🎙️ Petit Petit Summit (8) Summary of May–July 2022

August 8, 2022 — The 3rd Petit Petit Summit (1)

The Assassination of Shinzo Abe

Lone Wolf or Organized Conspiracy?

Goro: Hello everyone, it’s been a while. Our last summit was in April, so more than three months have passed. A lot has happened in the meantime. How are you two holding up?

Allan: I’m pretty much the same. No fevers or anything like that. My body is falling apart, but that’s just old age for you.

Yūdai: No changes here either. A few curious souls have started trickling back to my shrine.

Goro: You mean people applying for your shady "Itako" spirit-medium sessions?

Yūdai: "Shady" is unnecessary. All spiritual businesses are like that, aren't they? My business competes on the sheer quality of the experience.

Allan: Straight into the verbal jabs, I see. Let’s get to the point. Today is August 8th. If we’re talking about the last three months, we have to start with the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Yūdai: Even I couldn't foresee that one. It caught me completely off guard.

Goro: I like your honesty, Yūdai-san.

Yūdai: I want to ask you, Goro—there are a lot of people claiming it wasn't just the work of that Yamagami fellow. What’s the word on that?

Goro: Right. The theory that Yamagami was just a "planted dummy," like Oswald in the JFK assassination. At first, I felt a sense of unease too, thinking, "This is almost too perfectly staged." I started digging, and man, the anomalies just kept coming. Some are absurd—like the one about a nurse seeing Abe walk into the ICU while talking on his smartphone (laughs). But there are plenty of points that really make you think, "Wait, that is strange." As of now, I can't say for 100% certain it was a lone-wolf job.

Allan: But if you debunk those points one by one, doesn't it lead back to it being a lone-wolf act anyway?

Goro: Probably. To summarize the skeptics' points:

• In the footage of the moment he was shot, it looks like Abe ducks or steps down from the podium of his own accord.
  
• He was supposedly shot with a shotgun (homemade), yet no one else in the crowd was hit.
  
• Why did his shirt collar move right before the second shot hit?
  
• A local doctor who arrived first testified that it was likely instant death. Can a toy-like, homemade gun really cause instant death on a target?Why was he transported via a time-consuming doctor-helicopter relay when a major emergency center was only a few minutes away by ambulance?
  
• The cause of death announced by the hospital differed from the police report. The police autopsy said a single bullet entered the left upper arm and severed the arteries under the collarbones, causing him to bleed out—but there was very little blood at the scene.
  
• The hospital, however, said two bullets entered the neck and reached the heart, but those bullets were never found in the body or at the scene.
• The release of the suspect’s identity and the explanation of the events happened incredibly fast and smoothly.
  

Allan: They are all things that make you go, "True, that is odd." And the conclusion this theory leads to is that a professional sniper shot him from the top of a nearby building.

Yūdai: Now that is a leap too far.

Allan: I agree. There are many inconsistencies, but the idea of a separate sniper hitting the heart with that exact timing is a massive stretch.

Goro: I think so too, but then you see self-proclaimed doctors doing incredibly detailed analyses, and you start to wonder. They claim "gallium bullets" were used—bullets that melt at body temperature, which explains why the bullets disappeared... like this kind of theory.

Yūdai: I don't know. It sounds like people are trying too hard to turn it into a movie plot.

Allan: Regardless of the gun or bullets, you can't send a projectile into the heart without leaving an entry wound. I’d find it more believable if someone had rushed up and used a micro-stun gun or a needle device to cause cardiac arrest.

Goro: Some even say electromagnetic weapons were used.

Yūdai: Good grief. It really is a "anything goes" situation.

Allan: That kind of thing might happen in the U.S., but I don't think a highly coordinated assassination plot like that is possible in Japan. It’s beyond the level of the average police officer, and difficult even for pro security. I don't believe there were operatives or "actors" capable of that kind of high-level work at the scene. Most importantly, I think coordinating meticulously with a guy like Yamagami would be impossible.
And then there’s Yamagami’s background. That part seems real, doesn't it? It’s hard to imagine an organization fabricating his entire life just to use him.
Besides, if such an organization existed, what would be the goal of killing Abe? What kind of Japan—or world—did they want to see after he was gone? Without an answer to that, it doesn't add up. Ultimately, I think it was a miraculous, tragic alignment of coincidences.

Goro: You’re right.

Yūdai: Is that your final answer, Goro?

Goro: That’s a loaded way of putting it. But yes, for now, I’ve mostly concluded it was his lone-wolf act.

Yūdai: If so, it feels like some kind of "divine" or inexplicable force was at work. Like the power of a spirit possessing Yamagami...

Goro: Spirits... normally I’d poke fun at that, but I actually feel something similar. The way the "drama" unfolded so perfectly was just... eerie.

The World After Abe

Allan: Whether it was a lone wolf or not, the fact remains that he was killed. We can all agree it wasn't a play and that Shinzo Abe isn't still alive somewhere, right?

Goro: Yes, I'm 99.9% sure of that.

Allan: What interests me is how the world has moved in such a strange direction since his death. The Unification Church (Moonies) issue came to the surface for the first time in ages, and the media suddenly began reporting on the ties between politics and cults. It’s as if Yamagami pulled back a curtain.

Yūdai: You mean there was a faction that wanted that to happen?

Goro: People are discussing it in relation to China or the U.S.

Yūdai: The CIA, China, Russia, the Military-Industrial Complex... who would welcome a "Japan without Abe," and where do they want to lead it?

Goro: Exactly. But all the arguments are so vague or messy that none of them feel satisfying. Even regarding the Unification Church, there are conflicting views: some say Abe was their "billboard," while others argue he was actually their "archenemy."

Allan: Even his stance on China, Russia, and Taiwan—people say completely opposite things. Ultimately, I feel Abe was a politician who lacked a solid "ideology" or "philosophy." He was a unique character in that sense. For example, regarding the crisis with China over Taiwan—I suspect things wouldn't have changed much whether Abe was here or not.

Yūdai: Then shall we leave it at that? Japan at its core hasn't changed much since he passed. Personally, I find Yamagami’s upbringing more interesting than the politics. I bet many people are thinking of turning his life into a movie or a book.

Allan: True. You could fit a lot of deep themes into a novel based on him. Something in the style of Keiichiro Hirano...

Goro: But they’d never be able to produce it in today’s Japan. Not as a movie, not as a drama.

Yūdai: Probably not.

Allan: Then let’s leave the incident there for now.