The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-03-26
Two Japanese Executed in the
Oahl Jail Yard.
WERE JAPANESE MURDERERS
Duty of Officials Performed With
out Mishap-M Men Had Become
ConVerted-Last Prayers.

The two Japanese murderers sentenc-
last December to capital punishment,
were hanged at Oahu Prison here in
Honolulu yesterday forenoon. The ex-
ecutions took place in the makai yard
of the Jail shortly after 10 o'clock.
There were no mishaps. Each man
had his neck broken by the fall In
thirteen minutes the male factors were
declared by the physicians to be dead
entirely pulseless. The bodies were
delivered over to the friends. Two
hearses were in waiting. Clergy rode
ahead, but there was no following Of
mourners. Religious services were held
and the graves that had been prepared
at Makiki cemetery were used
The death warrant was read to the
men by Marshal Brown in Jailor Lows
office Chester A. Doyle was the trans
lator. The men were asked if they had
anything to say. One thanked the in
terpreter for his services. The other
said that he lived in faith and had no
fear of death on the scaffold.
A selected detail brought the men
through the main hallway or corridor
of the Jail to the scaffold. Here the
binding of them was finished as they
stood on the trap. Rev. H. Kihara read
the And and 43rd verses from the
twenty-third chapter of Luke. A brief
prayer was then offered by the con-
demned men in turn. The petitions
were much alike. One was: Father,
receive my soul to Heaven" The other
was: Father receive my soul to
Heaven. / thank you and glorify you
for the last time on earth Let us
pray" said Rev. Mr.. Kihara in English.
He followed with brief invocation in
his own language. When he had con-
cluded, the preparations for the final
act of the drama were quickly COM
pleted. At the swapping of the last
trigger of the mechanism the men went
through the large trap together and
hung about four feet apart. Two red
wood collins were under the big tree
in the yard.
From the beginning to the end the
men seemed frightened and nervous,
but bore up remarkably we'll. Rev.
Mr.. Kihara says this was entirely on
account of their conversion to Christ
ianity. They embraced the faith three
months ago and have been earnest
and constant in their devotions. Each
man before baptized made a full con-
fession of his crime.
The trap was operated with the cleo
trical appliance used for Noa, the Molo-
kai murderer. One of three buttons
pressed set the mechanism in action.
There was man at each button, but
no one knows or ever will know just
the individual who started the current
Two buttons were dummies" The
men who touched the buttons were not
| in sight
These Japanese hanged yesterday
were named Yoshida and Sagata. The
former was SO years of age and the
latter 80. Yoshida stabbed to the death
with a pocket knife a woman who re-
sisted his appeals to leave her husband.
For the purposes Of the crime he
bought a quite heavy pocket knife and
wrapped the handle with a cloth.
There was practically no defense for
the man on his trial. He was assigned
capable counsel but the case was a
clear one. Sagata, with a big Chinese
dagger stabbed and slashed his wife
to death and cut the throat of their
child. The little one lived but a few
hours after being so assaulted. Sagata
| had tired Of the woman and hated her
and despised the child. He had sold
his wife, but followed and killed her.
| His crime was even worse than that
| of Yoshida
Outside the Jail guards those who
witnessed the execution were: Dr.
H. w. Howard, DR.. Chas. B. Cooper, DR..
Emerson, DR.. King, DR. Reid, DR.. tAl-
varez, DR.. HUMPHREYS, DR.. Mort, DR..
Kojima, Rev. H. Kihara, Rev. T. Oku-
mura, c. A. Doyle, Jailor Low, H. NJ
Dow, Capt. Anderson, Officer Toma
Deputy Attorney-General Dole, Capt
Parker, Marshal Brown, w. L. Frazee
and Officer H. Evans. There were
about dozen newspaper representa-
tives, including three men from the
Chinese News and Chronicle. The Jap
anese Legation did not care to send a
spectator or witness Drs. Howard
| Cooper and Emerson signed the certi-
| ficate Of the death Of the men. Drs
Cooper, Howard, Emerson and Alvarez
made the pulse findings and used the
stethoscopes.