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Comment by chris_mahan | Hacker News Reader

My wife is Japanese (born and raised there) and she does not look at it that way. She says people who commit suicide are losers can't apologize properly and work hard to make up for their mistake, or people who don't have the guts to weather through the hard times. Also, the whole samurai/bushido thing essentially doesn't exist for anyone under fifty over there. I went to Japan with my family in January, and I had a wonderful time, by the way. Eat at Joyfull, so cheap, so good! ( http://www.joyfull.co.jp/ -- see breakfast menu: http://www.joyfull.co.jp/menu/morning.html )

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No offense, but making trip to Japan and eating at Joyful is like going to the Bay area and eating at Denny's.

I eat at Tsui Wah late at night when I go to Hong Kong, which is pretty much a HK denny's.

Well, that's not the only place I went to eat. There's this little sushi bar just a short walking distance from their house where I ate raw frozen thin-sliced whale meat. (Tastes like a blend of beef and tuna. Unexpectedly salty. My son didn't like it. I ate the nine pieces in front of me.

Oh, also went to the shabushabu place in the Fukuoka train station mall on the 10th floor. Awesome. Best shabushabu in my life (not too pricy). Great view from the roof.

Yeah, and Miso soup and rice and other stuff for breakfast.

Back around 96 I went to Nagoya and ate at Denny's. My hosts wanted some Western food that day, I guess.

On the flip side, Denny's in Japan is freaking amazing.

Also, if you know of a Joyfull in the Bay area let me know.

>Also, the whole samurai/bushido thing essentially doesn't exist for anyone under fifty over there.

I've been led to believe, (though I may be wrong, probably am) that it didn't really exist for the samurai either. In real life, they were elitist thugs and enforcers, and the mythology of bushido was added by old and bored samurai after Japanese society had more or less outlawed their violent ways.

It's as if the culture, history, and thought of Japan is as complex, multifaceted, and contradictory as that of any other place. Anyway, expats are often opinionated with respect to controversial aspects of their home countries.

I heard it described like someone a hundred years from now found a high school handbook and decided that all high school students must be orderly, not chew gum, speak politely, respect their teachers, etc...

She says people who commit suicide are losers can't apologize properly and work hard to make up for their mistake, or people who don't have the guts to weather through the hard times.

Charming attitude.

I doubt that many suicidal people have anything much to atone for, more likely they had some horrible things done to them or are just wired in a way that makes them deeply unhappy.

I don't see suicide as brave or cowardly. Depending on the situation, suicide can be in an individual's best interest -- a terminally ill patient in extreme pain who chooses to undergo a painless physician-assisted suicide would be a good example.

Even beyond terminal illness, I imagine that there are some people who have either been through such massive trauma, or are wired so badly, that suicide is a better option than living in misery. Granted, depressed individuals may not be capable of making decisions in their long-term self-interest, but I still wouldn't condemn every suicide as a "bad" decision, let alone "cowardly", "shameful", or any of the other pejoratives that come up around this topic.

Teenagers bullied into suicide must have a whole lot of serious stuff to apologize for, to kill themselves so early on! /s

>>She says people who commit suicide are losers can't apologize properly and work hard to make up for their mistake, or people who don't have the guts to weather through the hard times.

My understanding is that at least some of the people who commit suicide have done things beyond apology.

I mean, let's say a bridge collapses and kills tens of people, and it turns out this was due to the architect's gross negligence and/or incompetence. Are you saying he can simply apologize and work hard to make up for his mistake?

Are you implying he can make up for his mistake by killing himself?

No. enraged_camel is clearly asking if sometimes there is no proper apology, and no amount of work that one can do to make up for one's mistake.

It depends on your worldview. As an evangelical Christian, I would say no one can make up for ANY of their sins, small or large. Only God can forgive sins. But thank God He is in the business of graciously doing that.

Gross negligence resulting in the deaths of others is usually a crime, punished by incarceration. Yes, those people aren't coming back, but it's not like nothing happens if this sort of thing happens.

Wouldn't it be a better use of his life to work to make sure that sort of accident never happens again? Maybe he changes the culture that led to his incompetence. Maybe he tutors young architects and teaches them to learn from his mistake. I think someone that makes such a huge mistake is actually in a very powerful position to salvage something from it.

You're probably right, but personally if I was in that situation I don't think I'd be able to go through the mental hoops required to forgive myself.

Every morning, I'd wake up and remember what I'd done. The pain would be unimaginable.

Anyway, once it's done, anything good you do later is a net positive.

It's not like one can change the past.

This is how I like to think that people who design software for weapons systems live.

Really?

I've written guidance code. A missile that doesn't go where you point it is a deadweight loss; while it might be best if they weren't fired at all, it's better they hit their intended targets than random (probably civilian) victims.

Absolutely, but If no one could reliably aim their bombs, would they fire them?

Probably. The V2s couldn't hit a smaller target than "London", so that's where they fired them.

I think it makes more sense to set aside for now the 0.1% of cases that fall into that category, and work on ways to avoid the other 99.9% of suicides that don't.

I don't think all (probably not even most) suicides have anything to do with having made a mistake that needs apologising in the first place.

You and your wife sound nieve? Short, back/white answers benefit no one! Tell you wife, "Walk mile in man's shoes, then spout off ideology?" Or, just keep quiet and keep marital bliss? Wow-

You try staying married to a Japanese woman for 15 years without learning to accept that another culture and point of view is as valid as yours.

It's naive, by the way.

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