OSAKA -- Following the massacre of eight children in June 2001 at Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka Prefecture, the victims' parents found empathy and understanding from across the Pacific.

It came from the families of those who were murdered at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., two years earlier.

Now that Mamoru Takuma has been sentenced to death over the murders, however, the Ikeda families hope to reach out themselves.