Attempted Assassination of Trump Reminds the Japanese of Abe

Former President of the United States, Donald Trump, was shot and injured on his ear when he was speaking at his presidential campaign rally in Butler, PA, on July 14. It caused one death and two injuries of the audience. The suspect of attempted assassination was shot by the secret service to death. His motivation or ideological background is not identified. The incident, which reminds of assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe two years ago, shocked the people in Japan, bringing them a concern on situation of democracy in the world.

“We must stand firm against any form of violence that challenges democracy. I pray for former President Trump’s speedy recovery,” tweeted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in his account of X. When Abe was assassinated in 2022, Kishida said that the violence that took Abe’s life during election campaign, which consisted of the basis of democracy, cannot be tolerated and accused it with the strongest words. His response to the attempted assassination of Trump could be paralleled with that in assassination of Abe.

 

Accusation of political violence in US was multi-partisan in Japan. “Regardless any political conditions, resorting to violence cannot be allowed,” said Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party, Toshimitsu Motegi, referring to political division in the US. “Violence cannot be tolerated in politics or anywhere,” said the Head of Constitutional Democratic Party, Kenta Izumi.

 

Conformity of their responses are based on their experience of Abe’s assassination two years ago. Though Abe administration was one of the most controversial one in the post-war politics in Japan, the parties were united against violence on freedom of speech. Even the Chairman of Japan Communist Party, Kazuo Shii, hoped Abe to get well soon immediately after the shooting, saying “We protest with strong anger to the intolerable violence of killing free speech with terrorism.”

 

One thing they opposed was about having national funeral for Abe. While the leading parties and some conservative opposition parties attended the ceremony, the CDP and the JCP refused to participated in.

 

Comparing to the response to Abe’s assassination in Japan, the bipartisan division in the US seems to be far deeper. Some politicians with the Republican party attributed the attempted assassination to President Joe Biden’s speeches against Trump. Nikkei Shimbun quoted a comment of Republican Senator, Tim Scott, of South Carolina, that “This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse.”

 

It is expected that the GOP is going to raise voices against the Democrats in their national convention held in Wisconsin this week. In the election of the Upper House of Japan, voted a few days after the assassination of Abe, the leading LDP achieved moderate victory, but not a landsliding one followed by sympathy to Abe’s death. Democracy of US will be tested by how they can make the presidential election as ordinary as possible.

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