What the Relay of Small Hands Taught Me June 6 at 6:21

"Open page 1 and read tears, tears" "Reading with my 3-year-old daughter and tears"


Empathy is spreading to the tender true story that began with the small hands of a girl.

Why does the "relay of small hands"
that has become a picture book attract not only children but also adults?

(Wakayama Broadcasting Station Reporter Daisuke Ueda Director Iori Yoshida)

The figure overlapped with the deceased father ...

Tomoki Hattori, who lives in Nagoya City, was one of those influences.

His father, Yuzo (aged 79), was blind.

When I was young, I loved to travel and traveled around the world, but after I was 70, my glaucoma worsened.

Then, it became almost invisible, and gradually became blocked.

Six months have passed since my father passed away. Mr. Hattori came across a picture book by chance.

The title of the picture book is "The Bus Has Come,"
based on the true story of a man in Wakayama City who gradually lost his eyesight due to an intractable disease who helped local elementary school students commute by bus for more than 10 years.

"The bus has come" small hand relay

Click here for an article by Hirotaka Yamazaki, who became a model for a relay with small hands

Mr. Hattori says that the image of a man who had lost his eyesight anxiously getting on the bus alone overlapped with his father's.

Tomoki Hattori
: "I think I broke out in a cold sweat while holding the strap in the middle of the day.

When I open my father's diary...

Mr. Hattori finished reading the picture book.
I wonder if I could have done something for my father.
I opened the door to my father's room.

Tomoki Hattori:
"Dad, let me read your diary, I haven't seen it at all, so I'll read it."

There were about 20 notebooks in the room.

I knew my father kept a diary, but I never opened it before.

It contained the earnest feelings of my father, who had lost his sight.

"I want to die quickly.

While the notebook contained

my father's thoughts as he was almost overwhelmed with anxiety, he also left words of struggle to regain hope of living.

"One more day with Tomoki."

And what he kept repeating was gratitude to his beloved daughter.

"Tomoki, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Tears were streaming down Hattori's cheeks.

Tomoki Hattori
: "I wonder if the picture book gave me the opportunity to read the notebook left by my father.

Mr. Hattori also read picture books to his daughter Yorima (3 years old).

Yoshin-chan
: "Is this your grandfather?"

Mr. Hattori: "Yes, my grandfather got on the bus. Stick with me."

Hattori hopes that like the children in picture books, her daughter will naturally be able to be kind.

Tomoki Hattori:
"I'm sure these things happen somewhere every day in various places, but I want them to become children who can easily reach out to people in need."

Always next to you, even if you can't see

Some people sympathize with the importance of caring for each other depicted in picture books.

"It's Grandpa's short sleeves coming from the front," "Even if it's a short sleeve today, it's really cool,"

"It's cold,"

late April.
Atsuki Hasegawa, who lives in Kanagawa Prefecture, was walking along a tree-lined street with his best friend Kotono.

Two people chatting as usual.
Kotono suffered from cancer in her eyes when she was a child and has almost no vision.
Mr. Hasegawa was conveying the scene in front of him.

Two friends from kindergarten near each other's homes.
Even though Kotono's eyes gradually disappeared, Hasegawa was always next to her.

There is a picture book description of these two people who were fascinated.

"Goodbye, Uncle,"
"Goodbye, go, watch out for your car. Thank you."

When the children who supported them crossed the intersection, a blind man worried, "Watch out for cars."

Atsuki
Hasegawa: "I felt that it was important not to have the kindness that you have to do, but to be on an equal footing."

Kotono:
"The fact that 'be careful with your car' is not a relationship of really helping or being able to give, but it really shows that we care about each other as people."

"Importance of Equal Exchange" Toward a New Path

With the same feeling as his best friend, "I want to value interacting as equals, regardless of whether or not you have a disability,"

Hasegawa embarked on a new path this spring.

I got a job helping people who are visually impaired.

Mr
. Atsuki Hasegawa: "It's a residential area, and now one bicycle has passed on the left."

On this day, it was a training to support blind people when they go out.

While guiding his blindfolded colleague, Mr. Hasegawa carefully conveyed the scene in front of him as usual.

Mr
. Atsuki Hasegawa: "I thought it would be good to have a profession where people with visual impairments can be lively and encouraged, and where they can enjoy each other when they are able to do things that they were not able to do."

Many of the responses to picture books come from adults.

When the book was published in June last year, the circulation had already reached 6,3 copies, making it an exceptional hit for a picture book.

So far, 5000 postcards have been sent to picture book publishers.
The response was nearly seven times higher than usual, and many of them came from adults.

"It's a picture book for children, but it sounds like a book for adults," she says,
"and I thought I wanted to be like that."

Ikuko Yamaguchi, Editor-in-Chief
of Alicekan: "When you grow up, you have to help someone in need, or when you see someone different from you, you wonder if you can talk to them, but the fact that children naturally took action on their own seems to resonate with me. Adults really have to understand, but they forget about it."

Model Ms. Yamazaki is now ...

A small hand relay that shows out.

However, Hirotaka Yamazaki, who became a model for picture books, suffered a stroke last fall, leaving him paralyzed in the right half of his body.

I continued my rehab because I wanted to ride the bus with my children again, but I couldn't recover enough to be able to ride the bus by myself, so I quit my job.

The small-hand relay, which lasted more than 10 years, reached the goal.

Sayonara Bus is a continuation of the small hand relay ...

The last scene of Mr. Yamazaki's bus commute is from this article

On the other hand, this May. Mr. Yamazaki has started to move toward a new goal.

I started an activity to tell the story of kindness received from children to many people.

"I'm still in rehabilitation and can't walk to the bus stop by myself, but I want to be able to walk to the bus stop as much as possible and see off my children getting on the bus in the morning.

Hirotaka Yamazaki:
"It's like enjoying the second life, the life when I was visible, the life when I couldn't see it, and thanks to the help, I was able to talk a lot with the children. The kids are my medals."

A "relay of small hands" that continues to spread in the hearts of many people as a picture book.
The "big warmth" in the "small kindness" has been passed down there.

Wakayama Broadcasting Station
reporter Daisuke
Ueda joined the station in Heisei 23 Covered "Small Hand Relay" for two and a half years

Director of Wakayama Broadcasting Station
Iori
Yoshida Reiwa 2nd year Hobby is voice training