#头条创作挑战赛#
In July this year, a news shocked Japan that 81-year-old Hiroshi Fujiwara was sentenced to three years in prison on suspicion of murdering his wife, Teruko.
The matter started in November last year, when Fujiwara Hiroshi, who had passed his old age, pushed his wife and wheelchair into the deep sea on a sunny winter day without a trace of hesitation, until there were no more waves on the calm sea.
Prior to this, the couple had a harmonious relationship, and after his wife Teruko was paralyzed due to a cerebral infarction, Fujiwara Hiroshi took care of her for more than 40 years. So why did such an extreme tragedy happen?
As Japanese society ages, a particular type of murder is surging year by year. The perpetrator is not the most vicious person, but the family member we trust and love the most. They also killed relatives who had lived together for decades and who they had taken care of for several years.
Such murders are called "caretaker killings."
According to 2017 statistics, more than 5.5 million people in Japan need to be cared for, of which more than half of the caregivers and caregivers are over 65 years old, and 30% are over 70 years old. More than 75% of the elderly feel exhausted, so malice breeds and spreads to their relatives who are powerless to resist in the sickbed.
In the face of aging and unpredictable illness in the face of family members, it is difficult for caregivers to maintain dignity and decency in the midst of daily attrition.
It seems that only when the caregiver dies can the caregiver take a breath from the exhaustion of life and regain the connection with the outside world, and freedom.
"I couldn't stand the pain of caregiving, so I killed my family"
One such story was documented in a documentary called "Caregiver Killing: Confessions of the Parties".
At the age of 28, the young Shigeru fell in love with Sachiko at first sight on a blind date. Sachiko has a cheerful personality, especially a love of laughter, and is full of enthusiasm for life, and under Shigeru's pursuit, the two became husband and wife, and together they conceived two children in the following years.
The happy life of a family of four gradually kicked off. The husband and wife have a clear division of labor, and Sachiko takes over the responsibility of the Gu family alone, taking care of the daily life of her husband and children, and becomes a strong backing for Shigeru to fight in the workplace. And Shigeru has lived up to expectations, working hard for 30 years to provide financial support for the small family, and his life is calm and fulfilling.
Time passed, and finally, Mao ushered in a long retirement time. Since Shigeru's retirement, the old couple will be excited to plan trips every year, Shigeru likes to drive, his wife Sachiko also has the same hobby, and the hearty laughter of his wife on the co-pilot lights up Shigeru's life.
The two especially like to drive to Aso City, which is not far from their home, to watch volcanoes and soak in hot springs, and often linger.
But the heavens did not fulfill people's wishes, and his happy life in his later years ushered in sudden changes in 2015. Sachiko suffered from a sudden lumbar fracture that left her paralyzed lower limbs, and although she underwent surgery, the prognosis was not good, and Sachiko suffered from osteoporosis and spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. At this time, Shigeru was very heartbroken about what his wife had experienced, but he was still full of confidence in the future, and he believed that Sachiko, who was cheerful by nature, would get better through rehabilitation and exercise.
After being discharged from the hospital, Shigeru began to take care of Sachiko and took on the housework that he was not good at, and he understood that he had to carry all the burdens of the family alone.
Under Shigeru's hard care, Sachiko actively recovered, gradually recovering to the point where she could walk briefly. But fate took another turn at this time.
After 3 months of care, Sachiko fractured her waist again, and after that, she was almost bedridden and unable to take care of herself. At this time, Shigeru was 71 years old, except for taking care of his wife, there were no additional activities in his life, he got up at 4 o'clock every morning to cook, feed Sachiko, clean the room, and occasionally wash Sachiko's clothes and pants stained with feces.
Sachiko was also tormented, not wanting others to see her haggard appearance, she refused to be visited by any relatives, and was depressed all day long. Seeing his wife so desperate, Shigeru, who was grumpy because he took care of his wife, gradually became disheartened.
From the documentary "Caregiver Killing: Confessions of the Parties"
When the care reached the 10th month, Sachiko suddenly confessed to Shigeru one day: I don't want to live anymore, please kill me. His wife's repeated requests, coupled with the anxiety and exhaustion of the caregiving process, began to approve of this request: only when his wife dies will it all end.
