One of the deadliest attacks Japan has seen since World War II occurred on Tuesday, July 26th in a quiet residential area about 25 miles outside of the Tokyo city center. Nineteen people were killed and 26 injured in a horrific stabbing spree at a facility for the mentally disabled. The victims, ranging in age from 18 to 70, had no way to defend themselves during the attack.

The attack was carried out by a 26 year old former employee of the facility, Satoshi Uematsu, who broke through a window at about 2 a.m. to begin his deadly attack. Police reports state that Uematsu jump-attacked two workers of the facility and tied them up before walking wing to wing killing patients. An hour after the attack began, the suspect turned himself into local police headquarters, still brandishing the knife used in the assault and clad in blood-splattered clothing.

Despite being a former employee of the facility for the disabled, Uematsu clearly had a deep prejudice for those suffering from disabilities. In a letter written months before the occurrence, Uematsu wrote that he had "the ability to kill 470 disabled people."

The letter, which was discovered by news outlet CNN, clearly and vividly outlined the suspect's biases and hatred toward the disabled. Uematsu went on to state in the aforementioned letter that he dreamed "of a world where disabled people with severe difficulties socializing as well as severe difficulties at home are allowed to be peacefully euthanized."

This type of hatred is not limited to Japan. Last week, a wheelchair-bound grandmother was beaten in her home in the middle of the night by two masked attackers in what is assumed to be a targeted hate crime. While attacks of this nature and size are rare in Japan, this horrifying incident shows that the public needs to begin to see hatred toward the disabled as equal in footing as racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.