102-year-old Japanese man kills himself as evacuation looms

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Reuters

TOKYO, April 14 (Reuters) – A 102-year-old Japanese man from a village near the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has committed suicide, with his family saying that the prospect of evacuation may have been the cause, Jiji news agency reported on Thursday.

Jiji reported that the man, confirmed dead on Tuesday, was the oldest resident of Iitate village, which is located about 40 kilometres (24 miles) from the Daiichi plant and is included in an expanded evacuation zone announced on Monday.

Japan expanded the evacuation zone around the plant taking into account the high levels of radiation that have accumulated in some areas after the powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11 caused the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster

Read more: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110414-273611.html

[aquart]

1. Makes sense.

He knew he wouldn't survive the move. Or want to.

I expect a whole lot more Japanese suicides in the coming months.

Head of TEPCO is still alive, I notice.

[left on green only]

5. Good times!

Perhaps the head of TEPCO is eagerly awaiting the awarding of his fat bonus, just like the heads of failed US financial institutions received after the government bailout of their fecal creations. Meanwhile, the meek shall inherit the Earth, irregardless of whether it is inhabitable or not. I am missing something here. One more time please for the intellectually challenged among us. Why is this being allowed to continue? Especially when there are more of us than there are of them. Has honest John Boner addressed this one yet? How about less than slimy Newt Getricher? And of course never forgetting not the mother of Trig Palin with all of her right wing Alaskan wisdom?

[aquart]

6. Hon, no one knows how to stop it.

Small tiny fly in the nuclear reactor industry ointment. Although someone keeps saying BORON. Hope they get some.

I just spent some time with the Fukushima-related videos on DU and I'm a little....not sure how I feel. Bug-eyed, maybe.

[JackInGreen]

22. With any luck

we'll see the head of TEPCO do the honorable thing, and we'll see his American equivalents follow suit ;)

[SoulSearcher]

24. I Hope you are right

The honorable thing, to me is use the best human engineering
knowledge possible to change the design. Most people quickly
want all Nuke-plants stopped, but the demand for (elec) power is
globally increasing. Hydro and Oil-fired wont kill you like Nuke
but they all have their own problems.

[plumbob]

40. Wind has no problem and can be implemented immediately.

These nukes need to go. This is the most expensive and complicated way to boil water anyone ever invented, not to mention filthy and deadly.

Please notice that all 4 of Japan's wind farms have been unaffected during this whole adventure.

[hlthe2b]

2. Ohh... damn... words fail...

RIP, my poor friend.

[Danmel]

3. That is just unspeakably sad

[cali]

21. What the heck? Why is this unspeakably sad? He lived to a 102

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. I am sorry you do not get it.

Truly.

[closeupready]

27. Disgusting.

nt

[chrisa]

54. Because he killed himself

He was too fragile to be rescued. How do you not find that sad?

[cutlassmama]

4. I can see why he'd do that. If I was 102 years old and being uprooted

I wouldn't be happy either.

[harmonicon]

7. This isn't a story.

It seems like, for whatever reason, any way that someone can fit "Fukushima" into a sentence now makes that sentence "newsworthy", but it doesn't. This is just more fear-mongering bullshit.

[Arrowhead2k1]

9. Centenarians don't tend to off themselves all the time you know,

especially ones living in nuclear evacuation zones.

I'd say it's worth noting...

[harmonicon]

10. The elderly have the highest suicide rate of all age groups.

No story.

[Arrowhead2k1]

39. That's simply not true.

In Japan, the rate is higher for younger people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan

The guy was over 100. He was facing evacuation, the family even suspects that he did it because of the looming evacuation. If so much is true, than it's worth noting and it has been noted. It's not fear-mongering either, it's just a goddamn story.

[davidthegnome]

11. Huh...

A story of a 102 year old man killing himself is fear-mongering BS? Your take on the story is... interesting, to say the least.

[harmonicon]

13. People kill themselves every day - especially old people.

Would you have heard about this if there wasn't some way to stick the word "Fukushima" in there? No, you wouldn't have. This "story" is speculation bordering on fabrication. Someone killed themselves and we don't know why. Big story.

[barbtries]

15. quote from article:

"his family saying that the prospect of evacuation may have been the cause, Jiji news agency reported on Thursday."

maybe they have some understanding of why he did it. stop reading if it bores you so much.

[harmonicon]

16. "may have been"!! Wow. If that's not speculation, I don't know what is.

A fucking sled called Rosebud that he lost as a child and never told his family about also "may have been the cause". I feel sorry for his family, but apart from my basic human empathy, I just don't give a fucking shit, and you shouldn't either. I'm sure there's someone in your community suffering the loss of a suicide right now, but you don't know about that, because there was no way to say "Fukushima" when printing the obit.

