YouTuber Logan Paul started 2018 in an unthinkable way by uploading an incredibly disrespectful vlog of Aokigahara, a forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan, known for the number of people who die by suicide there every year.
In the 15-minute video, titled "We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest..." Logan Paul not only showed the body of a suicide victim (with the face blurred, because apparently, he thought that made it OK), Logan Paul and his friends made inappropriate comments, including jokes, and continued filming the person's body after they were aware that the person was deceased. The video has since been removed from YouTube.
After massive public backlash, Logan Paul tweeted a brief "apology" and later uploaded an apology video to his YouTube channel.
In his apology, Logan Paul claims that what they saw and filmed that day was unplanned and he was trying to "raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention." I think that's bullsh*t.
This was not unplanned. Aokigahara is known for being the second most common place people die by suicide. There are signs in the forest urging people to consider their families or contact police for help. Seeing the body of a suicide victim in Aokigahara should not be a surprise to anyone.
If he actually wanted to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention, he wouldn't have used the footage he filmed in the forest. He still could have gone to Aokigahara, if he actually intended to pay his respects to the people who died there, and he still could have made a video about that experience, but without showing the body of a person who died by suicide and without showing him and his friends making inappropriate comments and laughing.
He could have turned off the camera at any point, but he didn't.
If he wanted to raise awareness, he wouldn't have titled the video "We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest..." He wouldn't have used an image of the person's body in the video's thumbnail. If Logan Paul actually gave half a sh*t about suicide awareness and prevention, he wouldn't have knowingly filmed the body of a suicide victim at a well-known mass grave, zoomed in on details of the person's lifeless body, and used the footage in a sensationalized and disrespectful video viewed by his tween fans.
Aokigahara is a somber place and suicide is a serious issue, neither of which should be taken lightly or capitalized on for views.
Instead, he could have made a video sitting in his hotel room talking about his experience visiting that hallowed land, had a serious conversation about suicide, and talked about resources or reaching out to people who are hurting and hugging your loved ones a little closer.
It's abundantly clear that Logan Paul didn't consider the incredible pain these people must have been in when going into the forest to end their lives. He didn't consider their grieving families, who may never recover the remains of their loved ones or have closure. He didn't consider that these people were people.
Victims of bullying die by suicide more frequently than we care to acknowledge after being laughed at and treated poorly in life and Logan Paul didn't see a problem with doing that to them one last time in death.
I'm not here for Logan Paul's apologies.
If you or someone you know is going through a rough time, feeling depressed, or thinking about self-harm or suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, visit its website here, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting "HOME" to 741741.
