Photo/Illutration The Iroha Shoten bookshop in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, was hit by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake on Jan. 1, 2024. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

I am relying on my interview notes today to write this column.

I met Hisashi Yagi in spring last year. Aged 83 at the time, he was the proprietor of Iroha Shoten, a bookshop in the Ishikawa Prefecture city of Suzu that was badly damaged in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake of Jan. 1, 2024.

His shop was destroyed, but Yagi opened a temporary store nearby as soon as he could.

The reason for the rush was that he wanted to be able to supply textbooks to local schoolchildren when they went back to school for the new term.

The neighborhood shopping street was in rubble and pitch-dark at night, except for the sole lighted spot that was Yagi’s makeshift bookstore.

“I wanted people to see it and draw some comfort and inspiration from it,” Yagi told me with a genuine smile.

He also said that he himself was being helped and encouraged by many people. “I realized how fortunate I was,” he noted. “The quake made me a kinder person.”

Because Yagi looked quite healthy at the time, I was stunned when I heard of his death this past September.

I visited Suzu and met his son, Atsunari, 52, who told me that his father died shortly after he was hospitalized for pneumonia. Because it happened so suddenly, he said, he feels as if his father is still around, “smiling as usual.”

Atsunari also told me that his father often used the expression “atawari” that is specific to the Hokuriku region.

It is said to denote an attitude of embracing one’s fate and living fully, accepting even misfortunes that cause sorrow and pain.

Atsunari is following his father’s wishes by opening a new Iroha Shoten next spring.

It will soon be two years since the Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

Let me quote, from my interview notes, Yagi’s response to my question of what “post-disaster recovery/reconstruction” meant to him.

“It’s something you carry on, enjoying the process and truly feeling good about it,” he said.

I remember my eyes getting moist when I heard those words.

Ever cheerful, Yagi was like a bright light that illuminated the disaster zone. He was 84 when he died.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 30

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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.