On May 29, 2020, at 12:40pm Japan’s Aerobatic demonstration team – Blue Impulse – took to the skies to send a message to the country’s healthcare workers, who have been fighting hard in the battle against COVID-19. There is never a time when the contrails drawn out by the planes fail to impress, but this time the message was simple but powerful.

Using morse code, the lead plane wrote “TU” in the sky, which of course, is the abbreviated form of “Thank you”.

People across Tokyo and the surrounding areas, including medical staff, took a moment to appreciate the planes as they wrote their message in the clouds.

Twitter user Mimiko (@mimiko_clover) captured the delicate moment and posted the video to her account, where it has gained over 4,400 comments (at the time of writing) thanking the aerobatic team for such a beautiful message.

“I was lucky enough to see it!” @SZsZK8Q63KFvecP
“I saw the sign over Saitama! I have tears of gratitude” @yellowfox_zc32s
“Thank you in morse code. When I saw your tweet, I was so moved I got goosebumps. Thank you for the wonderful video!” @skyemi1234

Some have also shown off their fluency in morse code, by pointing out that perhaps Blue Impulse had actually written something else as some of the video is cut off.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like TU…” @f355fhp
“From what I can see in the video, it says GT. Of course TU means “thank you” but that’s not what I see here.” @JD1BKZ

I’m not in any way literate in morse code, so I can’t personally vouch for the meaning behind the message, however, abbreviated form of “thank you” or not, we’re sure the message meant something uplifting, and are always grateful to see visual displays from the team.
People’s spirits were raised just from seeing the team out in the skies, and in times like these, we all need to work together to keep each other positive.