Resource The Rising Sun: book filled with countless suicides

[greyhound]

I finished reading this book for general interest, and coincidentally found that it is chock full of accounts of suicide:

The Rising Sun

This Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Ma...

www.goodreads.com

There are so many you lose count, all sort of ways, cyanide, gunshot to head, gunshot to heart, many seppuku, jumping off cliffs, suicidal military charges, plane attacks, etc.

It turns out Japan was incredibly suicidal during the 1930s and 40s. The sheer number of suicides, the incredible success rate, their seeming imperviousness to pain and obliviousness to SI is unbelievable. I feel like after being on these forums maybe everybody here is looking for too peaceful a way out. Being willing to ritually disembowel yourself is probably a good sign that you are willing to endure anything to end it. Certainly not a cry for help. However they generally had the advantage of no one trying to save them and indeed many willing to chop their head off to help them finish it.

The book was actually a great read, it won the Pulitzer and was quite engaging.

 

[Symbiote]

Japanese are well known for suicides as an honorable way of dying and preventing shame in the family. In Star Trek, the Klingons adopted a form of this whenever they mentioned "Today is a good day to die", for they thought that death in battle or dying by their own hand was more honorable than being killed by their enemies.

 

[so it goes]

I'll see if I can pick this book up. Thank you.