BY DAIGO SAWANO

On the 3rd of May in the year of 2000 the tragedy happened that the bus bound from Saga to Fukuoka was hijacked by a 17 year old boy. The boy killed a woman and injured some of the hostages with his knife. He was very excited at the moment of the incident and he said "this bus is not bound for Tenjin, but for hell." After one of the hostages said "he looks like he enjoys killing." What is the matter behind this unexpected and cruel tragedy.

The boy, the criminal of this bus jacking, had good record in junior high school. He always kept in the top 10 of his class. So he is really an honor student. He entered high school , but at the time he refused to go to school. After a year from his entrance, his parents sent a notice of leaving school to the high school. They said he lost his will to study and started to act up at home with cutlery from summer vacation on his third year of junior high school. When the parents were exhausted by his act, they asked a doctor whose speciality was mental illness and took him to the hospital.

There is a bully in his junior high school in the background of this tragedy. He had been always teased by his classmate. Besides when he was in his third year at junior high school, his classmate took his pen case and said "jump off here or I don't give back your pencase." So he jumped off the fire escape on third floor and damaged his spinal cord. He can't help taking exam of a high school ranked 2 under the high school he wants to go to because of this happening. He had been shy before this, but after he began to spend a lot of time in his room alone after he entered the high school. He was always absorbed in researching juvenile crime on the Internet and he identified himself with them. It is clear that this bully in junior high school hurt his mind and also changed his life.

Why couldn't schoolteacher prevent such a promising student jump off the second floor of school building. There are many problem like immaturity of teachers, teachers coping with bully tardily, the limit of Japanese education etc.

The most considerable point is bullies in junior high school. In this case the parents of the boy consulted with his teachers about their child. However, the attitude of teachers was too passive and they didn't look into about the bully and didn't punish the students who bullied. Teachers and participants of school should realize bulling is crime and punish student who do bully. Primarily school is interesting and fun. If we go to school, we can see friends and teachers, besides we can study not only learning but also various other things. We should return school to such a place.

Not only the students who bullied should take responsibility but also the student who ignore the bullying. Each of the students must not be passive towards bullying. It is important to confront bully actively. The students who bullied will have repent for their act. Not to be a man who couldn't think of others without himself. It is important that friends look out genuinely for each other, for example to sympathize with other's bitterness and to point out other's mistake for each other. We should not to stay away from a person simply because we are different on personality but we should ignore our differences. To decrease bulling it is most important that children have these sturdy opinion.

This bus hijacking was carried out by a boy who couldn't take part in the group. This incidents is complex. He has two reasons, one is to appeal for himself and the other is to lash out the school, classmates, and family. Bullying is a huge problem in this tragedy. Therefore we must face up to this problem, with our children, to eradicate the bully.