Photo/Illutration Yuri Gagarin gives a speech at Waseda University in Tokyo in May 1962. Gagarin traveled around Japan that year. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The space inside was as small as a sleeping berth of an old overnight train.

I recently visited Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, and saw a replica of the re-entry capsule used in the first human spaceflight in history.

Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), a Soviet Air Force lieutenant, was chosen to be the first human to travel into outer space. His spacecraft launched and landed on April 12, 1961, in an extremely risky mission.

“The Earth is blue.” While these words are ascribed to Gagarin, it is not clear whether he actually said them. Anyway, both the 27-year-old man and this quotable line immediately gained international fame.

According to Mai Kano, a curator at the museum, Gagarin yearned to travel to the moon, but his wish did not come true. He lost one of his closest friends, a fellow pilot, in an accident. Gagarin himself died one spring at the age of 34 during a training flight for a military airplane that ultimately crashed.

“While he continued to have a challenging spirit, he led a life of agony after his great achievement, suffering both mental and physical problems,” Kano said.

As I researched Gagarin’s life, I read a biography and watched a film, both of which depicted his life after the spaceflight.

As a space-age hero, he became the poster child for the Soviet space program and a symbol of national pride. He also became an alcoholic and his relationship with his wife became strained.

His life was a story of the sorrow of a young man who was used as a weapon in the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev, who was the proud Russian leader when the Soviet Union beat the United States to space, gave Gagarin a number of privileges. But he was treated merely as a military pilot during the era of Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev’s successor.

I feel respect for the cosmonaut, who bravely took on a dangerous challenge. But I also feel sympathy for him as I imagine his pain of having to serve as a tool for the national leader’s endeavor to add a jewel to his political legacy.

As a person who is both claustrophobic and acrophobic, I would beg off being used as a card in a sink-or-swim national gamble on space.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 11

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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