LOVE SUICIDES ALARM JAPANESE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

LOVE SUICIDES ALARM JAPANESE.

Cheer Clinic Halts Death Mania.

SIDELIGHTS ON NATIONAL TEMPERAMENT

(By KIMPEI SHEBA.)

TOKYO, Japan. , STOPPING suicides is how Kvunosiike Kobayashi of this city makes a living. He is head of the suicide prerention clinic, said to be the only one of its kind in existence. Mr. Kobayashi is credited with having during the last three months saved the lives of more than 187 would-be suicides, including 36 cases of shinju, or double love suicide, one of the most prevalent forms of self-destruction in Japan. His clinic was opened in June, and not a day passes in which there is not a would-be suicide caller. Mr. Kobayashi has spent all his life studying suicides, particularly shinju, and is the author of the most authoritative work on this subject. According to him, hara-kari is no longer a social problem in Japan, as it is rarely committed nowadays. Love suicides, on the other hand, are increasing, and one of the main reasons Mr. Kobayashi opened his clinic was to put a check to this form of selfdestruction. The majority of shinju to-day takes place in the fiery pit of the ever-active volcano Mihara, on the island of Oshima, off the beautiful Bay of Tokyo. "More than 800 persons leaped to their deaths into the crater of Mihara during the last year alone, and Mihara, to say nothing of Japan, has won worldwide notoriety because of this," Mr. Kobayashi said. "It is our duty to •top such a shameful practice." So commonplace are shinju to-day thivt the newspapers no longer mention them unless there is 9of(e unusual angle to a case. So casually do the participants iu this horrible form of selfdestruction regard their act that there are cases in which those preparing for suicide have letters printed and. distributed to all their friends to inform them that they are leaving on a little

trip, much in the manner of Japanese who leave on a pleasure trip to the United States or Europe. No Set Formula. Mr. Kobayaslii was reminded that most authorities on suicide agree that self-destruction cannot be prevented. His answer to this is a stack of letters thanking him for saving the lives of the writers. Almost without exception the letters state that the writers would have committed suicide were it not for Mr. Kobayashi's intervention, and conclude with the assurance that they have givuii up all intention of dying by their own hands. "How do you stop a suicide?" I asked Mr. Kobayashi. "That," he answered, "is not so simple to answer. Every case I have handled differs from any other, and I have no set formula. In the ease of lovers I sympathise with them and obtain their confidence. Then I call on their parents and deliver a stiff lecture. "One thing I have discovered is that no one wants to shoulder the responsibility for a suicide, not even the police. After persuading a would-be suicide to give up his plan I generally encounter considerable difficulty in negotiating with the parties without whose help the act of self-destruction cannot be stopped. "In almost every case I have succeeded when everything else would have failed by shouting: 'If you don't do this I will hold you responsible for the person's death. Not only I but the law as well as your God will hold you responsible for this.' "I use drastic measures, but remember there is a human life at stake." Pessimists Seldom Commit Suicide. According to Mr. Kobayashi, he gets not a penny from those whose lives he saves. ir The first thing which strikes one on calling on Mr. Kobayashi is his cheerfulness. He is either smiling or talking merrily or doing both, and it is a strange sight to watch him talking to' his would-be suicide callers.

based on Imp «sut<-i<lo. Even in our motion pictures yon timl lliat tin* moat popular ending U one in which the lovers commit shinju and not when they cmbrace each other in the western maimer." To Die in a Maelstrom of Happiness. A philosophical explanation of love suicide is difficult. l>ut briclly it is this: To die in a maelstrom of happiness and contentment when it is realised that such happiness cannot continue and will not again he attained in this world. According to Mr. Kobayashi you cannot stop a suicide merely by talking to a person intent upon taking his own life. "This is a point." he said, "on which most authorities agree. Where I disagree with them is that you can stop suicides by giving them material as well as moral support, by proving to the would-be suicides that they have someone they can de|>end 011 in their greatest hour of need, someone who is activel.v interested in their welfare. "My help in saving would-be suicides came ahout accidentally. I discovered that most of these jhtsoiis wanted to start life anew in a new land. So I went to the Colonial Affairs Department and asked the officials there if they could do anything for these people. "Could they do anything! The officials told me I was a godsend. The people I saved, they said, were just the type of colonists they were looking for." According to Mr. Kobayashi, down-and-outers rarely commit suicide. Statistics show that there are few suicides in the slum areas. The majority are among middle-class persons with "a lot of pride who suddenly lose their means of livelihood.

