On 7/8/2003 8:04 AM, masayuki yoshida wrote:

> Then, how about this topic - why dozens of school head
> committed suicide recently in Hiroshima, your prefecture.

Have there really been dozens of such suicides? That is shocking.

I remember the first such case, a couple of years back when singing 
Kimigayo at school ceremonies was made compulsory by the education 
ministry. At the time it was said that the principal who took his own 
life found himself trapped between the conservative education ministry, 
whose orders he was compelled to obey, and the leftist teachers union in 
his district, which was also being obdurate on the issue. He felt he had 
no way out, and killed himself.

That incident was widely reported, but I don't remember reading about 
dozens of other suicides. I wonder why they have not been made more of 
by the press. Perhaps it's like executions in Texas -- they've become so 
commonplace that no one seems to notice or care anymore.

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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com