Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock
The flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff for two days out of respect for former Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe, who wasassassinated in Nara, Japan, on Friday morning.
“The longest serving Prime Minister in Japan’s history, Abe Shinzo was a proud servant of the Japanese people and a faithful friend to the United States,” Biden stated in the proclamation. “He worked with American Presidents of both parties to deepen the Alliance between our nations and advance a common vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Shinzo, a conservative politician who formerly led the Liberal Democratic Party, twice served as prime minister of Japan — from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.
He wasshot with a homemade firearm while giving a campaign speechahead of this weekend’s parliamentary election. The 67-year-old died of a cardiac arrest not long after.
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“Even in the moment he was attacked and killed, he was engaged in the work of democracy, to which he dedicated his life,” Biden proclaimed.
In the hours since his death, manyAmerican and world leaders have paid respects to Abeand the legacy he left behind.
Former PresidentBarack Obamawrote on Twitter that his “friend and longtime partner” Abe “was devoted to both the country he served and the extraordinary alliance between the United States and Japan.”
“I will always remember the work we did to strengthen our alliance, the moving experience of traveling to Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor together, and the grace he and his wife Akie Abe showed to me and Michelle,” Obama continued.
Former PresidentGeorge W. Bushalso offered condolences in a statement in which he called Abe’s assassination “senseless.”
“I am deeply saddened to learn of the senseless assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” Bush said. “I had the privilege of getting to know him during his first time as Prime Minister in 2006 and found him to be a decent and caring man. Shinzo Abe was a patriot of his country who wanted to continue serving it.”
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Former PresidentDonald Trumpalso offered a statement on the TRUTH Social platform, calling Abe’s death “really BAD NEWS FOR THE WORLD!”
Other world leaders — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, outgoing British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz among them — shared similar sentiments from their own nations' unique points of view.
source: people.com
