Haruka

Haruka

Yikes. Poor kid. I never “liked” Haruka as a character (by which I mean I was not extraordinarily invested in his character, not that I disliked him or anything like that) but I do feel sad reading the recent release.

Sometimes a parent can do everything right and still their child ends up doing something horrible. Sometimes its genuinely not the parents’ fault. but I’ve found that’s honestly a less common scenario; most children that commit extremely violent offenses are like Haruka in a way, where their parents materially failed them in some capacity. I’d say 95% of any juvenile defendant I see had parents who perpetrated, ignored, or encouraged some very serious problems that led to the crime itself.

Its not to say that a child has NO agency; they are capable of moving, thinking, talking, breathing, killing on their own without any influence by their parents or in spite of a parent’s attempts to curtail bad behavior. But, it’s overly myopic to assume a child’s misconduct MUST, categorically, be because of their own intrinsic traits. Haruka’s killing of animals in secret was stated to be because he was happy to find something inferior to himself- but that inferiority complex stemmed from the way he was mistreated. In that way, Haruka’s parents had given him attention after the pet killings, it likely wouldnt have changed anything, because he was excited by the newfound attention; it is their original lack of interest which spurred his self loathing and desire to regain their attention. If they had put him somewhere where he could seek targeted therapy, maybe that girl would still be alive. Nurture can be more powerful than nature. It is entirely possible that he could have been a normal child with a normal life absent that neglect, and that he’d just need targeted help for whatever developmental disability he suffered from.

Having parents neglect to address or flat out ignore a developmental disability is not a novel idea even in the USA. Actually, if you look at cases that are similar to Gabriel Fernandez or Anthony Avalos, you’ll find many people abuse/torture one child to death because of a special hatred for just one of their children based on something trivial- for those two it was perceived homosexuality, but once you dive deeper, you find parents doing the same for children who have developmental delays. So although Harukas treatment seems cabined to neglect, and not physical beatings (unless I misread), he does remind me of those cases in a roundabout way. To discard or reject a child because of a perceived negative trait.

I feel very sad for the parents of his first victim as well, to never know who killed my child; or if they did, eventually, to know my child was murdered by another child who promptly murdered a second victim because neither the system nor Haruka’s parents were willing to accept the reality of Haruka’s situation. Killing animals is a warning sign that cannot be ignored. But, once again, at that point he needed more than just corrected behavior by his parents. He needed true and genuine psychological help.

It is very sad all around. While I cannot stand the thought of a child murdering my pet just because my screams of anguish made him feel connected to the world, and while I cannot myself fathom how someone can feel even temporary joy that they murdered someone they knew was weaker and less physically able, I can simultaneously feel sad that Haruka was so monumentally failed by his parents.

He was on his way to becoming a serial killer, and he could’ve been a perfectly functioning member of society.

To that end, his reaction during T2 and his ultimatum parallel, to me, his excitement when he was getting attention from his parents after being caught killing animals in his neighborhood. Giving him T1 innocent and then T2 guilty was basically us neglecting to address his psychological issues in T1 and then only turning to give him that attention in T2, like how his parents neglected him until he was brought in by police. Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe if he were guilty T1 it would have been better. Then again, it would perhaps affirm his belief that he is inferior and he maybe would have attempted to kill a physically inferior inmate.

It’s unclear. In any case, its sad and feels somewhat preventable. Were I prosecuting Haruka, though I’d have to argue he be put in prison for the safety of others, I would nonetheless seek simultaneous and required therapeutic treatment as well as targeted educational support. Because I think if he had that in the first place, he wouldnt be the danger to society that he is at all.