Death Note and Government
Death Note
This is what someone asked on a Death Note forum that I am a member of:
"Allright ladies and gentlemen - here it is, the question everyone asks/thinks after watching this anime. Who is truly just, L or Light? Is the killing of another human being condoned if they were 'bad' people? How does one go about labeling a person good or bad? Also, thanks to Full Metal Alchemist I must ask, can a life be valued and if so how?"
Here’s my response:
Kira. The Japanese pronunciation of the word killer. It has a debauched and vile connotation; but why? It’s due to society and the media today. Humans are becoming so easily influenced today that they are becoming mere finger puppets, much like the ones near owns, of society. It’s sordid to think that most of the world is becoming like that.
The thing to ask is this: Why are some killings deemed okay and some others aren’t?
Just to use the most mentioned country on that site, 90% of Japanese support the death penalty, according to the Mainichi Shinbun, a 2007 poll. While in the United States, a May 2005 Gallup poll had 74% of respondents in "favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder". In the same Gallup poll, when life imprisonment without parole was given as an option as a punishment for murder, 56% supported the death penalty and 39% supported life imprisonment, with 5% offering no opinion.
In Japan, just to use the country in which this anime/manga originated, the following have been given the death penalty:
- Sataro Fukiage- a.k.a the Erotomania; raped and killed at least seven girls in the early twentieth century.
- Hiroaki Hidakakilled- four prostitutes in 1996
- Miyuki Ishikawa- murdered up to 169 babies in 1940s
- Kiyotaka Katsuta - killed at least eight people but suspected of 14 others
- Yoshio Kodaira- serial killer, rapist and soldier thought to have killed 11 people in Japan and killed many people in China.
- Genzo Kurita- killed six women and two children, and was also a necrophiliac
- Hiroshi Maeue- lured people from suicide clubs promising to kill himself with his victims.
- Futoshi Matsunaga- tortured and murdered at least seven people between 1996 and 1998, including Junko's family with the aid of his common-law wife Junko Ogata.
- Tsutomu Miyazaki- a.k.a The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer, and Dracula. He killed four preschool-age Japanese girls and ate two of them.
- Norio Nagayama- killed four people with a handgun at the age of 19, and was a novelist in prison
- Seisaku Nakamura- a.k.a the Hamamatsu Deaf Killer, teenage serial killer; murdered at least nine people.
- Akira Nishiguchi- a.k.a The Black Gold Medalist; serial killer and fraudster; killed five people.
- Kiyoshi Okubo- a.k.a The Gentleman; raped and murdered eight young women during 41 days in 1971.
Those people were deemed immoral and iniquitous by their fellow citizens; but what about the people who did the killings, the ones who ended the killers’ lives themselves? They weren’t seen in the same light as the killer. Why? It’s simple really; because they were ridding the community of a cancerous being, something that harmed society. Society deems what is right and wrong. This being stated, something needs to be pointed out and yet it floors me. Different cultures approve of certain things, while others do not. You’d think that as humans, we’d know about this (different cultures), but to the human amazement, we don’t.
This is where the labeling of someone as good or bad comes from; it all depends on the culture that the incident occurs in. As for the valuing of life, I use the same answer as before. Different cultures value different things, thus punishment is up to them. Obviously, killing is wrong in most cultures. That’s why people get the death penalty; it’s a double standard of sorts. For example, in the United States, you have manslaughter and murder. You can kill someone and not get into trouble for it.
For those deemed as criminals, I believe that Kira/Light was correct. They are cancerous and need to be sluiced away from society.