As for asking me to stop reading, this isn't just a website for reading. It's a website for discussion, and I thought this story was a perfect example of horrible "journalism" at work, and I think that's worth discussing. If you don't want to have such discussions, go buy a newspaper.

[Turbineguy]

23. When it comes to Fukushima

"may", "possible", "we think", and words like that are taken as proving fact.

It's a sad thing when any person kills themselves whatever the reason.

[BeFree]

30. Harm said it:

"I just don't give a fucking shit, and you shouldn't either"

Fine if you don't, but who the fuck are you to tell anyone else what they should do?
Discuss that.

[harmonicon]

31. I would like people to actually look at the media they consume with a critical eye.

That is something that I care about, and a story that basically says "IF THE RADIATION WON'T KILL YOU, WE CAN STILL BLAME FUKUSHIMA FOR A SUICIDE111!!ELEVENS!!" is not credible journalism, it's bullshit fear-mongering. I'm sorry that I had to be the one to point out that a family's tragedy is being exploited for this.

[BeFree]

34. Oh

That's more clear.

So you are the guiding light?
I guess you think it impossible that anyone could be heart broken over the fact that everything they worked for is now completely overshadowed by the Fukushima event? And any suggestion that goes against your tender reasoning just has to be totally false and you will stake your measly little reputation on that?

You don't give a shit? Yet you use this event to prop yourself up?
The only propping I see is a hoist on your own petard.

[harmonicon]

36. I guarantee this:

There is someone in your community who is suffering the loss of a suicide the complete reasons for which they can not explain. For such a tragedy to be used to generate copy for some "news" organization is troubling, to say the least. No one here would have known about this had this guy killed himself two months ago, and that's fine. It's not our business. To pretend it's our business because of the man's physical location at the time of death seems very false.

[callous taoboy]

37. Pointless rage. Absolute drivel.

Good for one thing: A hit on my ignore button. Buh-Bye.

[Wednesdays]

44. I agree totally.

What a work.
:eyes:

[harmonicon]

49. yes, heaven forbid I question our overload tear-jerk media.

Of course this is the same media that many on this board will claim is nothing but a Republican tool. However, when it comes to manufacturing a story to cash in on a current topic and pull at the heart-strings, it should never be questioned. All hail the impartial (Republican-ass-kissing, otherwise-fear-mongering, wealthy-cow-towing) media.

[Arugula Latte]

29. Uh, someone who is ONE HUNDRED AND TWO YEARS OLD!

No, that doesn't happen very often. He killed himself because he has to leave his home because a nuke plant is spewing deadly radiation. So much for "safe, clean" energy. This is newsworthy.

Sorry your feewings about pwecious nucweear energy were huwted.

[harmonicon]

32. So you're the authority on why people kill themselves?

Three of my best friends have killed themselves in the past few years. You didn't know them either, but maybe based on one article you'd like to tell me why they did it. Give me a fucking break.

[Arugula Latte]

55. The guy survives WWII, makes it to 102, and then decides to kill himself?

Gee, I wonder why that could be?

[harmonicon]

56. Go on wondering, because you'll never know. nt.

[flamingdem]

50. lol! I'm sure x would think it sensationalist

but did you see that there is now radiation in arugula in the USA? They
tested it at UC Berkeley.. thought you should know

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. I disagree.

How this rolling disaster affects people IS the story, if one believes in the community of mankind.

[harmonicon]

33. IT'S PURE SPECULATION!!

I'm sure that in the last month many people in that area have had a lot of shit happen in their lives, and it's not necessarily because of this. Shit happens, and people keep on being who they are and still have their earlier problems to deal with. This is nothing but exploiting a family's tragedy at the expense of a subject who can not speak for himself.

[Rex]

57. It is newsworthy because of his age...are you blind?

All your talk over nothing...this is a news story, sorry if it makes you mad.

102.

Equals newsworthy.

Simple.

[plumbob]

41. Oh? Nuclear emissions are green, eh? The old man is useless, so no

news.

These two events are related and quite unusual - name one other 102 year old anywhere who killed themselves for any reason at all, please.

[harmonicon]

48. I can't, because it wasn't reported in the "news".

That's my point. It's widely known that the elderly are the most likely to commit suicide, but for most of them, we don't know the specifics, as it's a private matter, as it should be.

[plumbob]

51. So even if someone commits suicide due to depression caused by

family members making them feel guilty about expending resources to keep them alive, then we should neither study it or even attempt to understand it?

So familial guilt-caused suicide is okay by you? That's private.

As long as child molestation is kept private, is that okay too? Trying to understand your standard for privacy and goodness.

[harmonicon]

53. Well, it shouldn't be speculated on and then have that speculation reported as news.

I take your point, and I do agree, but I think these are two different things. While these things obviously should be studied, I don't think the victims should be exploited. In that sense, yes, they should be kept private, with those who are equipped to study them or welcomed to allowed in. I see absolutely no good in this news story, just pure exploitation.

