Toshitami Tsuji unfolds a polo shirt his father used to wear, in Tokyo on Saturday. - Photo: The Yomiuri Shimbun
MAEBASHI, (Japan): Polo shirts sent to the son of a deceased Olympic athlete are bringing back memories of his father, who was among the 520 people killed in a 1985 Japan Airlines jumbo jet crash.
Monday (Aug 12) will mark the 39th anniversary of the crash on Osutaka ridge in Ueno, Gunma Prefecture.
Masanori Tsuji, then 39, was a former cyclist who competed in the road race at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.
His eldest son, Toshitami, 51, of Komae, Tokyo, received the shirts in January from a friend of his father’s. Looking at the shirts, Toshitami remembers the days he spent with his father.
“This brings back memories,” Toshitami said softly as he unfolded one of the shirts. “He used to wear this a lot.”
When Masanori was a freshman at Chukyo University, he competed in the individual road race at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Although he eventually dropped out of the race, he went on to win two gold medals at the following Asian Games.
After retiring, he coached the cycling team of then Shimano Industries Inc., now Shimano Inc.
His father was often away from home due to work, but delighted the family by buying things like video games and athletic shoes.
Toshitami went with him to competitions nationwide, and he even traveled to Los Angeles with his father to watch the 1984 Games, which featured an athlete his father had coached.
When the airplane accident occurred the following year, Toshitami was a first-year junior high school student.
He was unable to accept the fact that his father had died, in part because he was unable to see his body.
“I believed he would come home unexpectedly,” Toshitami said.
He had never seen his father compete as a cyclist.
But when Toshitami started cycling in high school, he heard about his father from people involved in the events he competed in and realised how great his father was.
When he won a prize at a national competition, he became proud of Masanori, who had participated in the Olympics as an athlete and trained Olympians as a coach.
“In the years the Olympics are held, I’m especially reminded of my father,” Toshitami said.
The three polo shirts he received were from a fellow cyclist of his father’s.
After the crash, his mother, Mieko, gave Masanori’s clothes and photographs to his friends and acquaintances as mementos.
However, nearly 40 years after the accident, Masanori’s friends are getting older.
One of his friends contacted Toshitami, saying, “I thought it might be better to give these back to the family.”
The shirts were his father’s everyday clothes.
Toshitami recognised the shirts as his father’s, even though the last time he saw them he was little.
When he saw that the shirts had obviously been carefully stored, he knew that his father had been loved by his friends.
At the Paris Olympics, a Japanese cyclist finished the men’s road race.
When Toshitami visits the site of the accident on Monday, he plans to report it to his father.
“I think my father is pleased with Japanese athletes’ efforts,” Toshitami said. - The Japan News/ANN
