The Old Man

It was a sunny spring day, or even like a summer day today. The temperature went up high by the afternoon and the sunshine was so bright.

In this morning, I took a walk with my baby to a park near my parents' house. Oh, I spent Monday night, so I wasn't at my place. Anyway, the park was used to be the Japanese old Air Force base up until WW II ended. Now, it became a park with lots of green and flowers. There still stands the gate said "Yokohama Air Force Base" but not many people notice the name, and the monument near the gate. The monument is for soldiers who went to Guadalcanal Island during the war. Today, an old man was looking at me over and over when he saw me standing at the monument. On the stone, some messages were written in a kind of old Japanese, and it was quite difficult to understand.

The old man did not say anything to me though he looked that he wanted to... So, I said hello to him. Then, he started to talking to me as if he was waiting for me for a long time. He asked me if I knew what the monument was for, so I told him not quite. He seemed like wearing false teeth and sounded kind of mumbling to me. He precisely explained what the monument was about and he was a soldier at that time. I asked him,
"Did you also go to Guadalcanal too?" and he replied,
"No, I was in Japan."
Also he said to me,
"You know there are still old air-raid shelters around this park?"
"Yeah."
I've seen some when I was little but most of them were now filled with sand to prevent from any accidents.
Then, he walked away.

It was a nice walk that I met someone and thought about WWII and peace. He wanted to tell me not to forget WWII and also about himself as a soldier.
Thank you for talking to me!