A memorial service was held on the fourth anniversary of the arson attack that took the lives of 36 employees and injured 32 others who worked at the building of the much loved and respected animation studio Kyoto Animation on July 18, 2019.
The memorial service was held at the site of the studio, with only families of the victims and company officials in attendance. The official YouTube channel of Kyoto Animation held a live-stream of the memorial at 10:30 am Japan Time, or 9:30 pm on the 17th in eastern standard time. The stream was only available to watch for that day.
Shinji Aoba, 45, who was indicted for crimes such as murder and arson, will be held for the first time on September 5th, and the verdict will be handed down on January 25th next year.
The service began with one minute of silence, when the attack took place four years ago. The alter was decorated with 36 sunflowers along with the words “memorial”, and each person who attended offered flowers and prayers to the victims who died in the arson attack.
Kyoto Animation President Hideaki Hatta said, “It is extremely painful to lose a truly excellent colleague in an instant.”
Before the attack, KyoAni had 176 employees, but about 40% were lost from being part of the first building. After some time, the studio began accepting applications for employment and now currently has about 190 employees.
Some of the employees who were injured in the fire have returned to the company after treatment, but others are still unable to return and are continuing their medical treatment to this day.
The first studio building is in the quiet neighborhood of Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, away from the busy city life. There has been concern over the years of having a monument built on site. Though they do sympathize with the tragedy that happened, the residents of the neighborhood believe the area is not ideal for having fans and tourists coming to pay their respects.
So after much deliberation an agreement has been made to create two separate monuments. One for the public to be able to easily visit, while keeping the monument at the Kyoto building off limits to the general public. Where exactly the public monument will settle at is not yet known for sure, though it is speculated to be somewhere near Kyoto Animation headquarters. The public monument will “preserve the memories of what happened, the lives of those who passed away and were injured, and the prayers and support offered by people from around the world.”
The monuments are expected to be completed in 2024, in time for the fifth anniversary.
Source: NHK, SoraNews24
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