Photo/Illutration Masahiro Tsurukawa, second from left, speaks to reporters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on June 23. Tsurukawa, head of the branch office of All Nippon Airways Co. at an airport in Wuhan, played an instrumental role in conducting the chartered flights from Wuhan to Japan. (Hiroki Endo)

Nervous All Nippon Airways Co. employee Masahiro Tsurukawa tried to smile as the first chartered flight to bring passengers back to Japan from Wuhan was running two hours behind schedule.

But the waiting passengers instead encouraged Tsurukawa to stay safe as he would remain behind in Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. They told him, “Don’t fail to return to Japan” and “Don’t ever get infected.” 

On June 23, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi handed a letter of appreciation to the ANA president thanking the company for operating the government-chartered flights between late January and mid-February. 

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to your courage and huge contribution (to the operation of the flights),” Motegi told an ANA pilot and cabin attendants.

ANA operated all five of the chartered flights to rescue Japanese nationals and their family members from Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, at the request of the Japanese government.

It was the first time for the government to help Japanese nationals return home by dispatching chartered flights because of an outbreak of an infectious disease.

Tsurukawa, 52, head of the ANA branch office at an airport in Wuhan, played a leading role in getting passengers aboard the flights, which brought back 828 people to Japan.

Tsurukawa told reporters on June 23 he is grateful to have received the encouragement from passengers of the chartered flight from Wuhan.

Japan had only one confirmed infection case as of Jan. 23, when Chinese authorities “locked down” Wuhan to contain the pandemic. After seeing off a morning flight to Narita from the Wuhan airport that day, Tsurukawa was ordered by airport officials to leave the airport and he “went home without a moment’s delay.”

After he was informed of the Japanese government’s plan to send chartered flights to Wuhan, he started making arrangements with Japanese Embassy officials in China. He and 20 or so staff members living in Wuhan prepared for the arrival of the first chartered flight that was scheduled to depart from the Wuhan airport in the early hours of Jan. 29.

Temperatures in Wuhan can drop below freezing, but the heating was turned off at that time “as a precaution against infections.”

The first three chartered flights took off on three consecutive days from Jan. 29. Tsurukawa slept only three hours in total over four days before and after the three-day period.

Airport staff in protective gear also started dealing with passengers from the fourth chartered flight. Tsurukawa returned to Japan on the fifth chartered flight on Feb. 17 along with 65 other Japanese nationals and their family members who were left in Hubei province. 

“We tried to make our customers feel at ease, but unexpectedly, they gave us so much courage that we can’t thank them enough,” Tsurukawa said.

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