On the day of the incident, Shigeru put Sachiko in the passenger seat and drove to Aso City, where they traveled every year, and spent the last day. On the way back, Shigeru parked his vehicle next to a tunnel near the bridge and strangled Sachiko.
After Sachiko's death, Shigeru also wanted to follow in his wife's footsteps, cutting his wrists and neck, but he didn't die, and then turned himself in. The court eventually convicted Mao, but with a suspended sentence, he was able to return home and continue his life.
The pain and guilt caused by the murder of his wife did not disappear, and during the week he was in the detention center after turning himself in, Shigeru repeatedly begged the police to kill him, but the final result was that Shigeru had to live for the rest of his life to atone for his sins.
The most desperate choice
According to the statistics of the National Police Agency, from 2007 to 2015, there were 356 caregiver homicides and 2,515 suicides in Japan, so frequent that an average of one homicide occurred every two weeks, and this number is still rising as Japan's society ages.
A reporter from the Japanese media Mainichi Shimbun studied 44 cases of caregiver homicide and found that nearly half of the caregivers suffered from severe sleep deprivation and overwork due to round-the-clock care. Caregivers choose to be relieved with their caregivers after they are exhausted and cornered.
Such incidents are not unique and are becoming more common.
From the movie "0.5 mm"
Ryuichi, 54, was forced to resign because he couldn't find a balance between caring for his demented mother and his job. The pension of 50,000 yuan has become the only stable income for him and his mother. Illness brings suffering, but poverty makes people more desperate, Ryuichi only eats one meal every 2 days, and his mother only fills his stomach with bread and juice every day.
With no pension and no help from contacting an aid specialist, Ryusheng had the idea of taking his mother out of the world.
On February 1, 2006, under the tree of the Katsura River beach in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City, Ryuichi tightened his towel at the behest of his 86-year-old mother, and after seeing his mother's body begin to convulse, he stabbed his mother in the neck again, and then attempted suicide.
In court, Long Yi recounted the difficulty of taking care of his mother for a long time, and the exhausted and destitute life made the judges present red-eyed, and the prison guards also shed tears.
According to NHK, 26 percent of caregiver homicides occur in the first year of caregiving.
The first days of nursing were the hardest. Most ordinary people have no previous nursing experience, but are "forced to work" under the sudden illness of their relatives, feeling the stones to cross the river.
Nominally, family members are more loving and forgiving when they care for patients, but the reality is that family members who have to take on the burden of caring are likely to suffer from a lack of professional nursing knowledge and resources.
While losing the ability to take care of themselves, the disabled elderly are likely to lose their ability to communicate, degenerating into children who cannot communicate and can only vent. The discrepancy between the state of communication and the previous state of health can also cause the caregiver to be stunned, leading to both mental and physical torture.
Another story in the documentary reveals the process of the collapse of the caregiver's psychological defenses.
At the request of his brother, a 60-year-old man who is unemployed returns home to care for his dementally impaired mother. But he has been away from home for 25 years before, and the mother in front of him is no longer the old man who loves to laugh in his memory. His mother became unable to communicate, screaming in a language he did not understand, and became restless all day long, causing him to not be able to leave his mother for a moment.
"My mother became a monster in my mother's skin. He thought. Even so, having to take care of the mother seemed to become an inescapable responsibility, and over time, the fatigue and despair that had accumulated over a long period of time were concentrated in one outburst.
One night, my mother came out of the toilet with her pajamas and towels covered in feces for some reason. She cried as she walked over to her son: "What the hell did I do wrong?"
At that moment, the man realized that his mother was the most pitiful and helpless person. A few days later, he ended his mother's life with his own hands.
From the documentary "Caregiver Killing: Confessions of the Parties"
Unable to accept the loss of her mother's dignity, and despair of the current physical and mental exhaustion of life, death naturally became the only relief.
