The Glass Rabbit: March 9-10, 1945

At the suggestion of a friend, I read Takagi Toshiko’s Garasu no usagi. It is her story of the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945. More than 90,000 civilians were killed and one million were left homeless. Takagi-san had evacuated so when she heard the news on the radio she didn’t know what had happened to her mother and sisters. She soon discovered that they had died in the bombing.

When she and her father returned to where their house had stood, all they found was the safe. When they finally cracked it open, they found a glass rabbit that had been in the house. It was half melted and twisted out of shape. The heat had obviously been intense.

Hoping to get her permission to translate this story into English, I wrote to her explaining who I was and how moved I was. To be honest, I wondered how she would respond to a letter from someone from the country that bombed her home and killed members of her family.

She kindly responded, and we arranged to meet in Tokyo. This small Japanese woman and this tall American man somehow overcame the awkwardness of the situation. We talked about ourselves and about the book. And without my having to ask, she said, “I’d like to have you translate this for me.”

I’m not easily moved to tears, but I was then.

We published the translation. And every March as that anniversary comes around, I still get a bit teary.

(254 words)