Stunned....

I went out on Monday night for a nightcap at a snack (i.e.: a type of bar, typically run by a woman, where patrons are served Japanese appetizer dishes along with their drinks).  That may sound like an expensive proposition to anyone who is aware of the going rates at snacks but the place in question is a bit different.  The base rate is ¥2100.  A new bottle of what I usually have on keep there is about ¥2500.  Not too bad since the other two places I go to charge ¥3000 for the same stuff.  The "mama" is a young woman in her early thirties who once worked at another snack I occasionally go to.

I had been settled into my seat for at least an hour (and after an old acquaintance had come in...whereupon neither of us could remember the others name) when the mama started off a "Did you hear the news..." story.  She mentioned "chissoku".  I asked what that meant.  She explained it to me.  Suffocation.  "Wait a second", I said to myself, "She's talking about an infant".  I managed to piece the picture together.  The father is 23 and the mother 17 years old.  The child literally was a new born.  Only 16 days old.  The parents let the baby suffocate because they were more interested in playing a video game.  It goes without saying I was stunned.

When I got home the first thing I did was look for an article online covering the story.  Found it in no time.  Yes, the horrible event had taken place in Yonezawa.  I browsed the comments below the story.  Nothing there helped me come to grips with the tragedy.

I brought up the story in a couple of my classes the next day.  One student mentioned that a friend of one of her co-workers was a relative of the deceased baby's father.  Somehow I was expecting something like that to come up somewhere along the line.

I don't have anything more to report on this story.  Perhaps somewhere down the line I'll hear more from someone else.  This a small city and the rumour mill runs fairly well....

-*-

Here's the URL to the story I found online: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/16-day-old-girl-dies-after-being-put-in-trash-can-by-parents