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Last week, professional wrestler and Terrace House star Hana Kimura passed away at the age of 22. The cause of her death is unconfirmed, but it is believed her sudden passing was the result of suicide in the wake of cyberbullying she experienced.
The athlete left a note for her mother that read, “Thank you for giving birth to me.”
Professional Wrestler And “Terrace House” Cast Member Hana Kimura Passes Away At Age 22
After news of her passing broke, netizens were horrified to learn about the abuse suffered by Hana at the hands of anonymous cowards on the Internet.
Long-time fans were quick to point out that Hana was half Indonesian and had experienced prejudice because of her mixed ethnic background. The bullying only intensified after she began starring on Terrace House.
Hana Kimura was pushed to suicide by xenophobic/racist Terrace House fans in Japan. She was mercilessly harrassed for her mixed race identity as half indonesian. Why did she deserve this harrassment? For considering herself as Japanese? Why is this racism never discussed?
— Luke Halliday (@LAHalliday) May 23, 2020
Netizens all around the world have come together to condemn cyberbullying, which has also been an issue within the K-Pop community.
Professional baseball player Yu Darvish shared his thoughts on the matter, explaining that the amounts of hate comments that celebrities receive are next-level. He compared the number of hate comments celebrities receive to being swarming by locusts, explaining that if you receive the occasional hate comment it’s easy to ignore, however, when you’re being swarmed by a plague of them, it becomes impossible to deal with.
To those who feel the way to cope with occasional slanderous comments is by just ignoring them. The slander aimed at celebrities is like this.
—Yu Darvish
たまーに来る誹謗中傷をスルーしただけで対処法わかってますって感じの人へ。
著名人への誹謗中傷はこんな感じです。 pic.twitter.com/eFkDIGN6gG— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) May 23, 2020
As someone who has experienced plenty of cyberbullying himself, he shared his steps to counter cyberbullies.
Three phrases to effectively counter cyberbullies:
・Congratulations
・That was good
・You seem happy, I’m happyBasically, you can just keep using the above three phrases randomly, regardless of whatever they’ve said, and the shit stirrers will disappear. The important thing is to think of the other party as if they’re AI, and to become AI as well. Please use it
—Yu Darvish
誹謗中傷する人に効く言葉3選。
・おめでとうございます。
・それは良かったです。
・あなたが幸せそうで私も幸せです。基本的に相手の文に関係なく上の3つをランダムに使い続けるだけでクソリプマンたちはいなくなります。
大事なのは相手がAIだと思い、自分もAIになりきること。
お使いください。— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) May 23, 2020
Singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu also had a say in the matter, saying: “People say we should just ignore slanderous comments, but it’s difficult. An entertainer is also a human being. Please don’t forget this.”
The news of Hana’s passing was so shocking that politicians in Japan met to agree on beginning discussions toward establishing rules to prevent cyberbullying.
Terrace House Tokyo was canceled, with the broadcaster stating that they take the incident very seriously.
