Freelance announcer Miki Sumiyoshi appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on February 20th. She talked about her memories of her late father.
He lived in Seattle, Washington for four and a half years, from first to fifth grade. "Looking back, I was almost an American kid, so my Japanese was probably a bit of a challenge," he recalls. "I had a really fun time in elementary school, running around the big schoolyard and roller skating to school." He spent his junior high school years in Japan and his high school years in Vancouver, Canada.
Her father, who worked in the lumber trade, quit his job at the age of 50 and started his own business as a consultant while still living in Canada, but he died in a traffic accident at the age of 54. "I was 25, about three years into my career," she says. When she answered the phone early in the morning, her mother in Canada told her, "Please calm down and listen. Your father has passed away."
"My hands were shaking, my teeth were chattering. I couldn't believe it and was stunned for a while," he said. He remembers flying to Vancouver with relatives in Japan that same day. "I remember being stunned and on the plane, unable to believe it and hoping it was a lie," he said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent about two years closing down my family home in Canada. My father's belongings were stored there, so I got rid of what needed to be disposed of. I then found the originals of things I had often consulted my father about various details when I was job hunting or just starting out in the workforce. He would handwrite letters and fax them to me without any hassle.
"My father was so kind and said all sorts of things to me, and in the end he kindly told me to come back home if it didn't work out. It's only now that I've worked as a member of society for 30 years that I've come to understand my father's kindness and greatness," she said, adding, "I now look at my father's handwritten notes with nostalgia and fondness."
After closing down her family home, her mother returned to Tokyo. They live nearby, share common hobbies, and "my husband, me, and the three of us get along well," she said.
