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アンダーグラウンド Home Thread
Week 4
Start Date: Jun 15
Previous Part: Week 3
Next Part: Week 5
Reading:
| Week |
Start Date |
Chapter |
Start Page |
Page Count |
| Week 4 |
Jun 15 |
千代田線 Interviews 6-9 |
92 |
41 |
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2 Likes
井筒光輝
Interestingly, this person even boarded the train after it had been „cleaned“ but still did not develop very strong symptoms, or at least he did not report on them.
What I found a bit unexpected is that so many of the interviewees mentioned that it was so dark after the exposure - of course because their pupils were so contracted.
An interesting touch of the book is that we get some insights into people’s lives after the attack, because quite some time had passed before the interviews. One of the previous interviewees mentioned that she got even closer to her husband and how worried he was about her, but in this case the wife seemed rather not interested in what had happened to her husband, and that he took this as the last trigger to break up with her.
風口綾
This person seems to have been really lucky! Despite standing right next to the Sarin bags for some while, her symptoms were extremely mild, I would say. Amazing that the gas is not only absorbed via the lungs but also through the eyes.
園秀樹
Another person who was on the train at slept most of the time. In contrast to the other interviewees, he developed pretty strong symptoms and had adverse effects until quite some time after the accident.
精神科医 中野幹三
Very interesting viewpoint from this doctor. I think as we are talking about the 90s here, awareness of PTSD was simply not as high as it is today? OTOH, this shaming culture is pretty much omnipresent in Japan. I thought the part about ケガレ was very interesting - back in the day this was the first step towards hygiene, and we had the same in Europe (butchers, tanners, executioners… all lived outside of the town) but at some point this was relieved in Europe but apparently not in Japan, at least not in the mental model of the general public).
Also interesting that people who suffer from PTSD don’t necessarily need a specialist, simply a person who listens to them and acknowledges their experience. Such a powerful tool, and so little used - in Europe as well.
4 Likes
中野 幹三
Great to have the perspective of 11 months later, and then 8 months after now. Now imagine if they did a follow up on all those people today, 20 30 years later :o I wonder how many still have problems to this day and how much it did end up impacting their lives.
All caught up now, ready for week 5 
2 Likes
Ahem 
Seems like somebody forgot to post the new thread in time…
2 Likes