[Arrowhead2k1]

8. That man must have seen A LOT of history.

He was in his 30s when the war was on and ended with 2 cities taken out by nuclear bombs. I can't imagine what must have been going through his mind upon hearing that the horrors of radiation have returned to Japan, this time even in his own neighbourhood...

[rasputin1952]

12. I find it sad to read when anyone takes their own life...

but no one has a true idea of what went through this man's mind. He was brought up in a culture few of us, even the current Japanese citizens truly understand. Suicide is not seen as "out of the ordinary" for a man of his cultural heritage. Today, things are seen differently, I highly doubt that there would be very many Japanese kamikaze volunteers these days. However, when this man was forming his societal identity, suicide was seen as better than failure, in fact, it was often expected.

It saddens me when anyone dies like this, but I can comprehend why he might have done it. The history this man could have told, what he must have seen from 1909 to 2011...the changes, he was 9 when WWI ended; he was there when Japan went into China, knew about Pearl Harbor and WWII's incredible losses...knew of two cities annihilated by nuclear weapons and watched as his nation rose from the ashes to become a major world power, all of this knowledge/experience gone...:(

[Art_from_Ark]

20. The man did not fail

He did not bring "shame" to his family (or country/emperor, in the olden days), he did not cause untold grief for others.

But
Given that he was in rural Fukushima, it's highly likely that he was living on a homestead that had been in his family for generations. Facing the prospect of being forcibly uprooted from that and taken to a crowded shelter where he might spend the rest of his life may have been too much too bear.

[Zoigal]

42. I am eighty two and i can understand how he may have felt. Considering the alternative

suicide was probably the easiest way for him to cope with having to be
moved to a completely "foreign" environment....z

[Art_from_Ark]

47. I have seen pictures and videos of the shelters

NHK (Nihon Hoso Kyoku, Japan's version of PBS) has stories about the shelters practically every day. One thing that strikes me about them is the lack of privacy-- they are mostly public halls, community centers, school gymnasiums, etc., where families carve out a small area for themselves on the floor and wait for a chance to get into some kind of individual housing. Given the huge scale of this disaster, these conditions are understandable, and in areas where there was destruction of family homes, I get the impression that there is more patience because the evacuees may have nothing to return to. But this man's house was apparently intact, and it is quite possible that he couldn't stand the prospect of being removed from that and made to live in cramped quarters amidst a lot of strangers.

[Karenina]

52. I completely respect the man's decision

and don't find it "sad" insofar as he maintained his sovereignty and control of his own destiny. It was an act of self-determination and after 102 years he'd certainly earned the right to determine his own fate.

What's sad and outrageous is the ability of profit seekers to... Oh never mind. Don't get me started.

Tante K.

[CountAllVotes]

14. RIP my friend

How very sad. :cry:

:dem: :kick:

[Hubert Flottz]

17. K&R

A sad thing.

[chillspike]

18. Are there any groups working in Japan to prevent this?

Is anyone doing anything to help prevent suicides resulting from the tsunami and earthquake in Japan? I think there should be a massive public outreach program to discourage people from giving up on life.

[no_hypocrisy]

19. A lot of Japanese, particularly older people, have a communal bond with the land on which they live.

Bond with The Earth.

Bond with their ancestors who are part of The Earth.

More than respect. It's part of them.

Asking a 102 year old man to move to live elsewhere is akin to uprooting a tree and expecting the roots to grow in another location. It's just unthinkable.

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. Exactly.

I am a bit shocked to read comments from people who do not get the point of this story.
I know we live in a culture that worships youth and money, and disparages those who have neither,
but, still, it is rather off putting to hear the callousness in some remarks. A callousness that seems to reflect the greater society today.
for what it is worth, I believe this man's choice of ending his life will resonate with most of the people in Japan.

[CountAllVotes]

35. A callousness that seems to reflect the greater society today

Very true sadly. What kind of a society have we become? A sicker one than I'd ever suspected seems to be the answer.

[WheelWalker]

45. You have an understanding. Blessings.

[polly7]

38. I have no doubt his family had

a pretty good idea why he did it. It is a very sad story. It reminds me of elderly farmers who are forced to finally leave their land for different reasons, but the grief they experience is devastating to them, and sometimes fatal.

[Danmel]

43. I think it is sad

That someone who made it to 102 couldn't die in peace, that's all. A lot of older people died after Katrina too- depression, losing lived ones, their homes and memories and no strength or desire to start over. I'm sorry that you don't see the human side of it. I feel sad for people suffer that kind of loss.

[Kurovski]

46. The tragedy is on-going in Japan.

And It's devastating in many ways to people all over the globe.

Too much sorrow, so much stress.

Rest in peace.