A wife who was called a “maggot” finally decides to take revenge… The “ironic result” of stabbing her verbally abusive and violent husband
From "You I Loved, I Had to Kill
In every age, incidents involving relationships between men and women continue to occur. In the background of these incidents, there are various forms of love that are unknown to others. (The attempted murder of her husband in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture).
I stabbed my husband.
August 15, 2001.
Maggots. Get out of here.
This was not the first time her husband had spoken out of turn. How many times had he spoken to me? As usual, I could have retorted. I could have run outside to calm down, as I always did.
But on this day, my wife did not run away. She picked up a familiar cultural knife in the kitchen and sat quietly on her haunches behind her husband, who was lying in the living room watching TV and laughing himself silly.
It was around 7:10 p.m. that day when a 119 call came in from a house in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, stating that she had stabbed her husband. The victim was Tatsuo Kondo (pseudonym/age 62 at the time), who lived in the house. Tatsuo survived, but he had five wounds in total, including a wound in his right axilla (the hollow area under the armpit) where the blade of a fruit knife had broken off and remained. It was 15 cm deep and penetrated the upper lobe of the right lung. Arrested for attempted murder was Tatsuo’s wife, Wakako (pseudonym), who was also the caller.
Wakako stabbed her husband Tatsuo in the back with the intention of killing him, but when Tatsuo brushed the knife away, she stabbed the fruit knife into his chest with all her strength. Tatsuo’s body began to bleed profusely, and Wakako finally came to her senses and called 119.
Blowing Violence and Abusive Language
Wakako and Tatsuo married in 1960. The following year, their first son was born. When their son turned 10 years old, Tatsuo began to change. He began to drink alcoholic beverages as if he were stirring up a fight. The two were still young, and drunken, abusive, and violent fights between the couple became a regular occurrence. Wakako herself also drank heavily, although it is unclear whether it was because of Tatsuo’s drinking or because she had been drinking to begin with. She developed chronic hepatitis as a result. He was in and out of the hospital many times. The eldest son grew up in such a home, and upon graduating from junior high school, for reasons unknown, he was separated from his parents. Tatsuo’s violence and verbal abuse became even worse.
Wako repeatedly broke her wrists, ribs, and thoracic vertebrae, and was sometimes hospitalized for six months with chronic hepatitis. During the couple’s fierce drinking days, Wako sometimes wished that Tatsuo would die, but she did not have the desire to kill him at that time.
In July 2001 (’01), her husband was drunk as usual,
You are a cockroach.
Wako was so angry that she retorted, “You are a cockroach. Tatsuo then grabbed a pot of curry from the kitchen and poured the contents of the pot over Wako’s head. He then hit her head, which was now covered in curry, with the pot. Wakako’s forehead was broken and an ambulance was rushed to the hospital that day, where she received three stitches on her forehead.
Wakako fled to her eldest son’s house, but she was not ready to go home, and finally returned home in the evening of the next day. What awaited her there was even more horrific violence from Tatsuo. Tatsuo showed no mercy to Wako, who returned to her home with trepidation.
Tatsuo increasingly called her a maggot and a cockroach, and we can see from the tragedy that this must have been the most difficult thing for her to endure.
They are not maggots! Tatsuo took a surprising action. He took out a polyethylene tank and a lighter, and right in front of Wakako, he said to her, “Did you just pour kerosene on the floor and light a fire? Tatsuo actually poured the kerosene from the polyethylene tank onto the floor between the boards. The smell of kerosene stung her nose, and the fear of being burned to death drove Wakako to run away and rush to the police box.
Perhaps feeling that she could not cause her eldest son any trouble, Wako spent three days camping out in a park near her home, but when her purse was empty, she decided to return home. While she was camping out, she vaguely thought that she would rather kill Tatsuo than be killed herself, but the image of her eldest son kept haunting her mind and she could not make up her mind.
Wako returned home exhausted, but contrary to her expectations, Tatsuo welcomed her kindly. Moreover, after that day, Tatsuo did not verbally abuse Wako or become violent toward her.
On August 3, Wako, who had received welfare payments on that day, excitedly prepared Tatsuo’s favorite crab for dinner and served it at the table along with beer. She could see Tatsuo’s happy face in her mind’s eye. Eating his favorite food might encourage conversation. However, Wako’s expectations were betrayed. She is driven to the point where she feels she has no choice but to kill Tatsuo.
The day of the incident
Why did you buy such a hard-to-eat food? It’s too much trouble to take the meat off!
When Tatsuo saw the crab that Wako had bought for her husband, he suddenly became angry. Then he started cursing Wako again, calling her a “maggot and cockroach. Wako, however, still thought that crab was her favorite food, so she served crab and beer at the table again the next day. Tatsuo then turned the crab upside down and smashed it on the floor, cursed at her, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her around.
Wako, who was subjected to not only verbal abuse but also to violence, including a blow to the head with her fist, was trapped in a feeling of near despair, wondering if she would have to endure a life of endurance until the day she died.
On August 15, Wako went to the kitchen to buy sake, as Tatsuo told her to do, and drank about a pint of sake herself.
She went back to the kitchen and bought some more sake.
Tatsuo went back to the kitchen to buy more sake, and as he drank it, he said to Wakako, “Hey, maggots.
You maggot. How can you live as a maggot? Maggots should die. （If you don’t want to stay at home, why don’t you just leave?
Tatsuo’s tirade that day was long and persistent. Perhaps because Wako was afraid of being verbally abused, she did not speak back, and Tatsuo’s harassment continued unabated. By not talking back, Wakako instead kept replaying in her mind what Tatsuo had said to her and what he had done to her. As she recalled, the thought came together in her mind that there was no way to escape from Tatsuo except to kill him.
Husband’s True Nature
WAKAKO’s crimes were persistent and vicious. However, it was clear that Tatsuo’s long-standing verbal abuse and violent behavior were the cause of the crime in the first place, and the fact that Tatsuo himself admitted during the interview that he had been cruel to Wako, deeply regretted his actions, and did not want her to be punished, was given significant weight. The court also gave him a large amount of leniency in that Tatsuo did not die. Wakako was sentenced to three years in prison, with a four-year suspended sentence.
The husband admitted his wrongdoing and forgave his wife, who had tried to kill him. Tatsuo was reformed and vowed to spend a peaceful old age hand in hand with Wako from now on.
It was a happy ending, but I don’t think it turned out that way.
There was not much newspaper coverage of the incident, no one died, and the husband who was stabbed had it coming to him, but for this couple, and for all couples in the world, Wako’s actions were a double-edged sword.
As a result, they did not commit murder. She did not go to jail, and her husband, who had hurt her, felt remorse and said he forgave Wako. Looking at that alone, one might say it was a good thing.
Hmm? Forgive? Who forgave who?
Considering their previous lives, it was difficult for both of them to divorce and live on their own. It is very likely that they chose to live together after the incident, even though it was a reluctant choice.
Tatsuo must have felt remorse after being punished by the police and told by the court that he deserved what he got. However, I believe that this is only a debt he owes to Wako, whom he will continue to live with in the future. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I should have finished him off. It was Wakako who had been injured and mistreated. Yet, after the incident, Tatsuo became the victim.
Moreover, he has the right to bring it up anytime he wants, to silence her, to make her feel guilty, and to cling to him forever as a generous person who forgave her for the stabbing.
The blow that Wako dealt Tatsuo may have resulted in his becoming even more entangled than before, rather than gaining his freedom.
