Is there an issue with the official cause of death, "loss of blood," attributed to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, considering he was not bleeding heavily when he was shot? No, there is nothing incorrect about the official cause of death. The presence of significant bleeding is not a prerequisite for the cause of death to be attributed to loss of blood. Loss of blood leading to death can occur regardless of the visible bleeding. Bleeding can happen internally, which may not be apparent externally.
The claim originated on a TikTok video (archived here) on January 11, 2023, titled "Doesn't make any sense."
The witness of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as translated from Japanese to English by Lead Stories staff, said:
...When they (rescuer) took Abe's shirt off, he didn't have a shot mark on his chest. He was bleeding a little from his neck, but it didn't look like much from the outside...
One of the doctors working in the ER said:
...He died of bleeding due to damage to his heart that reached the thoracic aorta...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jun 30 15:33:00 2023 UTC)
The witness video is sourced from the TV Asahi news program "Saturday Station," while the video of the doctor is obtained from TV Japan's news footage.
According to TBS News Dig and NPR, the gunshot wounds consisted of "one location on the left shoulder and two on the neck." He was transferred to Nara Medical University Hospital. The team led by Professor Eiken Fukushima, an emergency doctor, was in charge of the surgery. Dr. Fukushima, translated from Japanese into English by Lead Stories staff, said:
Due to cardiopulmonary arrest, open heart surgery was performed immediately without anesthesia. His body temperature was lower than normal, and the wound had reached his heart. The blood vessels near his aorta were able to be controlled, but the blood had lost its ability to clot, so the bleeding would not stop.
In another interview, Dr. Fukushima, translated from Japanese into English by Lead Stories staff, said:
Because I had experience with treatment in the past, I knew that a gunshot wound had a large bleeding point, and that the damage was different from an accidental bruise to the stomach. It was a chest, so it was very difficult to stop the bleeding.
These two statements indicate that during the surgery when the doctors opened Abe's chest, they observed significant bleeding. Bleeding to death does not necessarily require visible blood leaving the body. Internal bleeding can also lead to a fatal outcome.
According to the doctor who serves as the director of the critical care center, a bullet's trajectory through the body is normally not a straight line:
On the side where the bullet entered, it will be a penetrating wound (a wound with a hole), which is the same as if you had been stabbed with a nail or a spear. It is said that the visible wound was only a hole.
