Would you ever want to visit a depressing place? (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

Any depressing place counts. Basically a family member said no one would ever want to willingly visit a concentration camp, no matter their ancestry. Do you find it true about yourself that you would never want to visit a place that’s depressing and a heavy topic to learn about?

I would want to visit places like those. Yeah, it’s depressing. Yeah, I could go to a fair and ride amusement park rides and eat cotton candy instead. But I feel like when you see something historical that’s a heavy topic, you don’t leave with a sad/bad mood and gain nothing from it. For me, until the world becomes a utopia where those things can’t possibly happen, hard and heavy topics will be a way of life for many many people. Hopefully none of us will have to experience something of that sort, but it’s not a guaranteed thing. And even if we don’t experience anything remotely close to that hard, we can still get a better understanding for humanity as a whole, the good and bad. Now I’m not saying that anyone who doesn’t want to go to places like that is wrong. I’m just challenging that family members belief that no one wants to willingly learn about things like that.

 

[StirFriedPanda]

I would and do. I visited the Japanese Internment camp in California and wrote a report on it that hurta lot of feelings in High School. Idaho has one that I'd like to visit too. It's important to remember the worst of what humanity is capable of or we will do it again. For anyone wondering the US rounded up all the Japanese (both citizens and non-citizens) in the US and put them in Internment camps during WWII. In recent years historians became cowards they have renamed them "relocation" camps. It was basically a Nazi Interment camp with Japanese people instead of jews with better food and no gas chamber. After the war they returned to their homes and business to find them owned and occupied by other people. And 99% of them were never given any sort of compensation.

 

[Belgizen]

It's important to remember the worst of what humanity is capable of or we will do it again.

EXACTLY THIS

There's a reason why they kept they places around.
They could've bulldozed it to the ground and put a commemorative plate/monument (tho i can understand why people choose this option in some cases).
The reason why history is so important is because we can learn from it.
You can read every book on a topic but it'll never hit you as hard as visiting or seeing a place.

I have visited such places quite a few times. We visited Fort Breendonk quite a few times with classes and either students were quiet on the ride back, or someone fainted because the stories were that atrocious.

 

[Ahsoka]

I would and do. I visited the Japanese Internment camp in California and wrote a report on it that hurta lot of feelings in High School. Idaho has one that I'd like to visit too. It's important to remember the worst of what humanity is capable of or we will do it again. For anyone wondering the US rounded up all the Japanese (both citizens and non-citizens) in the US and put them in Internment camps during WWII. In recent years historians became cowards they have renamed them "relocation" camps. It was basically a Nazi Interment camp with Japanese people instead of jews with better food and no gas chamber. After the war they returned to their homes and business to find them owned and occupied by other people. And 99% of them were never given any sort of compensation.

Granted lives can be much improved by not having a gas chamber ready to kill you Not that it makes it okay, because it’s not, but it’s a pretty big improvement. Unfortunately though lots of counties have had concentration camps in times of war. Some include Britain, Germany (ofc), the US, Canada, China, Spain, Australia, Croatia, and the USSR to name a few. Also let’s take note that the US condemned Spains concentration camps in the late 1800s. Funny how that turned out

 

[eclipsoul]

honestly not really. traveling isn't the cheapest thing ever (and not something i enjoy in general) and we live in a period of time that is depressing enough with the current events so i'd rather choose to travel to places where i get a sense of escapism from that. like this probably sounds ignorant but i just genuinely do not see enjoyment in historical places in general. also sadly for certain people going somewhere like that doesn't always mean educating themselves, like my country literally had an influencer go to auschwitz to record a tiktok with a sean paul song...

 

[Ahsoka]

honestly not really. traveling isn't the cheapest thing ever (and not something i enjoy in general) and we live in a period of time that is depressing enough with the current events so i'd rather choose to travel to places where i get a sense of escapism from that. like this probably sounds ignorant but i just genuinely do not see enjoyment in historical places in general. also sadly for certain people going somewhere like that doesn't always mean educating themselves, like my country literally had an influencer go to auschwitz to record a tiktok with a sean paul song...

I’m just a history nerd That probably explains it

 

[ani07]

well, in germany we go to concentration camps as a school trip

 

[Villains]

i did go to a concentration camp when i visited germany. it was depressing but it really opens your eyes to the realities of the world. i think it's important because ignorance leads to repetition.

 

[lily]

i've been to killing fields in cambodia. mass graves from khmer rouge regime period.

i wasn't in cambodia primarily to go to killing fields, but visiting there was an insightful experience

 

[athenaaa]

Personally I’d prefer not to. Just because I am an extremely emotional person. I like to be aware of things that happened in history but wouldn’t visit places just because I feel empathy way too strongly

 

[Selfmate]

I visited nanjing and the various sites reminding people of the nanjing massacre

 

[SeulPika]

I've been to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

It is incredibly eerie walking around Pripyat and the decaying ruins of a town that thousands of people once called home, but had to evacuate from and were never allowed to return to.

 

[Pirioca]

Aokigahara-jukai in Yamanashi, Japan. It's also called 'The Sea of Trees' or 'The Suicide Forest'.

Wandering in Japan's 'Suicide Forest'

In a dense forest on Mount Fuji, many go to commit suicide, tying long ropes on their way in. Curious to know why, photographer Pieter ten Hoopen followed their leads.

archive.nytimes.com

There were so many suicides that they even put up a sign at the forest entrance.

