Photo/Illutration Kuniko Miyajima, the secretary-general of the bereaved family group for the 1985 JAL Flight 123 crash, blows bubbles as part of the memorial event on Mount Osutakayama in Gunma Prefecture on Aug. 12. (Wataru Sekita)

UENO, Gunma Prefecture--On the 36th anniversary of the deadly crash of a JAL jumbo jet in 1985, Kuniko Miyajima climbed Mount Osutakayama with other bereaved families on Aug. 12 to remember her young son.

"Osutakayama has become a kind mountain as a lot of tears have poured onto it,” said Miyajima, 74, of Tokyo. “I hope that it will continue to be a place to convey the importance of lives.”

JAL Flight 123 crashed on the mountain in Gunma Prefecture while its pilots fought the aircraft's catastrophic loss of hydraulic control, which occurred shortly after takeoff.

It was one of the worst single-aircraft disasters in aviation history, with 520 passengers and crew killed, and only four survived.

Miyajima lost Ken, who was 9 years old, in the crash and later established a group for the bereaved families. She has been its secretary-general for 36 years.

She has provided an outlet to allow those family members to share their sadness and despair due to the loss of their loved ones.

At the same time, she has continued to give lectures across Japan to keep memories of the crash from fading.

On the day the tragedy occurred, Ken was heading for Osaka where his relatives lived. It was the first time he would travel by himself.

Ken was looking forward to seeing Hanshin Koshien Stadium and riding on Hanshin Electric Railway.

When Miyajima let go of her second son's hand at a boarding gate at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, his face showed some concern.

Ken asked a female airport staffer ushering him onto the aircraft, “I can see my mom soon, right?”

After Miyajima returned home, she saw the news report saying, “A JAL aircraft disappeared from radar.” An eyewitness said, “I saw smoke on the mountain.”

Miyajima thought, “I cannot leave him alone.”

The following day, she traveled to Gunma Prefecture, but she was not allowed to climb the mountain until the morning of Aug. 15.

It took four hours for her to hike up to the site where the plane crashed as she was covered with mud.

The ground at the location was still radiating heat, and when she poured Ken’s favorite juice onto part of the wreckage, she heard a sizzling sound.

What she could only do was to whisper, “Ken, I am sorry.”

She regretted that she let him fly on his own and continued to blame herself.

Four months after the crash, she established the 8/12 group for the bereaved families. She wanted to know why her son had to lose his life and needed people who supported each other to help determine the cause of the accident and those responsible for it.

The group issued bulletins for the grieving family members and urged Japan Airlines Co. to preserve the remnants of the aircraft and to establish an educational facility.

She has given more than 200 lectures at schools and transportation firms to convey the importance of lives.

For a while after the accident, she shed a tear anytime someone said, “Ken.”

Even after she became the secretary-general of the group, when she was interviewed by the media, she asked them not to mention Ken. If not, she could not maintain her composure.

She expressed her feelings in her book published in 2010 and sorted out her thoughts.

In the past, she felt torment when she thought about the crash but now feels more pain in the fact that it is being forgotten by others. 

“Conveying the sadness means loving the deceased,” she said.

The group's activities struck a chord with other bereaved families of accidents and natural disasters, including the 2005 JR Takarazuka Line (Fukuchiyama Line) rail crash in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The ridge on Mount Osutakayama has become a meeting spot for those bereaved family members as well. 

Even though fewer bereaved family members climbed the mountain this year for the memorial ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they conveyed their thoughts and feelings to their children, grandchildren and others.

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