Japanese Marathoner Was a Hero and a Cautionary Tale

“He had a pained expression because he was running while shaking his body from side to side,” Hattori said. “I felt that he was really doing his best.”

With two kilometers to go and the stadium coming into view, Heatley closed in on Tsuburaya. “I didn’t expect to catch him,” Heatley said. But, he added, “he came back faster than I expected.”

Running for a Friend

Three years later, Kimihara sat with Tsuburaya in the locker room at a meet in Hiroshima, where Tsuburaya ran 5-, 10- and 20-kilometer races, setting a national record in the last event. “Next year in Mexico City, I’m going to win a medal for Japan,” Kimihara recalled him saying. Tsuburaya, though, never competed again.

Kimihara learned about Tsuburaya’s death when a reporter called his company to seek comment.

“I deeply regret that I lost an irreplaceable and important friend,” Kimihara said.

Still, when Kimihara traveled to Mexico City, he did not feel that he was running in Tsuburaya’s honor and he did not expect to win a medal. That changed at the start line. “I thought Tsuburaya was the one who wanted to be here, so I’ll run for him,” Kimihara said.

And run he did. Kimihara secured the silver medal that his friend almost won in Tokyo.

“There was no personal joy,” Kimihara said. “I was just happy I could continue Japan’s marathon tradition.”

Kimihara maintains another, more personal tradition. For more than 30 years, he has traveled to Sukagawa for the Kokichi Tsuburaya Memorial Marathon to run and talk about his friend’s legacy.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/sports/olympics/kokichi-tsuburaya-japanese-marathon-suicide.html