Japan’s helpful history of masks

■ We docked in Shimizu, a town in Japan, in February 1969 on board the Irish Ash with a cargo of soya bean from Texas. Our first day ashore in this beautiful oriental town was so exciting for us young fellows who had never been to the Far East before.

The sights and sounds and strange smells from open-fronted shops and stalls selling fresh food of every description. The exotic aroma from restaurants and street stalls selling food was mouth-watering. The people with their colourful clothing and wooden shoes, the rickshaws and bicycles, and bustling women carrying children on their backs — a world of magic and beauty. Many people wore face masks and I thought was there some sickness doing the rounds? It didn’t seem to be smog of the London or Manchester kind.

That evening at dinner on board ship, the Japanese ship’s agent was dining in our saloon so we asked him why so many people wore face masks? He said it was to prevent the spread of flu or colds and coughs — and people didn’t have to wear them but it was in consideration of others that they did so.

Roll on 61 years and we have a big debate about face masks — and still we haven’t accepted that they are helpful in preventing the spread of this virus.

John Molloy,

William St, Waterford