[/floatr]Asahi: A comrade's dying request
It's 1 a.m. on a December night on a commercial street in Tokyo's Meguro. Suddenly the clatter of shutters opening shatters the midnight hush. Shingo Kobayashi, 84-year-old proprietor of the Kikuya Bakery, bows low. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," he says to the customers lined up outside--couples with coats wrapped over their pajamas, women hooded against the cold. Quickly, the 10-square-meter shop fills with people...Kikuya's reputation has spread to the Internet, where it is known as "the phantom bakery." On this particular night, Kobayashi sells more than 200 items. When the shutters clatter down again, it's 3 a.m., and the street returns to its nocturnal stillness... Kobayashi's interest in bread is rooted in his wartime experience. He was stationed in Okinawa as World War II entered its final phase. A friend in his unit was killed. With his dying breath, the friend exhorted him, "Do something for the good of Japan, Kobayashi." Demobilized, he made his way to Tokyo. At Ueno Station, a small child stole his rice ball. Kobayashi felt no anger, however. The child was probably a war orphan; possibly starving. Food--that would be the basis of Japan's recovery. "I wanted to do something for the country, on my own behalf, and also on behalf of my dead friend," he says...more...
See also blogger Jun on the Midnight Bakery.
