Photo/Illutration Iwoto island, which was formerly known as Iwojima island (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“Haven’t you caught a cold?” “Take care not to get stomach trouble.” “Get a good night’s sleep and get up early in the morning every day.”

In the closing days of World War II, when Japan was facing a devastating defeat, Tadashi Sato, who had been drafted when he was in his mid-30s, continued sending letters from the battlefield to his home in Iwate Prefecture.

When he was called up, he had a 55-day-old daughter, who is now Yoshiko Onodera, 78, and who lives in Ichinoseki in the prefecture.

About two decades ago, Yoshiko’s mother asked her to keep letters from her father. Yoshiko was told that her father was killed during the Battle of Iwo Jima, but she had absolutely no memory of him. She devoured all the letters, well-written in a tightly packed manner on letter paper.

The letters included words addressed to her mother and grandmother: “Please make sure Yoshiko will grow up fit and strong.” In a message intended for Yoshiko’s older brother, Sato wrote, “When Yoshiko starts walking, have a sumo bout with her. As you are her older brother, you should make her happy by allowing her to win.”

As she read her father’s handwritten letters, Yoshiko was moved to realize how deeply he loved her.

There is also a photograph showing her father just before he went to the front lines and her mother holding the young Yoshiko in her arms.

It was one her father brought with him to the front and which was miraculously returned to the family about three decades ago from a former American soldier in Illinois. The name and address her father wrote on the back made it possible for the photo to be given back to the family.

Every time she looks at the photo, Yoshiko gets the impression he was a cheerful man of resolution.

As she wanted many people to read her father’s letters, Yoshiko last summer published, at her own expense, a book of them titled “Inochi wo Kaketa Heiwa wo Arigato” (Thank you for the peace for which you sanctified your life).

The book also contains records of her own trips to Iwoto island (also known as Iwojima island), which she has visited about eight times to console the spirits of her father and other people who died there.

Yoshiko plans to publish by year-end a sequel featuring other letters her father wrote that have been found since the book came out.

She showed me some of the letters while I was interviewing her. They were written with thick and deep brushstrokes. The handwriting indicated he was a well-organized person.

Even though the time the father and the daughter spent together was brief, they are clearly bound by strong ties.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 7

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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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