Victim-criminal dialogue can be cathartic

Masaharu Harada's younger brother was 30 years old when he was brutally murdered in 1983. For years, Harada harbored a hatred against the killer, Toshihiko Hasegawa, hoping he would get the death penalty.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='Masaharu Harada speaks at a news conference June 4 in Tokyo at the launch of the nongovernmental organization Ocean' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070612f1a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='188'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Masaharu Harada speaks at a news conference June 4 in Tokyo at the launch of the nongovernmental organization Ocean, while Renny Cushing –

, founder of the U.S.-based group Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, looks on. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL JAPAN

Hasegawa for his part tried to reach out to Harada after his trial began in 1984, continuously writing letters to apologize for his crime. Over nearly 10 years, Harada received about 150 letters from Hasegawa but threw most of them out because he did not want to read any apology from the man who killed his brother.