The reason why I want to visit Aokigahara isn't the ghost tourism. I'm interested in feeling the energy of this place. Did so many people commit suicide there because the forest creates feelings of depression and deep melancholy? Or does this place create those feelings because so many people died there?

 

[Ahsoka]

Aokigahara-jukai in Yamanashi, Japan. It's also called 'The Sea of Trees' or 'The Suicide Forest'.

Wandering in Japan's 'Suicide Forest'

In a dense forest on Mount Fuji, many go to commit suicide, tying long ropes on their way in. Curious to know why, photographer Pieter ten Hoopen followed their leads.

archive.nytimes.com

There were so many suicides that they even put up a sign at the forest entrance.

The reason why I want to visit Aokigahara isn't the ghost tourism. I'm interested in feeling the energy of this place. Did so many people commit suicide there because the forest creates feelings of depression and deep melancholy? Or does this place create those feelings because so many people died there?

I get what you’re getting at but for most people suicide isn’t a spur of the moment decision that could be brought by a places atmosphere. Especially in a situation like this, I think it’s pretty safe to say that people picked this place because it’s gained a reputations of being where many commit suicide. I’m not saying it to be annoying, I just feel that it’s too common for people to think suicide is a spur of the moment thing and that it happens when people don’t try to find support or a way out of what’s bringing them to that point or even labeling it as selfish and inconsiderate of their friends and family and how they suffer. But realistically, most people who take that route have thought about supports, have tried to think of a way that doesn’t involve suicide, and have thought about their family or friends pain, but to them those things weren’t enough to keep going for whatever reason.

 

[Pirioca]

I get what you’re getting at but for most people suicide isn’t a spur of the moment decision that could be brought by a places atmosphere. Especially in a situation like this, I think it’s pretty safe to say that people picked this place because it’s gained a reputations of being where many commit suicide. I’m not saying it to be annoying, I just feel that it’s too common for people to think suicide is a spur of the moment thing and that it happens when people don’t try to find support or a way out of what’s bringing them to that point or even labeling it as selfish and inconsiderate of their friends and family and how they suffer. But realistically, most people who take that route have thought about supports, have tried to think of a way that doesn’t involve suicide, and have thought about their family or friends pain, but to them those things weren’t enough to keep going for whatever reason.

Although you are probably right, there could be an 'energetic' factor that intensifies those feelings that lead to suicide. There are other forest areas in Japan (The Akasawa Natural Recreational Forest, Koajiro Forest, The Nihonkai Evergreen Forests), but people don't commit suicide there en masse. Is it just some type of sad 'tradition' or 'herd instinct' that let people walk and drive to Aokigahara to commit suicide? Maybe.

Do you believe that dogs 'commit suicide', at a specific place, because other dogs did it there too? It's no joke, there is such a place. The Overtoun Bridge in Dumbarton, Scotland. Dogs jump off the bridge for no apparent reason. Many dogs so far.

The Dog Suicide Bridge

What has caused 50 dogs to jump to their death from the same bridge?

darktales.blog

At least 50 dogs have jumped to their death from the bridge, with between 300 and 600 having jumped but survived the fall.

What's so special about that bridge? The most popular scientific explanation is that the dogs smell the scent of mink nests under the bridge. But I'm sure there are other bridge areas in Great Britain where minks live too. They seem to be rather common in the UK*.

* https://ptes.org/get-informed/facts-figures/american-mink/

 

[Ahsoka]

Although you are probably right, there could be an 'energetic' factor that intensifies those feelings that lead to suicide. There are other forest areas in Japan (The Akasawa Natural Recreational Forest, Koajiro Forest, The Nihonkai Evergreen Forests), but people don't commit suicide there en masse. Is it just some type of sad 'tradition' or 'herd instinct' that let people walk and drive to Aokigahara to commit suicide? Maybe.

Do you believe that dogs 'commit suicide', at a specific place, because other dogs did it there too? It's no joke, there is such a place. The Overtoun Bridge in Dumbarton, Scotland. Dogs jump off the bridge for no apparent reason. Many dogs so far.

The Dog Suicide Bridge

What has caused 50 dogs to jump to their death from the same bridge?

darktales.blog

What's so special about that bridge? The most popular scientific explanation is that the dogs smell the scent of mink nests under the bridge. But I'm sure there are other bridge areas in Great Britain where minks live too. They seem to be rather common in the UK*.

* https://ptes.org/get-informed/facts-figures/american-mink/

What I was saying is that yes, the fact that this forest has become known for having a lot of suicides is probably exactly why people go there to commit suicide. The forest isn’t the only place that’s become known for having lots of suicides, for example, there are bridges so known for suicides and suicide attempts that they’ve put precautions in place (phones with suicide hotline numbers, extra barriers, ect). It’s not the only human behavior where people get this herd mentality. For example, how many people go to that specific London street to recreate the Beatles image? Without the Beatles how many people would seek out the street to take that specific photo? No one, but they did it so others do the exact same thing. As for the dog thing, no I don’t think they’re actually committing suicide. It’s unusual for it to be this frequent, but I do think there is probably a relatively reasonable answer that would better explain it than ghosts or paranormal activity. But in general animals tend to avoid killing themselves except in severe circumstances (like protecting their young), humans included. Of course suicide happens, but it’s rarely truly out of nowhere like that. No Forest is so gloomy that walking through it brings a mentally healthy person to suicide in the span of the walk. It would realistically take paranormal activity for that to happen, which I personally don’t believe in.

 

[dark_tranquility]

more than likely no

I get too many emotions of such places