20 Japanese heros let Korean save drunk coed

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]S Korean student rescues woman from JR tracks at site of 2001 accident
Crisscross News - Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 06:50 EDT
TOKYO ---A South Korean student has rescued a Japanese woman who had fallen onto the tracks of Tokyo's JR Shin-Okubo Station, the same place where his compatriot was killed in 2001 while attempting to rescue a drunken stranger from the tracks, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.....
..."I did what any Korean would do in the given situation," the Yonhap News Agency quoted Shin as saying. The report said some 20 bystanders failed to provide assistance.
"I didn't feel the weight when I was lifting her (the Japanese student) up to the platform," said Shin, according to the report. He added, "I think the deceased Lee Soo Hyun gave me strength...I feel strangely connected to him," the report said....more...

[Blah Pete]

Ahh, yes the brave Japanese. Turn the other way and pretend nothing is happening. Out of sight out of mind.

[Mulboyne]

Here's the hero of the hour:



Picture from the Japanese JoongAngIlbo

[dimwit]

Ahh, yes the brave Japanese. Turn the other way and pretend nothing is happening. Out of sight out of mind.

Being a but hard on the bystanders I think. I got a wife and a son. Would I be willing to risk not only my life but destroy my family in the process just to save some drunken tard whose friend or bartender didn't care enough to make sure she got home safely. Maybe it is about time someone start to make bar criminally responsible for the actions of there patrons.

[nullpointer]

I bet when this guy was rescuing the lady all the japanese would have been looking at him and each other and going abonai, abonai, abonai , ehhhhh, abonai desho!

[Mulboyne]

As it was Shin-Ohkubo station, with a high proportion of foreign traffic, there's a fair chance that not all the bystanders were Japanese.

[AssKissinger]

I did what any Korean would do in the given situation

http://research.lifeboat.com/skorea.htm

Remember these mighty Korean heroes?

Most of the victims were passengers on the second train whose conductor allegedly fled without opening the doors, leaving victims trapped in the flames. Police said doors were open on only two of that train's six cars.

The JPN seriously will not do anything to help people in an emergency but Koreans are the same way. Once on a train in Japan a guy across from me started having a seizure and I was the only one who did anything to help the guy. He may have died if I hadn't laid him on his side to drain the fluids out of his mouth. And once in Pusan I stumbled upon a drunk who passed out and pissed himself right in the middle of the road. I had to beg to get anyone to help me move him from immediate danger while I kept him from getting hit by oncoming traffic.

[kurohinge1]

So impressed were the locals that they've named the station after him:

Shin-Okubo Station

It's nice to know there's people like him (and the other two that died in the previous incident) still prepared to act.

Maybe, after reflecting on it, some of the bystanders will be more inclined to help the next time such an incident occurs.

I hear what Dimwit's saying too, though. Sometimes it may be stupid to do certain acts (if the risk of death is just too high), but doing nothing at all to help is very sad - even running down the platform to alert an oncoming driver to brake harder could help.

It reminded me of that British climber left to die on Everest recently, by the 40 or so rich tourists who passed him on their way up ...

David Sharp, 34, was still alive at 28,000 feet. Double amputee Mark Inglis, told the news source: "He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for him] for quite a lot at the time and it was a very hard decision [to leave him there to die]. About 40 people passed him that day, and no one else helped him apart from our expedition. Our Sherpas (guides) gave him oxygen. He wasn't a member of our expedition, he was a member of another, far less professional one." ... more

Shin is a legend.

[Greji]

I bet when this guy was rescuing the lady all the japanese would have been looking at him and each other and going abonai, abonai, abonai , ehhhhh, abonai desho!

Nah, they probably figured she was Korean also, so what the hell, no J-loss!

[Taro Toporific]

[nullpointer]

(Off topic: Has anyone else noticed that Google Japan has been broken this morning? WTF?!)

Works fine here. What exactly is the problem at your end?

[Taro Toporific]

Works fine here. What exactly is the problem at your end?

Goggle Japan has been fading in and out all day. Right now it's ok, meh.
http://www.google.co.jp/

[Gilligan]

Not to play down the lack of action taken by those who did nothing, but I do believe that it's a little off the mark to claim that it's a trait specific to Japanese, or any other racial/ethnic/national group. There was the case back in the 1960s of the woman in NYC who was killed in broad daylight with over 30 witnesses, none of whom did anything. And would the story of the good Samaritan have any point if most of us really would intervene?

I agree that it's sad more people did not come to this woman's aid, and I'd like to believe that I would have helped her, but I can't say with any certainty what I would have done.

[nullpointer]

Not to play down the lack of action taken by those who did nothing, but I do believe that it's a little off the mark to claim that it's a trait specific to Japanese, or any other racial/ethnic/national group. There was the case back in the 1960s of the woman in NYC who was killed in broad daylight with over 30 witnesses, none of whom did anything. And would the story of the good Samaritan have any point if most of us really would intervene?

I agree that it's sad more people did not come to this woman's aid, and I'd like to believe that I would have helped her, but I can't say with any certainty what I would have done.

Someone getting killed by someone due to lack of help from bystanders is slightly different than someone dying (on a train track) due to lack of help from bystanders. Having said that, I do agree that this trait is common all over the world, though a bit more pronounced in Japan.

