Photo/Illutration This photo taken by the U.S. military in March 1945 shows the Sumidagawa river and the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo's Chuo Ward after the Great Tokyo Air Raid. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

"Won't the scheduled flight be here today?" a company colleague wondered aloud, looking up at the sky. The person was referring to a type of U.S. bomber that flew over Tokyo almost daily on its deadly mission.

Hisako Yoshizawa (1918-2019), who later became a lifestyle critic, quoted this remark in her diary in the final days of the Pacific War.

"Today is a perfect day for bombing," quipped one of her colleagues, while another made this rejoinder, "The bomber should be due soon."

These exchanges indicate their peculiar accustomedness to air raids. Do humans become inured to anything? Or is this a sort of defense mechanism needed to keep one's sanity?

These thoughts occurred to me while reading Yoshizawa's book titled "Yoshizawa Hisako: 27-sai no Kuushuu Nikki" (Hisako Yoshisawa: A 27-year-old's air raid diary).

The bantering tone disappeared as the bombings intensified.

On March 10, 1945, the climax of the Great Tokyo Air Raid campaign, Yoshizawa reported to work in central Tokyo and described what she saw from her train.

Residual smoke from the predawn firebombing hung heavily over the Kudan district. From Kanda Station, all she could see was a scorched expanse where everything appeared to have been burned to the ground. 

Listening to people around her, she noted, "I think we are already beyond feeling betrayed and disappointed by our political leaders." This was her declaration of her intense distrust of the political leaders who had failed to avert air raids over the capital.

I cannot help superimposing the present reality of the COVID-19 pandemic on Yoshizawa's portrayal of Tokyo 76 years ago.  

The public was becoming desensitized to state of emergency declarations when the Delta variant struck. The Suga administration's ineffectual pandemic response is a throwback to the wartime government's failure to protect its citizens from air raids. 

People have died because hospitals could not admit them. A woman in labor was forced to give birth at home, and her baby died.

Who would have imagined that such tragedies could occur in present-day Japan?

Yoshizawa wrote that every morning she awoke with the thought, "I may die today in an air raid." 

Lives can be saved if necessary medical treatments are administered. Nobody should ever have to be exposed to irrational fear.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 21

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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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