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YM COLUMN　ARCHIVE

April 23, 2008

Death of my friend and establishment of Oshu Municipal Hall of Study and Play

On last April 15 (Tue), Yoji Shibato-san of JAXA who had been my friend for twenty years passed away. He had a critical time with esophageal cancer several years ago but I was relieved to hear that somehow he got over with it. It must have spread to other parts. This time I heard it was lung cancer.

He worked for NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan). When NASDA had a trouble with the rocket TT-500 some years back, I attended Accident Investigation Board where I met with a young man who was energetically explaining about the accident. I still remember his glaring eyes as if it were only yesterday. This man was Shibato-san. That was a beginning of our friendship.

Although we belonged to different fields of work, I still believe that we shared our basic vision each other in chasing after the dream toward future. His strong conviction of attaching more importance to substantial content than mere routine formalities was ultimately an ideal goal of space development in its intrinsic nature. A younger man by just one year is gone now, which seems to instruct me to hurry up a pace of my life work. I pray for his soul rest in peace.

The Science Hall of Study and Play was established in Oshu city of Iwate prefecture and its inauguration ceremony was held on April 20 at the site of National Astronomical Observatory (former latitude observatory) in Mizusawa. It is the so-called “latitude station” well known for the Z term by Hisashi Kimura-san. It was really a lavish ceremony. As I said in my speech, I hope it will be well backed up by budget so that it would not turn out to be good only for the beginning.

I heard that the management of the hall was undertaken by newly founded NPO, “IHATOBU Space Practice Center” in accordance with the regulation of designated management system. Here in Mizusawa is the very active squad of YAC (Young Astronaut Club-Japan). I left country home of “aterui” (chief of Ezo tribe) by praying for their strenuous efforts to make the town into a bastion of space education through tight scrum hand in hand between Astronomical Observatory and Science Hall.

I welcome your opinions on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp

(Translated by The Planetary Society of Japan)