Machiko Taniguchi, who lost her husband in the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet, spoke in July directly to young JAL employees involved in flight safety, her first such opportunity since the tragedy.

¡°The safety of the skies rests on your eyes and your hands,¡± she told them.

A week later, Taniguchi, 77, climbed to the crash site on Osutaka Ridge in the village of Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, and stood before the memorial marker for her husband. ¡°I told him I had asked them to make sure the same accident never happens again,¡± she said.