My memories of the moon landing on July 20, 1969 are especially poignant since the
anniversary coincides with the passing of Walter Cronkite. The heartbreak of
watching the nightly news of Vietnam led me to escape to Tokyo in June 1969. Once
there of course I still pored over the International Herald Tribune - the war
wouldn't go away, but with distance I escaped from the part of the US population
who still hadn't seen the folly of the war. Staying with friends south of Tokyo,
I'd come into the city that day - in Japan it would have been July 21 - to look
for jobs. I had my transistor radio with me and as I listened for the landing I
noticed the normally crowded streets were empty, people seemed to be spilling out
of coffee shops, I wandered into one. TVs were broadcasting the lunar landing
live! It was a wonderful moment to share, there I was in Tokyo with my transistor
to my ear, watching the actual landing on TV, and when Neil Armstrong set foot on
the surface and said his famous words there was applause throughout. People in
the coffee shop turned to me and applauded too, and I don't know what made me
happier, that we'd landed a man on the moon or we'd done something positive,
something uplifting that transcended the horrors of Vietnam, if for only a day. |
