The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
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※ この和訳はあくまでもボランティアの方々による一例であり、翻訳の正確さについては各自判断してください。 もし誤訳(の疑い)を発見した場合には、直接ページを編集して訂正するか翻訳者連絡掲示板に報告してください。 |
Mom strangles last life out of 'problem child' 2002,8,2
Shukan Shincho 8/8 By Ryann Connell
Sunako Ishikawa woke, startled.
She tried to move her legs but couldn't because of the tight cords binding them.
Her mother sat nearby, staring at her.
Sunako maneuvered herself onto her side.
Then, screaming like a harpy, she used her arms to launch herself into an attack on her mother.
Using her superior strength, Sunako soon had her mother pinned down on the ground by her shoulders.
But this time, Keiko Ishikawa was not going to give in.
She clamped both hands around her 14-year-old daughter's throat and squeezed until she could feel her windpipe crushing under the pressure.
Pumped full of adrenaline, Keiko Ishikawa didn't even relent on her hold though Sunako started to turn blue in the face.
And she held on even as Sunako's attempts to break through her grasp proved futile.
By the time she had recovered her senses, the youngest of her four daughters had breathed her last.
Peace returned at last to the Ishikawa household on that July 11 morning.
"After killing her, Ishikawa shoved Sunako's body in an old fridge the family kept in an unused closet and kept it there for two weeks. Her other two daughters had no idea the corpse was there. They only noticed a vile odor in the house and didn't even connect it with Sunako's sudden disappearance. Ishikawa's husband visited her the day before her arrest (July 25) and she finally admitted to killing their child," a police source tells Shukan Shincho (8/8).
Even the fateful binding of Sunako's legs that led to the fight in which she lost her life could be traced back to the beating she had unleashed on her mother after returning from yet another night on the town.
Relatives say Sunako had been heading for danger.
"From about the end of last year, it became the norm for Sunako to be away from home. Her two older sisters are out working, so they'd leave mornings and return nights. But Sunako was leaving nights, hanging around on the streets and then crawling back home into her bed in the mornings," the relative says.
Sunako had originally attended a junior high school in Nerima-ku, but when kids started bullying her she moved in with her father and grandmother and began going to a school in Asuka, Saitama Prefecture.
"On her first day at school, her mother told us that she wanted Sunako to have a change of environment. Sunako was unstable. She was the type of child who paid an inordinate amount of attention to what others said about her. She'd suddenly turn to friends and say, 'God, I'm ugly aren't I?' When her homeroom teacher interviewed her, she came out and said that she hated the world. She only came to our school for 20 days altogether and we never saw her again after the start of November," the head teacher from the Asuka junior high school tells Shukan Shincho.
After dropping out of school, Sunako spent her time flitting between her mom's home in Tokyo and her dad's place in Saitama Prefecture.
"Sunako started to get violent toward her mother at around this time," a police officer tells Shukan Shincho.
"She told a classmate that she hated having been forced to change schools. At the same time, she became flashier, started wearing make-up and hanging out on the streets."
Her parents had apparently given up on her.
"Even after Sunako dropped out, we continued to call her mother about twice a month, yet Mrs. Ishikawa never spoke to us about the child's violent behavior," the head teacher says.
"She didn't seem to want to talk about Sunako. Whenever we broached the subject, she'd just say 'she's all right.' On July 20, Sunako's homeroom teacher phoned and Mrs. Ishikawa seemed really down. We had no idea that at that time Sunako was already dead."
Even Sunako's father had no idea what his child was doing to his estranged wife.
"He's a salesman who's always incredibly busy, so he'd leave Sunako at home for his mother to look after," a family relative tells Shukan Shincho.
"Sunako's mom is quiet and doesn't speak to others much about herself. She keeps all her worries inside herself."