A 12-year-old girl has hanged herself with a scarf she knitted as a gift for her mother after being bullied by her classmates for having a non-Japanese mother.
The 12-year-old girl, Akiko Uemura, was a 6th year elementary school pupil at a Gunma prefecture school.
She was discovered dead in her room by her 41-year-old mother, having hanged herself from a curtain rail using a scarf. She had knitted the scarf herself, as a gift for her mother.
The girl had transferred into the school two years previously after moving there from Aichi. In the 5th year, she began to be bullied, with classmates calling her “dirty” and telling her not to go near them.
She was also bullied for having a mere foreigner as a mother. Her mother’s nationality has not been revealed.
Her 50-year-old father says he reported the matter to the school repeatedly, but the school never did anything:
“Since she began her 6th year, we discussed ending her bullying problems with the school more than 10 times, but they never showed any indication of actually taking action.”
As might be expected, the school principal (pictured) denies everything, saying at a press conference that they “had no idea she was being bullied” and that “we’d like to establish the truth of what was happening.”
He also claims that “we wanted to fix the situation [with other students refusing to eat lunch with her], but we didn’t realise it was a bullying issue.”
The local board of education apologises profusely and intends to conduct an investigation.
Her father says she begged him to move away and have her attend a different school, or at least transfer her to another school in the same area, so severe was the bullying.
The family was planning to move to Osaka and have her attend a new middle school in the spring – her father tried to encourage her to put up with it until her graduation at the end of the 6th year. Tragically, it seems she could not endure that long.
>after being bullied by her classmates for having a non-Japanese mother
Remember kids, this is how Japanese treat all “impure non-Japanese”.
i saw this on tv,her mother was from the phillippines and was bullied because of the rumor her mom worked at cabarette clubs.Poor little girl
poor girl… good thing i endure too or i will be one of ur comrade of suiciding… Elementary school been bully almost everyday get punch get use as a sandbag for ppl…high school also same.. but more have happen.. extorting money,hit,threaten but after 10 year of bully i endure i finally become free from bullies… but i still have a thought that all bullies is mostly cause of the family like if parent is violent,badmouthing almost everyday can cause the child to have all and the child will start bully it own classmate and so on….. there almost no way to avoid bully… try alot like telling teacher,principal,parents in like 1 day to 1week they behave only.. after that they start do again.. i almost wanted hang my ownself but good thing i did not or else i won’t be living in this world anymore
life is always unfair and always don go as u wanted but endure it…
It’s a sad truth about japan’s community if you’re slightest bit of different than them then you are considered as outsider off sociaty and in this case getting bullied.
If everyone involved in this tragedy were to mysteriously disappear, I would be very happy. アクメツ