Bereaved Family Holds Book Event over 1985 JAL Crash

Ueno, Gunma Pref., Aug. 12 (Jiji Press)–A bereaved family member of one of the 520 victims of the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet held a picture book event last month at an elementary school near the crash site in Ueno, a village in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo. Machiko Taniguchi, 78, read aloud “My Papa’s Persimmon Tree,” a picture book she created after her husband, Masakatsu, died in the crash at the age of 40. The book is based on a real-life story in which a persimmon tree that Masakatsu planted in the family’s garden bore fruit two months after the accident, giving hopes to her and their children. Since Taniguchi published the book at her own expense in 2016, she has held such events in many places. She held the event at the school for the first time. She hopes that generations who do not know about the accident will understand the importance of daily life and life without anything special. “There’s pain and a winter in anybody’s life. But if we walk looking straight ahead, we can smile again,” Taniguchi said at the July event. Kanata Kumagai, 11, said, “I thought it must be devastating if the family is gone.” Nozomi Shimizu, 12, said, “I want to have more conversations with my family and cherish my daily life.” Ryuta Hocchi, 12, who goes to the school in an exchange program from Tokyo, said, “I’ve looked up the accident before, but there were things that I couldn’t have understood without hearing the story in person.” Taniguchi said: “I want to keep letting people know the importance of life and daily lives forever. But I can’t do that. I’ll be happy if children take over my feelings through the picture book.” Every year, she climbs the Osutaka Ridge, the site of the crash, to mourn for her late husband. On the day of the book event, she climbed up to the ridge. At his memorial marker, Taniguchi offered beer that her husband liked. She told him that she had held the book event at the school. “Please keep watching over us,” she told the late husband. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]