Fukushima junior high school students and others sacrificed November 11, 2008 12:16 after the Austrian cable car accident
It has been 20 years since the accident in which a cable car burned in Austria, killing 155 people, including 10 Japanese, including a junior high school student in Inawashiro Town, Fukushima Prefecture, during a ski training camp.
The bereaved family of Inawashiro Town, who lost their eldest son in an accident, was scheduled to attend a memorial service held locally for the first time in 19 years, but due to the influence of the new coronavirus, they could not travel and were quiet in a graveyard near their home on the morning of the 11th. I prayed to him.
Twenty years ago, on November 11, in the Alps in central Austria, a cable car carrying skiers burned in a tunnel, and 155 people including 10 Japanese, including 5 students from Inawashiro Junior High School who visited at a ski training camp. Died.
In this accident, Hisashi Sasekura (66) from Inawashiro Town and his wife Hideko (65) lost their eldest son, Tomohisa (14 at the time), who was an alpine skier in the third year of junior high school.
A memorial facility has been set up on site, and after the accident, a memorial service is held on November 11th every year, and invitations are sent to the bereaved families.
Mr. and Mrs. Sase were planning to attend the memorial service for the first time in 19 years since the year after the accident, and to offer incense sticks and family photos in front of the monument engraved with Mr. Tomoju's name, but they were infected with the new coronavirus. Due to the expansion, I couldn't travel, so on the 11th morning, I visited a graveyard near my house and offered flowers and incense sticks and quietly prayed.
His father, Mr. Kuraju, said, "Since I retired from the company I was working for, I was planning to go to the site with my wife this time, but I gave up because of this situation. I made good results in skiing, such as participating in national competitions. He was a proud son who had been with him. It was 20 years in a blink of an eye, but he still has to carry the loss of his child for the rest of his life. "
Sase's mother Hideko "Let's live hard to the end"
Mr. Sase's home is still decorated with a certificate and a photo of his eldest son, Tomoju, who won the alpine skiing tournament for the first time when he was in the 4th grade of elementary school.
Tomoju started skiing in earnest from the third grade of elementary school, just like chasing the back of his father who participated in the national polity by skiing when he was in college, and soon became a prominent figure.
When I became a junior high school student, I participated in a national tournament and became an influential person who was selected as a strengthening player in the prefecture, but I was involved in an accident at an overseas training camp where I participated with the aim of further improving my level.
According to his father, Mr. Kurasu, he was injured in the accident, but was believed to have climbed the narrow stairs beside the cable car, and had fallen more than 100 meters away from the burning vehicle.
Hideko, her mother, said with tears, "I think my son tried to live hard until the end because he climbed the stairs in the tunnel with his ski boots on."