[Kuang_Grade]

I believe Gilligan is referring to Kitty Geneovese, although that attack actually happened at night. Wikipedia's entry is a bit breathless but it sound similar to what I remember reading about (it has become a fairly well know example of people's willingness to not get involved, although it has become simplified story over time...it was clear there was a disturbance going on but it was not necessarily clear that a murder was happening)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese

I remember at crime prevention seminar at college where it was suggested that if you were ever being attacked that you should scream out "fire" rather than something like"he's trying to kill me" since the usual self preservation impulse to a fire is to do something...being passive in regards to fire will likely get you killed and thus people will become involved to find out what is going on, rather than shut their windows and hope nothing really bad actually happening.

[Gilligan]

Kuang Grade, thanks for the link to the wikipedia entry. As you can tell from my post, I'd always heard the much more sensationalized version of the story. It's certainly a little more comforting to know that things didn't necessarily happen the way I'd always heard them.

Also interesting is the link in the wikipedia entry leading to the explanation of the psychological phenomena referred to as bystander effect, explained as the tendency for bystanders to be more likely to become involved in an emergency situation when they are alone than when they are in a crowd of people.

[Pencilslave]

Here's what puzzles me: Since Japan is group oriented, I would think the Japanese would look out for each other more. I don't understand how trying to save someone's life would be considered breaking the wa.

[Charles]

I remember at crime prevention seminar at college where it was suggested that if you were ever being attacked that you should scream out "fire" rather than something like"he's trying to kill me"...

I think that's originally from an old Arlo Guthrie song/monologue, which is followed by the punchline "well, nobody would have come if I yelled out 'Chocolate!'"

[cstaylor]

Here's what puzzles me: Since Japan is group oriented, I would think the Japanese would look out for each other more. I don't understand how trying to save someone's life would be considered breaking the wa.

Japanese are only group-oriented with other Japanese strangers when it comes to "wareware nihonjin" situations. Otherwise, its everyone for themselves.

[otakuden]

I bet when this guy was rescuing the lady all the japanese would have been looking at him and each other and going abonai, abonai, abonai , ehhhhh, abonai desho!

lol!!! u just gave me a rather amusing and kinda disconcerting mental image.
all for one and one for all...pft. fuck that

[jingai]

Japanese are only group-oriented with other Japanese strangers when it comes to "wareware nihonjin" situations. Otherwise, its everyone for themselves.

CS is right, the stranger isn't in their in-group. If they were all Japanese in NY, would they help each other? Maybe more likely?

[Blah Pete]

Being a but hard on the bystanders I think. I got a wife and a son. Would I be willing to risk not only my life but destroy my family in the process just to save some drunken tard whose friend or bartender didn't care enough to make sure she got home safely. Maybe it is about time someone start to make bar criminally responsible for the actions of there patrons.

Yeah, I see your point.
Darwinism should be allowed to prevail sometimes.

[nullpointer]

CS is right, the stranger isn't in their in-group. If they were all Japanese in NY, would they help each other? Maybe more likely?

I doubt it. For the Japanese, as soon as someone stops being a "normal japanese", he/she stops being part of the group. You have to see how they(not all of them, but definitely some of them) treat handicapped people. They are patronised but treated as outcasts in social situations. As soon as someone stops being a normal japanese(passive aggressive smiling, normal subservient behaviour, not too loud or rude) all bets are off.

[Ketou]

I doubt it. For the Japanese, as soon as someone stops being a "normal japanese", he/she stops being part of the group. You have to see how they(not all of them, but definitely some of them) treat handicapped people. They are patronised but treated as outcasts in social situations. As soon as someone stops being a normal japanese(passive aggressive smiling, normal subservient behaviour, not too loud or rude) all bets are off.

So true. And that will even include the wives, though oddly not necessarily the husbands, of foreign spouses.

[cstaylor]

As soon as someone stops being a normal japanese(passive aggressive smiling, normal subservient behaviour, not too loud or rude) all bets are off.

Those mannerisms are only appropriate when talking to someone at the same level or higher. Watch a Japanese boss chew out a subordinate and you can see the flipside.

That's why you should be wary of Japanese that want to work for foreign companies in Japan: they're looking for an easy ride.

[nullpointer]

Watch a Japanese boss chew out a subordinate and you can see the flipside.

I work with a company to whom we contract some work. The head honcho is very nice and polite to us but literally yells at his sub-ordinates to run around and do his bidding. Mind you, some of these guys have been working for him for close to 12 years now.Why they put up with his rudeness, I have no idea.

[cstaylor]

The head honcho is very nice and polite to us but literally yells at his sub-ordinates to run around and do his bidding. Mind you, some of these guys have been working for him for close to 12 years now.Why they put up with his rudeness, I have no idea.

TIJ. It's expected, and if the employees don't feel the whip, they start getting uppity.

Now, as a foreigner, the same tactics will work if used sparingly. A more effective solution is having an on-staff Japanese "enforcer" that will make sure your will is carried out.

[maninjapan]

But you must admit though as soon as a company employs a foreigner it does upset the balance of discipline and order?

[cstaylor]

But you must admit though as soon as a company employs a foreigner it does upset the balance of discipline and order?

No, I don't think so. Just because a company adds some new plants to improve the decor doesn't mean they'll change business practices.

[nullpointer]

No, I don't think so. Just because a company adds some new plants to improve the decor doesn't mean they'll change business practices.

new plants, yeah, but mushroom cannot be called a plant. I am a mushroom, They keep in the dark and feed me nothing but bullshit!