Source: @TakashiTohyama

Japanese child’s touching illustration mourning pet beetle met with even more touching responses

Children's letters shared on Twitter are particularly moving

A common sight in Japan is a young boy carrying stag beetles in a plastic cage. The insects are collected with a certain kind of wander and shown to friends, teachers, acquaintances, and likely just about anyone who cares to listen.

Sure enough, such experiences are limited to the summertime. Beetles cannot survive the winter, and adult beetles typically only survive one to three months. Adult males have particularly short lifespans lasting about a month. Naturally attentive young "entomologists" are commonly disappointed when the inevitable takes place despite their best efforts.

Over the summer of 2021, Twitterer Takashi Tohama's (@TakashiTohyama) son looked after one such beetle for the first time. Sadly, when the beetle died, Tohama's son was understandably upset. Despite the turmoil, the young boy drew pictures to remember his former pet. The event so touched Tohama that he incorporated the images into a Twitter post. Take a moment to enjoy the piece entitled "One Summer Life."

Source: @TakashiTohyama

"My son’s first stag beetle unfortunately died. During my son’s time mourning, he drew pictures, often while crying, so that he would remember his beloved pet. The whole event was so touching that I asked my son if I could incorporate his image into a post. Fortunately he agreed, because I can’t draw pictures like this…"

As you can see, Tohama’s son's drawings are imbued with love and also deep sadness. He truly felt a deep connection to his pet. Readers clearly felt this, and the image received countless comments and over 130,000 likes on Twitter:

  • "It's a wonderful picture with a lot of thought."
  • “I cried from just looking at his picture. I can understand how deeply he cared for his beetle."
  • “Your sensitive son is so wonderful. And a father who can accept and react to this act accordingly is also a wonderful person. Would I be able to extend the same courtesy to my child...I need to take some time to reflect upon that.”

A letter to a crab

Another similar post also recently trended on Twitter:

"I'm sorry I couldn't take better care of you. Why did you have to go? Please watch over me from above. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have taken you home. I'm sorry."

As you can see, @army_bts_s38s’s child’s wrote a letter to a crab that she caught. Unfortunately, the crab passed. It's hard to feel a little heartbroken when reading her message…

Letter to a father

Twitter user Masayoshi Yamamoto (@YamamotoPENU) is a faculty member at a university in Nagoya City. One day, Yamamoto received a letter from his daughter, an elementary school student. Naturally, his daughter always said "have a nice day" to her father as he left for work each day. That said, it seems that the Twitterer couldn't help but be surprised at the contents of his daughter’s letter:

"To my father. Thank you for going to such a dreadful university for me every day."

Yamamoto noted:

"I got a letter from my daughter. First of all, please tell where she got this impression!"

For some reason, the young girl thought her father hated working at his university. Yamamoto wondered, "Where did this come from?"

By the way, Yamamoto’s daughter was absent from her elementary school the day she wrote that letter. Maybe she was projecting some of her own feelings as she took some much-needed time off...

By - Luke Mahoney.

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