Sakurai-san went to Papua New Guinea for coverage of war in 2015. It was found that his grandfather Sakurai Mitsuo-san who, as former Jomo Shinbun reporter, did coverage in the same place 48 years ago (Year 1969) on recovering the remains of soldiers. Sakurai-san said that it was out of his imagination, he did not know it at all, his grandfather did not mention it at all.
Colleagues of Sakurai Mitsuo-san were interviewed. They said that Sakurai Mitsuo-san was handsome, had lots of female fans, was a person who took care of staff, practiced Judo during high school days, was good at writing and had knowledge and conscience.
During the Pacific War, Gunma Prefecture lost ten thousand soldiers. On this, Sho-san said "To the soldiers of Gunma Prefecture, after 70 years, I can make such greetings, I feel an unimaginable fate."
Sakurai Mitsuo-san recorded his experience in Papua New Guinea:
“On the bedrock there stuck some pieces of human remains.
I tried to use my fingers to move them upwards, but they did not budge an inch.
‘We have been waiting like this’, they seemed to be stating.”
“In the grass there was a skull. It was turning around like a mushroom.
The vacant holes of his two eyes, like sounding off about something, were looking upwards.”
Apart from coverage, Sakurai Mitsuo-san brought along a letter from a lady to his elder brother who died in the war. The lady asked him to bury the letter at the site of remains.
By reporting the war, the thoughts of Sakurai Mitsuo-san and Sakurai Sho-san overlapped.
The brother of Sakurai Mitsuo-san died in a naval battle, Sakurai Mitsuo-san died in April 2006, half year later, Sakurai-san became Caster of NEWS ZERO.
How should we who live in an era with no war live? To the generation which does not know war, Sakurai Mitsuo-san wrote a book titled “Monyo”.
Excerpts of Sakurai Mitsuo-san's coverage / book:
"In exchange of lives of flesh and blood, peace over these 40 years here, what is its meaning to my life?
The “way of living” from the moment of that grace, I thought that this is the way to reward the spirits."
“‘Life is the pattern drawn by each of our own’, some people say.
As a result of war, such pattern was not drawn and was scattered.
To convey my thought to the negligence of many youngsters,
I wrote a book about the pattern of myself who lived through the peace time.
I hope this would be a pattern that is good for reading."
Sakurai-san commented that there is one thing he wanted to convey through this VTR. He was not able to ask his grandfather about his coverage (when his grandfather was alive). If the audience has grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather, or great-mother who is alive, (it would be good to) just make a declaration.
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