The preliminary information, arriving piecemeal, was complicated, virtually too stunning to consider: Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — Japan’s longest-running chief — had fallen. Blood was seen on his chest. Gunfire had been heard.
Had the influential lawmaker really been shot whereas stumping for a fellow LDP member? How did the shooter purchase a gun in a rustic that has such strict controls on firearms?
As medical doctors attended to Abe at a Nara hospital, administering a blood transfusion, particulars concerning the assailant trickled in, however the public was nonetheless struggling to make sense of the rising photographs and movies, the reviews and the rumors.
Simply after 5 o’clock, the information was formally introduced: Shinzo Abe had died, at age 67, from wounds to his again, neck and coronary heart.
Listed here are just a few moments from a tragic and surreal day that few in Japan are possible neglect.