JAPAN'S FIERY PIT OF DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

JAPAN'S FIERY PIT OF DEATH.

The Island Volcano Of Mihara.

CLAIMS HUNDREDS OF SUICIDE VICTIMS

ON the Japanese island of Oshima, 50 miles soutli-west across the bay from Tokyo, rises the ever-smok-ing, ever-active volcano Mihara, 24Glft high. Its rumbling crater is seven miles in circumference. Standing on its ominous edge, one can see sheer walls which are lost in a terrible abyss of sulphuric smoke and flames. One can hear the rumbling of boiling lava. On fine days, especially holidays, thousands of visitors from Tokyo and surrounding cities and islands flock to Mihara. Many of them never return. Here and there on Mihara's seven-mile fringe are high, flimsy shacks, each

housing several alert men and long, businesslike tclescopcs. These men are suicide preventers. Their duty is to watch the thousands who trudge up Mihara's steep slopes and [ gather near the crater. Should one or more venture too near the brink, the lookouts race to the scene. Many times they arrive too lyite to prevent suicide; often they go to extreme effort only to learn that the person or persons standing near the crater do not contemplate self-destruction. During the last few years hundreds of youths and men and women have cast themselves into Mihara's crater. Officials can only guess the exact number. From February 11 to May 9, 1933, 55 young men and women ended their lives there, and in 1934 alone more than 800 destroyed themselves. The death trek to Mihara started a few years ago when three high school girls, crossed in love, leaped into the crater. Most Spectacular Tragedies. Probably the most spectacular suicides there took place in January, 1935. One morning three young men separated themselves from a crowd of 100 sightseers. The first, about 25 years old and wearing Western clothes, rushed forward and flung himself into the crater. Seconds later the second man, also wearing Western clothes, walked forward slowly, as if in a trance, until lie disappeared over the side. Then the third, wearing a kimono, ran to the edge, tore off the kimono, and leaped naked into the abyss. Two days later three other young men leaped into the crater one after the other.

Alarmed by the suicides, the Tokyo Home Office attempted to stop all excursions to the island. The islanders protested, however. They depended for livelihood upon tourists. To-day Oshima Island maintains pretty country girls as hostesses to welcome visitors. The Tokyo authorities, yielding to the islanders, then established look-out towers and put through a system whereby everybody going to the island was questioned by police. Those suspected of suicidal intent were not allowed to land. On top of this the authorities distributed pamphlets denouncing suicide. People of the Western world do not and probably cannot understand the Oriental philosophy that accepts self-

[ destruction as a matter of course. National honour, personal lionour, love, and loyalty figure in most cases. One Japanese became a national hero for disembowelling himself—hara kiri—in protest against the American immigration exclusion laws. The Social Bane of Shinju. There have been instances where school principals have committed suicide because pictures of their emperor were destroyed by fire. Such pictures hang in all Japanese school-houses. There have been cases of young women, committing minor social errors, ending their lives. The death of an emperor or high military chief is often followed by suicides of their close friends or subordinates. < Shinju, or the double suicide of lovers, probably has been one of Japan's greatest social banes. Thousands upon thousands of romantic youths have thrown themselves into craters, down mountain cataracts, or into lakes in the belief that it is better for two to die together in love than to live separated. One of the great Shinju scenes before Mihara was the waterfall from Lake Chuzenji in the mountains above Nikko. One of the exceptions there was a young man who left a note stating he was leaving this world because lie could not solve the riddle of the universe. The Japanese mind considers suicide stoically. The Japanese from ancient times have been wedded to the belief that death absolves one of all responsibility. Death is regarded as atonement for any transgression. It is regarded as the most honourable way out of any difficulty.