TCSD CONVERSATION WITH: By Craig Zelent
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Hiro Iwamoto
I had the pleasure recently of talking triathlon with TCSD member Hiro Iwamoto. Hiro has led an amazing life. His story is sure to inspire you when you face your next challenge. I am so glad I had the chance to get to know him and I know you will feel the same way once you hear his story.
When did you lose your sight and what was the challenge. ansPacific sailing Tr nd co se s hi r cause? Hiro training fo Hiro: I was so scared, and I felt hopeless Hiro: I was born in Kumamoto, Japan, and during elementary school, like many other boys, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. So I would always play baseball with my friends after school. Then when I was 13, I realized I was losing my sight for the first time as I was playing baseball with my friends. I could not catch the ball because I could not see it. Everyone on my team started blaming me when we lost a game. But even in that kind of situation, I could not tell them that I couldn’t see. I did not want them to know that I was losing my sight. After a while, I started bumping into things as I was walking. My parents took me to every eye doctor they could think of, but none of the doctors could figure out the cause of my blindness. This meant that there was no treatment, no cure for my sight loss.
How did you adjust to life without sight?
when I thought about my future. I wondered how my future was going to be. When I could not even put toothpaste on my toothbrush, I did not want to deal with my blindness anymore. I did not want to go on living asking for help all the time. On August 13th, 1982, it was a very hot day, the sun was shining, and a lot of cicadas were making sound, as I headed to a bridge in my hometown of Ushibuka to commit suicide, to terminate my life. When I got there, I took off my shoes and put both my hands and right foot on the rail, but could not pull myself up over the rail. I tried again and again, but could not go over the rail. It’s not that I didn’t have enough strength to jump, but it felt like some unknown force was preventing me from jumping. After struggling for a while, I got so tired
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