Jukai forest and suicide.

I was nervously walking under a grey sky, trying to pretend to be as casual as possible. But my legs were wobbling, and my heart was pumping as if it was about to face its demise. Yes, I was on my way to check my SAT biology score. I thought I would collapse on my way to Ms. Min’s office, who was my biology teacher, but somehow my legs managed to support my limbs. At last, the dramatic moment came upon me. I closely looked at the front of my exam paper, and when I checked my score written black on a grey sheet of paper, a Japanese suicide forest swept in my head like a panorama.  For a short moment, I was in the middle of the Japanese suicide forest where trees emit the scent of death and animals greet decaying human corpses. I escaped from my horrid delusion, but my miserable reality awaiting me in Ms. Min’s office was more horrible. Letting out a deep and sorrowful groan, I got out of Ms. Min’s office and dragged my legs towards my dormitory.

 Of course, I did not commit suicide. But that momentary dread and sorrow when I checked my score made me to ponder about a video of the Japanese suicide forest that I watched during Mr. Garrioch’ s class. I still vividly remember human corpses, traces of suicide, and rusty cars that lost their owners.  Not surprisingly, the video stated that more than one hundred people commit suicide in the Japanese suicide forest, or Jukai forest, annually, proving that Jukai forest is indeed a suicide forest.

 When I was imagining how I would feel like when I encounter rotten corpses right in front of my eyes in Jukai forest, one question popped into my mind: why do people commit suicide? How much misery did the corpses in Jukai forest had to suffer when they had their fleshes on? I can’t imagine. But I firmly believe that people commit suicide when their mind becomes irreparably diseased. Furthermore, a society’s negative view people who commit suicide would also play a major role. Instead of perceiving them as people who were in dire help, many people tend to scorn them for being weak and incapable of surviving in harsh reality. However, such view is a serious paradox. No one blames people whose bodies are sick or hurt. Then why do they blame those whose heart and soul are impaired? People who committed suicide should be also conceived as patients who need attention, affection, and hope to cure their chronic diseases. Furthermore, it is our society’s duty to be a doctor for them.

 No one deserves to be lonely, and no one deserves to be sad. Jukai forest should not be merely considered as an eerie spot that often serves a small issue among media, but a symbol of deep sadness and desperation that our society yet refuses to expose.