His cheerfulness is not artificial or assumed to boost his callers mentally. Mr. Kobayashi explains. He just naturally happens to be light-hearted and cheerful. And here Mr. Kobayashi made a startling statement. "I have found,' he explained, "that the majority of suicides are committed by optimists like myself. Pessimists seldom put an end to their lives. The reason is that an optimist always looks on the bright side of life and consequently lias no reserve to call on when he actually finds himself in the predica r ment ho convinced himself would not overtake him. Usually a man who is cheerful and optimistic sinks into the lowest state of gloom when his mood suddenly changes. "011 the other hand, a pessimist broods about the dark side, of thin.es so much that he is not unduly shocked when he confronts a crisis." Because most of those who commit suicide are born optimists, the majority of the persons whom Mr. Kobayashi has persuaded not to commit suicide are easy to handle and convince once they pass the crisis. Mr. Kobayashi attributes the large number of suicides in Japan, particularly double love suicides first to the temperament of the people and second to the type of entertainment they enjoy. "All our famous etape plays and popular song hits," he explained, "are

Popular Ror Two Centuries. Another re'ason for suicides, according to Mr. Kobayashi, is education and knowledge. In the case of a semi-civi-lised human being, if he outs his finger all that worries him is the feeling of pain. But in the ease of a person with a higher type of mind he commences to wor*iy out of all proportion to the injury suffered, regarding what misht hap|>en. He may even imagine that blood poisoning will set ill and his life will be taken. That is the type of person who is likely to commit suicide if lie finds himself in a crisis, especially if he is usually cheerful and optimistic. According to authorities on the subject, it was in the Genroku period, two centuries ago, that shinju leaped into popularity. There was comfort and even luxury in the land, and some of tho greatest writers of that age depicted love suicides as the grandest ideal of faithful affection. So great did this evil 'subsequently become that severe edicts were enacted against it. Among these was one stipulating that no one committing suicide would be permitted burial in temple grounds, and another that if either of the two lovers survived he or she would be treated as a murderer. These draslic measures, it is believed, caused the lovers to seek death at places where their efforts would be certain to succeed. <iich as tlie crater of an active volcano, the bottomless pit of the Kegon waterfalls. and in the ocean.

WHAT A VOLCANO CAN DO. In 1738 Cotopaxi threw its fiery rockets 3000 ft above its crater; and in 1754, the blazing mass, struggling for an outlet, roared so that its awful voice was heard at a distance of more than 600 miles. In 1797 the crater of Tunguragua, one of the great peaks of the Andes, flung out torrents of mud which dammed the rivers, opened new lakes and in valleys of 1000 ft wide made deposits 600 ft in depth. The stream from Vesuvius which in 1837 passed through Torre del (Jreco contained 33,000,000 cubic feet of solid matter. In 1793, when Torre del Greco was destroyed a second time, the mass of lava amounted to 45,000.000 cubic feet. In 1769 Etna poured forth a flood which covered 84 square miles of surface, and measured nearly 100,000,000 cubic feet. The sand and scoria formed near Xicliolosa a cone two miles iu circumference, and 4000 ft high. The stream thrown out by Etna in 1810 was in motion at the rate of a yard a day for nine months after the eruption. The lava of the same mountain, after a terrible eruption, was not thoroughly cool and consolidated ten years after the event. Jn the eruption of Vesuvius, A.T). 79. the scoria and ashes vomited forth far exceeded the entire bulk of the mountain; while in 1660 Etna disgorged more than 20 times its own mass. Vesuvius has sent its ashes as far as Constantinople. Syria, and Egypt. It hurled stones 81b in weight to Pompeii, a distance of six miles, while similar masses were tossed 2000 ft above its summit. Cotopaxi projected a block of 109 cubic yards in volume a distance of nine miles; and in 1815 Suml>awa, during the most terrible eruption on record, sent its ashes to Java, a distance of 300 miles.