Around the World in 60 Seconds by Nuseir Yassin & Bruce Kluger

Author:Nuseir Yassin & Bruce Kluger
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2019-11-04T17:00:00+00:00

But it is the unending wave of human sadness that persistently streams into this quiet woodland that gives the forest its tragic nickname. As many as a hundred people take their own lives in the Suicide Forest every year, a phenomenon so chronic that officials have placed signs at the forest’s entrance urging those with fatal intentions to seek help instead.

But they just keep coming, on and on, hiking through the thick foliage until they’re lost in its shadows. They sometimes trail a plastic ribbon behind them so they can find their way out if they change their mind. Oftentimes, they don’t. Most end their lives by hanging; others overdose on drugs or ingest poison. Either way, their last moments are undoubtedly draped in crushing silence. The trees in the forest are so closely spaced that not even the wind can be heard; and because the soil is rich with magnetic iron, cell phone signals are often disrupted, making any last, desperate pleas for help nearly impossible. Some have called the depths of the Suicide Forest “a chasm of emptiness.”

Of course, suicide is not new to Japan—seppuku (or harakiri) dates back to the country’s feudal era in the twelfth century, when samurai warriors or shamed commoners would end their lives to restore honor to themselves or their families. Today, this ritual is less about honor than it is an expression of hopelessness. While in recent years, Japan’s annual suicide rate has reached all-time lows, it is still among the highest in the world—at sixty deaths a day, nearly twice the rate of Germany—and has subsequently become an issue of national urgency.

I didn’t hesitate for one moment to make a video about the Suicide Forest. Raising awareness is never a bad thing, especially when so many people are suffering. In fact, when I was editing the video on Day 516, I decided to include Japanese subtitles so that I could reach as many people as possible. And whatever private concerns I may have harbored about raising such a dire topic were instantly dispelled when the comments started rolling in. The video had clearly struck a nerve.

“Thank you for covering such a taboo subject,” one follower wrote. “The stigma around mental illness is harmful and polarizing. But maybe with videos like this, we can start to let others know that it’s okay to ask for help.” Many agreed.

I was grateful that the video had spoken intimately to so many people. What surprised me, however, was that one of those people was my new Japanese friend, Yuki. He’d recently had his own brush with suicide, he confided to me, and he barely escaped by the roll of the dice. Literally.

When he told me this, I thought he was kidding—or at the very least, that I wasn’t understanding him properly because of some translation error. But Yuki wasn’t joking, and when he shared the details of his story, I was floored. I asked him if he’d be willing to tell it again, this time on camera.

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