25 years after the terrorist attacks on the United States, bereaved family member Sumiyama says, ``Sadness and anger will continue until I die''

The 11th marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, which killed approximately 3,000 people. Kazusada Sumiyama, 89, of Meguro Ward, Tokyo, who lost his eldest son, Yoichi Sugiyama, then 34, in the terrorist attack, complained, ``The sadness and anger (from the terrorist attack) will last until I die. I don't know how to handle these feelings.''

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Mr. Sugiyama worked at the former Fuji Bank (currently Mizuho Bank) New York branch in the south tower of the Twin Towers, which collapsed. He went missing in a terrorist attack and was confirmed dead in April 2002.

Mr. Sugiyama had been studying English conversation since he was a student because he wanted to go abroad. In 2000, the year before the terrorist attack, he was assigned to the New York branch, which was his dream. While Sumiyama was proud of her son, saying, ``He is working at the financial center of the world,'' she also felt a little worried because terrorist attacks continued overseas at the time.

On that day 25 years ago, Sumiyama heard about the terrorist attack on TV and flew to the scene four days later. However, even when I went there, I couldn't find out if the patient was safe, so I went to hospitals looking for information and put up posters on the walls. ``It was tough work. I was filled with anxiety,'' he recalls.

Sumiyama continued to convey the brutality of the terrorist attack and the feelings of the bereaved families, holding irregular exhibitions of photos taken at the scene, saying, ``I want people to know that there were Japanese victims.'' He spent about eight years translating the report of the US Terrorism Investigation Commission on his own using a dictionary, and published the Japanese version in 2021. Recently, however, he has been feeling increasingly weak, and the exhibition has ended this year.

However, he still has the desire to share his experiences. ``It's getting harder to walk, but I can talk.If I have the opportunity, I would like to continue talking about my experiences,'' he says with emphasis.