The last words uttered by a senior Aum Shinrikyo cultist before he was hanged July 6 were for his parents and an admission that "I never thought that things would turn out like this."
And with that, Yoshihiro Inoue dropped through the trapdoor to his death at the Osaka Detention House.
Fellow cultist Tomomasa Nakagawa, who was executed at the Hiroshima Detention House, expressed heartfelt apologies for his victims.
Inoue and Nakagawa were among seven members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult executed the same day for a crime spree that left 27 people dead, and included the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system that claimed 13 lives and also sickened thousands.
The cult's mastermind, Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, was the first to be hanged. He was executed at the Tokyo Detention House.
Six other cultists are on death row waiting for their sentences to be carried out.
Inoue, 48, was sentenced to death for his involvement in the sarin gas attacks in 1995 and other crimes.
Prior to his execution, a prison official asked the condemned man if he had anything he wanted to convey to his parents.
"Father, mother, thank you very much," he replied. "Don't worry."
He then stated that he had never thought he would end his life being executed by the state.
Nakagawa, 55, was convicted in the murders of anti-Aum lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and 1-year-old son as well as a sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994 that left eight people dead. The attack was targeted at judges presiding in a land dispute involving Aum.
Nakagawa’s family members and close friends attended his wake at a funeral parlor in Hiroshima Prefecture on July 8. A prison official who attended briefed the bereaved family on Nakagawa's last moments, according to haiku poet Akihiko Ezato who attended the funeral.
On the morning of his execution, prison officials tried to grab hold of Nakagawa’s arms to escort him to the death chamber, but he shrugged them off, saying, “I can walk there by myself."
He did not offer any resistance.
In an antechamber, Nakagawa spurned a Buddhist priest trying to offer words of comfort.
“It’s different from my family’s religion,” he said.
Nakagawa did not touch a snack of prepared fruits or sweets, but drank two cups of tea.
“I’m grateful to my supporters and lawyers,” he went on. “I don’t hold a grudge against anyone for my (current) circumstances. I must face up to what I did."
He offered final apologies to his victims and met his death.
(This article was written by Shunsuke Abe and Nobufumi Yamada.)
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