25 years on, father of Japanese 9/11 victim continues to grieve

The father of a Japanese victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States reflects on his loss 25 years later.

About 3,000 people were killed in the attacks.

“My sorrow and anger will persist until I die,” said Kazusada Sumiyama, 89.

His first son, Yoichi Sugiyama, was killed in the attacks at age 34.

“I don’t know how to live with this feeling,” he said.

Sugiyama worked at the New York branch of then Fuji Bank, now Mizuho Bank, in the South Tower of the World Trade Center complex that collapsed. His death was confirmed in April 2002.

He studied English intensively from his school days, hoping to go abroad. In 2000, he was assigned to the New York branch, a posting he had long hoped for.

While Sumiyama was proud of his son as he worked “at the center of global finance,” he was also uneasy following a series of terror attacks that occurred before the Sept. 11 incident.

Sumiyama learned of the Sept. 11 attacks on television that day and flew to New York four days later. However, Sugiyama’s safety was unknown.

The father visited hospitals for information and put up posters to find his son.

“It was painful work,” he recalled. “I was full of anxiety.”

Sumiyama continued to convey the brutality of terrorism and the feelings of bereaved families, holding exhibitions of photographs taken in New York.

“I want people to know that there were Japanese victims,” he said.

He spent about eight years independently translating a report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and published a Japanese version in 2021.

Recently, however, he said he often feels his physical strength declining. He ended the photo exhibition project this year.

Still, he remains eager to share his experience.

“It’s getting hard to walk, but I can talk,” he said. “If I have an opportunity, I want to continue to talk about my experience.”