Mourners of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on Friday – assassinated in broad daylight on Friday – offered flowers and watermelon juice, reportedly Abe’s favorite fruit juice, at makeshift shrines set up across the country on Saturday.
Abe died after being gunned down while delivering a campaign speech in western Japan’s Nara city on Friday morning, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
“A 72-year-old Nara resident was among the steady stream of mourners who placed flowers and watermelon juice that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe loved on a special stand set up in Nara on July 9,” the newspaper observed.
Flowers, bottles of water and a framed photograph of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo near the crime scene where he was assassinated during a political event in Nara, Japan, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. (Kosuke Okahara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Flowers and bottles of beverages near the crime scene where former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was fatally shot during a political event in Nara, Japan, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. (Kosuke Okahara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mourners stand in line to pay tribute near the crime scene where former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was fatally shot during a political event in Nara, Japan, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. (Kosuke Okahara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The senior citizen said he witnessed the flight of a medevac helicopter that transported Abe to a local hospital for treatment after he was shot in the back on July 8 in Nara during a campaign event for Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Doctors were unable to revive Abe, who reportedly suffered fatal levels of blood loss due to his gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on Friday evening.
“It is so mortifying and sad to have such an incident occur in my beloved Nara,” the 72-year-old told the Asahi Shimbun.
A woman cries in front of a makeshift memorial where people place flowers at the scene outside Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara where former Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo was shot earlier in the day on July 8, 2022. (PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)
A Japanese national flag is placed next to flowers at a site outside of Yamato-Saidaiji Station where Japan’s former prime minister Abe Shinzo was shot earlier today during an election campaign on July 08, 2022 in Nara, Japan. (Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images)
“A 27-year-old company employee from Kyoto brought watermelon juice with him to place on the stand in Nara. He said he could get a job at the company of his first choice because Abenomics measures [economic reforms that included mass government spending] pushed by Abe when he was prime minister had stabilized the economy,” according to the newspaper.
“I have nothing but gratitude toward him,” the man said. “I hope he rests in peace.”
Mourners began placing flowers and other offerings at sites across Nara, Tokyo, and Abe’s home constituency in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, starting on July 8 to honor the late leader’s memory.
A man pays respects at the entrance while Japanese journalists wait outside the residence of the former Prime Minister of Japan Abe Shinzo early morning on July 9, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan as they cover the arrival of his body at his home. (David Mareuil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Abe, 67, distinguished himself during his lifetime as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, leading the office from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was widely respected and beloved both in Japan and across the world for his decades of public service.
A suspect in Abe’s murder was apprehended by police officers moments after the politician was gunned down in front of Nara’s railway station on Friday morning. Police have identified the suspect as a 41-year-old Nara resident named Yamagami Tetsuya. The man reportedly confessed to shooting Abe on July 8. Unverified reports by various Japanese newspapers on July 9 alleged that Yamagami told police he intended to kill an unidentified “religious” leader instead of Abe but ultimately shot the former prime minister instead.
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