People who bear the burden of care alone will inevitably fall into loneliness at the social level. Caring for the elderly is even more arduous, with caregivers having little energy to go out and socialize, cutting off their connection to the outside world and falling into the illusion of being abandoned by the world. Data shows that nearly 20% of caregivers suffer from depression.
Feeling lonely is the most obvious emotion for caregivers, and some of the deeper mental trauma is more difficult to detect.
When in the process of caregiving, the patient verbally humiliates and scolds the caregiver either because of illness or cognitive impairment, and the usually gentle family members suddenly become "demonic obstacles" at the cost of depleting the vitality of another person, and these physical and mental tortures can not be eliminated by saying "he is a family member".
Worries about the future
Takashi Hasegawa, 51, has been caring for his mother with cognitive impairment for 11 years. His wife divorced him because he couldn't bear the pain of care, and he also resigned because of long-term care, and his suit was full of mold spots.
He described living in prison, with his hands and feet in chains.
Five years ago, my mother had a cerebral infarction and fell to the ground after losing consciousness. He stood in front of his mother's bed, unable to move, and hesitated to call an ambulance.
Since then, Hasegawa has always been haunted by not being able to save his mother in the first place.
From the documentary "Caregiver Killing: Confessions of the Parties"
The pain of caregiving is a hidden pain that those who have not experienced it can not experience. As Japan's population ages, it can be said that Japan has entered an era where people should be ready to take care of it at any time.
In the face of the growing dilemma of caregiving, the Japanese government has not been without action. Over the past 30 years, the Elderly Welfare Act, the Elderly Health Care Act, and the Long-Term Care Insurance Act have been updated repeatedly. Japan's long-term care insurance system has even broken down long-term care into several major services, such as home visits, day care, short-term accommodation, accommodation at specific facilities, and services at welfare and health care institutions, and the number of employees has increased by 50% per year since 2005.
According to Japanese government data, the total cost of care, including insurance benefits and out-of-pocket expenses, reached 13.3 trillion yen in 2022, a fourfold increase from 3.6 trillion yen in 2000. By 2050, the per capita cost of care is expected to increase by 75% from 2019 to 235,000 yen.
However, in the face of the huge elderly population base, the relevant welfare settings seem to be a drop in the bucket. In 2013, there were more than 520,000 people living in nursing care facilities in Japan, and the average monthly cost of 100,000 yen is a huge expense for the average family, and they often do not have to wait for a bed.
Unable to meet everyone's needs, the Japanese government began to let people "rely on themselves".
In 2015, Shinzo Abe proposed "Abenomics" in his second election campaign, and the third arrow was to realize social security. Under Abe's policy of "zero separation of caregivers," permanent employees who have been employed for more than one year can apply for "nursing leave" or "nursing suspension" to achieve a balance between work and caring for the elderly.
At the same time, socio-cultural pressure on caregivers is also exerting pressure on caregivers.
In Japanese culture, and even in East Asian culture, caring for an elderly family member is seen as a responsibility and obligation, so although most caregivers are exhausted without professional guidance, they still see caring for their family as an unavoidable mission.
With nowhere to release the pressure and despair, caregivers are likely to fall into a cycle of negative emotions, and may also have a sense of "I can't escape this fate", and tragedy will follow.
From the movie "0.5 mm"
There are many cases of caregiver murder in Japan, which reminds me of a Japanese movie "Narayama Festival Examination".
In a primitive mountain village in ancient Shinshu, Japan, due to lack of food, the elderly had to go to Narayama to die according to traditional Xi when they reached the age of 70. When her son carried 70-year-old Ah Ling to the mountain full of corpses, Ah Ling did not know that death was waiting for her, and she still faced it calmly.
Even though the old customs have disappeared, no one can guarantee whether the tragedy of Narayama Matsukao will be staged in the future.
Resources:
NHK documentary "Caregiver Killing: Confessions of the Perpetrators"
Nanfeng Window ""Killing the Old" is frequent, and the despair of the Japanese is too deep"
Viewer inSight "After taking care of his wife for 40 years, he pushed his lover into the sea with his own hands"
The Paper Peng Yihong "Japan's "Nursing and Killing" Lessons | We Loved, But Forgot