Photo/Illutration A train runs at a reduced speed under cherry blossoms at the famed Shiroishigawa-tsutsumi Hitome Senbon-zakura area in Shibata, Miyagi Prefecture, on April 2. (Minako Yoshimoto)

A magnificent view of cherry blossoms against the backdrop of a mountain range in Miyagi Prefecture marks the arrival of spring for the hordes of people who visit the area every year. But for one man, the same scenery has a very different meaning.

Takashi Matsuo saw that view 12 years ago when he was preparing to bid farewell to his father.

In April 2011, Matsuo, now 62, was on his way to work in Sendai when he was informed that his father had died.

It was just one month after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku region, and people were still anxious about the continuing aftershocks.

After Matsuo explained his situation to his workplace, he returned home, packed some belongings and rushed to Sendai Station.

His father had been repeatedly admitted to a hospital for health problems.

“I could have done more for my father,” Matsuo told himself.

The wake was scheduled to be held in Fukuoka on the other side of the country.

But Matsuo couldn’t take a flight from Sendai Airport because it was still undergoing repairs from damage caused by the disaster.

He decided to travel by train to Fukushima Station and figure out how to get to Kyushu from there.

The train, however, repeatedly stopped due to the aftershocks, annoying the grieving son. Stuck aboard the train, he frustratingly had to keep changing his itinerary via his mobile phone.

About an hour later, still on the train, Matsuo raised his eyes and saw multiple cherry blossoms in full bloom outside the window on the right side.

He realized the train was moving slowly.

Unlike his gloomy mood, the scenery outside was bright and gorgeous, like a festival.

Matsuo then felt his father saying to him about the train’s slow speed: “It can’t be helped even if you hurry. Take your time.”

That calmed down his mind, and the cherry blossoms also comforted him.

His father, who was born early in the Showa Era (1926-1989), belonged to the Matsuyama Naval Air Group during World War II. After being discharged, he worked as a civil servant.

When Matsuo was working in the United States, his father visited him there for his first overseas trip.

“So that’s what America looks like,” the father emotionally said about his old enemy.

The father was a quiet person but scolded Matsuo if he left a grain of rice in the bowl. “Think about how much effort the farmers made for this grain,” the father would say.

When the two drank together, the father always looked happy.

When Matsuo arrived in Fukuoka for the wake, the setting sun provided a bright background for the venue. The sutra reading had already begun.

Matsuo later learned that the location of the beautiful cherry blossoms he saw from the train was a famous spot called Shiroishigawa-tsutsumi Hitome Senbon-zakura.

Trains usually reduce speed between Funaoka and Ogawara stations on the JR Tohoku Line during the cherry blossom season so that passengers can view the sakura.

However, in the year of the earthquake, the trains did not slow down during the sakura season. Matsuo wondered whether that was a coincidence.

Matsuo retired from his company in 2018. Until then, he visited the same cherry blossom spot every April.

He was looking at the magnificent Zao mountain range behind the sakura while conjuring up an image of his father.

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