VOX POPULI: The future value of a moment frozen in time

It is quite rare to find amber, which is the fossilized resin of pine and other trees, with insects trapped inside.

While leafing through a collection of photos of this type of amber, I came across one with two ants. One appears to be biting the other from behind. What transpired here? Was it a failed attempt to rescue a fellow ant that got stuck in resin tens of millions of years ago?

Those photos show many other insects that became trapped forever in sticky resin. A crane fly cut off its leg in a vain attempt to free itself. Copulating flies also got trapped.

So amber fossils like these that survive are like natural time capsules. The thrill of finding them must be great.

On Sunday, former students of Kodaira municipal No. 3 elementary school in Kodaira, a Tokyo suburb, opened a time capsule that they buried in the school yard in 1980 to commemorate the centennial of the school's establishment.

Some of the former students who gathered for the grand alumni reunion were accompanied by their children, who now attend the same school. As I saw parents and children heartily sing the same school song, I felt the passage of time.

One of the compositions referred to ohajiki and ayatori (cat's cradle) as "our games." Ohajiki is a game traditionally played by girls using small discs of glass. Many children drew pictures of Doraemon, which was popular at the time as it is today.

One child added a footnote, "It is a popular television manga character," apparently thinking the program would not last long.

"We could not imagine how things would be in 30 years. It was just like a world depicted in the 'Doraemon' stories," said Kenta Takemata, 41, head of the organizing committee.

Takemata and his classmates, sixth-graders at the time, made engravings of their memories of a school camp.

One of them showed three girls in pajamas posing on a futon for a photo. I heard the creator has passed on to a world where invitations can't be reached. Time is sometimes harsh.

After the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, two time capsules with the same contents were buried. One is to be opened and interred again at the end of each century, while the other is to be kept intact for 5,000 years after the expo.

While the idea sounds fantastic, 50 years is a more reasonable limit. I think time capsules are meaningful when they can be opened by the people who buried them. After all, amber that remains buried does not tell us anything.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 4

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.