Photo/Illutration Divers offer a bouquet to the capsized Toya Maru before the start of search operations off Hokkaido in 1954. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

There is a weighty tome that sleeps silently in the basement stack room of The Asahi Shimbun's Tokyo headquarters where I work.

Titled "Toya Maru Sonan Tsuito-shu," it is a haunting collection of memorial messages written by the bereaved families of 1,155 people who died exactly 70 years ago today in the sinking of the Toya Maru.

The Japanese train ferry connected the Honshu port of Aomori and the Hokkaido port of Hakodate.

The tragedy occurred on Sept. 26, 1954.

A typhoon was approaching, but the Toya Maru set sail from Hakodate under the mistaken assumption that the storm would abate.

The vessel capsized before long, battered by high winds and rough seas. Only 10 percent of the passengers survived. The sobering number bespeaks the magnitude of the disaster.

The book contains these words, uttered in vain by a young girl in junior high school: "Father. Father. Why did you die?"

A parent bitterly regretted "not saying my final goodbye" to their daughter when she was leaving home that morning.

A woman who lost her child lamented, "We talk about the transience of life, but I still cannot accept (the loss)."

Edited and compiled by the victims' bereaved families, the book is not for sale. There is a list of the names of the victims and their backgrounds, with headshots of 724 of them.

Even after 70 years, the dead stare at me with their piercing gaze, as if trying to tell me something.

This made me think anew: No matter how far science may advance, we humans still make mistakes. How tiny our existence is before nature's enormous power.

But even if we recognize our powerlessness from time to time and stop and think, we are so prone to forgetting it over time.

"This mistake and sorrow must not be repeated again," wrote the president of the association of the bereaved families.

Trying to imagine his feelings, I gently traced with my fingertip these printed words on a yellowed page: "A grave lesson for the future."

—The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 26

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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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