I got this plaque from the God Bless America (this website is no longer active, but I keep the link up to show I did not make this memorial plaque myself) website.
I adopted this plaque for this particular UA Flight 93 victim after I returned from my trip to Japan (I had to actually have to request it being made as they had not pre-made one for Toshiya Kuge.
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Toshiya Kuge's High School Picture
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Often, while I was in Japan, total strangers would start conversations with us (my friend Juliet accompanied me on this trip) and when they discovered that we were Americans they always voiced thier sympathy and support for us as a nation and for those victims and thier families and friends. None of them (except for Michiyo, our Goodwill Guide for a day in Kyoto) whom I asked questions to about how the Japanese were handling thier losses as they lost around 40 or 50 people in the WTC) even mentioned the loss of the Toshiya Kuge or the other Japanese lost, and were greatly surprised that I had even been aware that Japanese had died in the tragedies of September 11, 2001.
I know we lost many Americans in the WTC, but due to the kindness of the Japanese while I was visiting there I decided to adopt a Japanese victim plaque. I had also wanted to adopt a victim from United Airlines Flight 93 because I live fairly close (less than an hour away or so) from that crash site, and had a friend working on the Hazmat recovery team they sent down there to search for bodies and clean-up the site. Also, during September 11th, the hospital where we have our main computer contract had been put on alert to receive burn victims and my husband was there and everyone there was very sad to hear there were no survivors.
I also liked the fact that some of the passengers on this plane fought the terrorists so that even though they lost thier lives they kept the plane from reaching whatever its intended target was, and even though there is no proof that Toshiya Kuge had a hand in this heroic attempt to take back control hand in this heroic attempt, I believe in my heart that he did.
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UPDATE TO MY TOSHIYA KUGE MEMORIAL, SEPTEMBER 11TH ,2006
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Toshiya Kuge played American Football.
This is a photo taken closer to the time of 9/11/01, when he was 20, of him in his football team's jersey.
I found this photo on the "Discovery Channel's 9/11 Flight 93 Honor Roll"
This is the ONLY other photo I can find of Toshiya Kuge on the web and I am so happy to see a picture of him closer to his real age when the tragedy occured.
This is the biography info that went along with the picture at the Discovery Channel site:
"Toshiya Kuge, 20, from Nishimidoriguoska, Japan, was a student at Waseda University. In 1999, he graduated from Kitano High School, where he was the goalkeeper for the school's football team (My edit: for the American football team he was a linebacker, what is referred to in this text is what we in America called "soccer", which is the rest of the world's football. He played on that team as well.). Kuge was on his way home after a tour of the U.S., where he wanted to attend college. Survivors include his parents, who live in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, in Japan."
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UPDATE TO MY TOSHIYA KUGE MEMORIAL, SEPTEMBER 11TH ,2002
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I have recently learned more about Toshiya Kuge since the date I originally wrote this tribute page and I wanted to update it today, on the first anniversary of 9/11.
There are more similarities between Toshiya Kuge and myself that I have recently discovered, and may be another reason why I feel so connected to him as an "individual" among so many other victims and heroes/heroines who died on 9/11/01:
At the age of 20 I was a student traveling outside my home country. I had won a scholarship and spent my 20th summer studying in Egypt. Shortly after I returned, terrorist activities started there again after a long peace, and I believe I was lucky I got out of there when I did. Toshiya Kuge was also 20 years old and attending Waseda College. He had been to Utah earlier in 2001 to take some classes to improve his English with some other students, and was in the USA the summer of 2001 to make some connection to help him get into a Masters program (he was studying engineering at Waseda College) when he finished school in Japan, and also to travel around Canada and the US for fun before he returned to Japan and resumed classes.
I too love river rafting. I read somewhere that he had been in Canada at one point on this trip and had specifically gone to a certain place in Canada so as to take a rafting trip. There he met with two nice girls who were on the same rafting trip as he was. They said he was very friendly and even offered to share his lunch with them!
I still have no proof of Toshiya Kuge being part of the resistance effort on the part of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 (since there is no recording of a cel phone conversation or other record of his voice during this time ). Still, I believe that due to Toshiya Kuge's knowledge of the English language, his outgoing and friendly personality (as attested to by the people he met on the trip and back at home in Japan), and the fact that he was an athlete having played both soccer and American football (where is it said he played the linebacker position) that he did participate in trying to take back control of United Flight 93 from the terrorists that day. Deep in my heart I believe this.
I have set up a small altar for Toshiya Kuge and those who died on Flight 93 and have placed some things I bought while in Japan on the top of the altar. The first thing I did this morning when I woke up was to dust the altar and rearrange the small Zen Rock Garden into a new pattern today to symbolize the anniversary of this sad day. This helped me to focus and prepare myself for the memorials to come today. (Note Sept. 11th, 2006: I still do this every year and did it this morning as well).
One thing I bought in Japan, that I have placed on the altar, which I had originally bought for myself to symbolically help me with my studies of Japanese (which I am doing on my own, and finding very difficult), was one of those headwraps that students often wear to help them concentrate for studying for major exams. Instead of wearing this headwrap myself when I study, I have placed it on this little altar to help me to never forget...that one day in September 2001, a traveling scholar, much like myself in my college days, despite the fact he was born in a different country (Japan), gave his life in an attempt to take back power from those who had tried to steal it from those people on that plane, and to save any innocent lives on the ground that would have been threatened had the terrorists reached their intended target.
Because of YOUR sacrifice, Toshiya Kuge, I will never forget that not only Americans died that day...but that HUMAN BEINGS from all over the world died...and that the acts that caused your death (and those who died in NY at the WTC and at the Pentagon, outside of Washington, DC) were acts of terrorism against HUMANITY and FREEDOM, not just Americans and the American way of life.
I know I'll probably never be able to tell your parents, other family, friends, or classmates, that even though I didn't know you, you mean a lot to me. I will never forget you, I will ALWAYS remember...the young Japanese man and scholar with the genki eyes and beautiful smile who died a year ago today...and whose name was Toshiya Kuge.
Namaste and domo arigato gozaimashita to you and those you have left behind that mourn, Toshiya Kuge-san!
