Reading Abe's memoir

Finally found this

Since published last month, it's been out of stock everywhere

A memoir by Abe Shinzo, an ex-prime minister, who was killed last July

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While reading it, a vivid sense came

A vivid realisation: I was certainly living in the same era with this man

From 2012 to 2020, while Abe was in the prime minister position, many significant events happened in this country & they all got serious attention from the society

Some were less important by now
Some were still unforgettable
And some changed my life

This book revealed to me that a person in the country's top position is always related to these events in some way

Abe was always there
I didn't notice back then

Abe was always there, not far away from my life
I was just unaware

Abe was always there, next to me
I became aware only now

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Having real contact or not, it is still impactful, and emotional, when someone we've grown up with or someone who has been in the periphery of our life drops off
Suddenly

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Abe had a meeting with Putin 27 times, which is unusually very high number

And in the memoir Abe mentioned a couple of episodes with him

This interview-based memoir was made much before Feb/2022, but some of Abe's words implied this ongoing war & seemed Abe expected this would happen sooner or later

"バルト三国のある大統領は私に、「ロシアにウクライナを諦めろと言っても、到底無理だ。ウクライナは、ロシアの子宮みたいなものだ。クリミア半島を手始めに、これからどんどんウクライナの領土を侵食しようとするだろう」と述べていたのが印象的でした。"

"I still remember what some president in the Baltic States told me a couple of years ago: 'It's impossible to tell Putin, give up Ukraine. For him Ukraine is like a womb of Russia. After Crimea, he'll try to invade Ukraine more'

―『安倍晋三回顧録（中央公論新社）』