year-old girl was injured. The children reportedly were alone in their home when the attack occurred. A man turned himself in to police about an hour after the stabbings and was being questioned, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The pair, whose lives would briefly intersect, were from different worlds. Govinda Prasad Mainali was an illegal immigrant waiting tables in an Indian restaurant here, sending much of his salary home to his family in Nepal. Yasuko Watanabe was a promising economist earning nearly $100,000 a year by day, but still driven to stand on a street corner and turn four tricks a night.

A Japanese businessman pleaded innocent to charges he raped and killed a 21-year-old British bar hostess whose dismembered body was found in a beachside cave. Joji Obara, a 48-year-old real estate developer who faces up to life in prison if convicted, told Tokyo District Court that he and Lucie Blackman were together at his condominium, but he denied charges of fatally drugging her and sexually assaulting her after she fell unconscious.

Confronted with charges of a cover-up, Navy officials have confirmed that a sailor about to be discharged because he was homosexual was beaten to death more than two months ago by a shipmate. Navy officials in Japan said that Seaman Allen R. Schindler, 22, may have been a victim of gay-bashing, allegedly killed by a fellow sailor assigned to the Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship with a home port in Japan. Lt.

He would bet $200,000 a hand at the baccarat table in Atlantic City, sometimes gambling for 80 hours at a time. He would carry as much as $1.5 million in cash stuffed in two bags on gambling trips from his native Japan to the casinos of Europe, Australia, the United States. Akio Kashiwagi was known as a "whale," a member of the super-elite class of international gamblers with casino credit lines of more than $1 million.

A knife-wielding man burst into an elementary school in Osaka this morning, killing at least eight first- and second-grade students and injuring at least 21 other pupils and faculty, police said. Although crime has been on the rise in recent years in Japan, the massacre deeply shocked this nation, which outlaws guns and generally is considered so safe that parents let their 6-year-olds ride the subway alone to school.

Japan has hanged four people, including a prison author whose sentence for murders he committed as a 19-year-old sparked a national debate on capital punishment, media reported today. Norio Nagayama, 48, who was convicted of killing four people in a 1968 shooting rampage, became a best-selling author while in prison. He and convicted murderer Hideki Kanda, 54, were hanged in Tokyo, news reports said.

Immediately after a court-martial sentenced Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, 21, to life in prison for beating to death a gay shipmate, the U.S. Navy confirmed Thursday that a second sailor participated in the beating but was unwittingly sentenced to only four months in jail. Navy Airman Charles E. Vins, 21, who was convicted last November of resisting arrest and failing to report a crime, kicked Seaman Allen R.

Police have identified the dismembered remains found in a beach cave near Tokyo as those of a British bar hostess who disappeared in July, authorities said Saturday. "Experts agreed that the teeth of the body matched with her dental records. There is no discrepancy in the height, and the hair was blond," Tokyo police investigator Akira Hiromitsu said. A DNA analysis is expected to take seven to 10 days, and the cause of death is still under investigation, he said.

As incense burned and flowers piled up outside the school here where eight first- and second-graders were massacred the day before, government officials Saturday attempted to reassure hundreds of stricken parents gathered inside that they will beef up security and provide psychological counseling for students and families.

A knife-wielding man burst into an elementary school in Osaka this morning, killing at least eight first- and second-grade students and injuring at least 21 other pupils and faculty, police said. Although crime has been on the rise in recent years in Japan, the massacre deeply shocked this nation, which outlaws guns and generally is considered so safe that parents let their 6-year-olds ride the subway alone to school.

Police formally accused a Japanese businessman of killing a British bar hostess, whose dismembered body was found in February. Joji Obara, a 48-year-old real estate developer in police custody since October, was served with an arrest warrant for fatal assault against Lucie Blackman, 22, who disappeared last July.

The pair, whose lives would briefly intersect, were from different worlds. Govinda Prasad Mainali was an illegal immigrant waiting tables in an Indian restaurant here, sending much of his salary home to his family in Nepal. Yasuko Watanabe was a promising economist earning nearly $100,000 a year by day, but still driven to stand on a street corner and turn four tricks a night.

Police have identified the dismembered remains found in a beach cave near Tokyo as those of a British bar hostess who disappeared in July, authorities said Saturday. "Experts agreed that the teeth of the body matched with her dental records. There is no discrepancy in the height, and the hair was blond," Tokyo police investigator Akira Hiromitsu said. A DNA analysis is expected to take seven to 10 days, and the cause of death is still under investigation, he said.

After a lengthy search that highlighted weaknesses in the Japanese criminal justice system, police on Friday announced the discovery of dismembered body parts believed to be those of a 22-year-old Briton missing since July. The case of Lucie Blackman, which was front-page news here, focused attention on Japan's heavy reliance on confessions to solve crimes.

The attacker buzzes down these peaceful suburban streets on a bicycle, and when he sees a child, he slashes. In the past three weeks, the cyclist, described as a young man with dyed hair who is perhaps of high school age, has descended on seven children in Soka, a pleasant bedroom town about 10 miles north of Tokyo. Three elementary school pupils were stabbed with a knife-like object, and a fourth girl was punched in the face. Three children escaped unharmed.

For a Navy that was not supposed to have gay sailors, the subject of homosexuality has an unusual familiarity in this otherwise quiet family community of 3,000 Americans at the Navy base here. Nearly everyone recognizes its existence in their midst. But in the aftermath of the killing of a self-acknowledged gay sailor Oct. 27 and President Clinton's move to officially approve the presence of gays and lesbians in the armed forces, the subject has become sensitivity issue No. 1 here.

The shock came in the mail--a letter from a daughter killed eight years before. In a batch of New Year's greetings, Kunihiko and Naomi Uchida received a card written 16 years ago by their daughter Yuki, who was kidnapped and slain in 1993, the Yomiuri newspaper reported Monday. The letter, penned in a child's unsteady hand, had been placed by the 11-year-old in a post office's time capsule, to be mailed in 2001. "Happy New Year," it read. "I wonder what we're doing now. I can't wait! From Yuki."

A family of four was found stabbed to death in their Tokyo home, police said, the latest in a series of violent crimes that have stunned the nation. A police spokesman declined to elaborate and did not release the victims' names, but national broadcaster NHK said police believe the four were probably murdered by robbers, because the house was found in disarray.