My 9/11 story is mostly a reporter story. I was working in New York for NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster. News reporters generally don’t get in particularly early. I did. On September 11, 2001, I was the first one in the office, around 8:40 a.m. Six minutes later, the first plane hit the North Tower. I remember squinting at the small monitors lining the office wall, trying to understand what I was looking at. A small plane? An accident? I called the only friend I had who worked downtown. Thankfully, he hadn’t left for work yet. Our most experienced cameraman arrived just after 9. Together we watched the second plane hit at 9:03. Within minutes, we grabbed our gear and were out the door. This was 2001. No smartphones, no social media, no ubiquitous live streaming. Information was fragmentary. If we wanted to know what was happening downtown, we had to go downtown. The first cabbie refused to take us. We found another who would. We made it to Canal Street and Sixth Avenue. By then, a steady stream of people was heading north on foot, away from Lower Manhattan. We faced south with our camera while almost everyone else was moving north. We interviewed people as they passed, asking what they had seen and recording their stories. I remember the fear etched on their faces. There was something voyeuristic about pointing a camera at people who were scared and fleeing. But that was the job. At 9:59, the South Tower fell. At 10:28, the North Tower followed. Shell-shocked and mostly silent, we reversed course uptown to the bureau. We had footage and interviews that needed to get to Tokyo. I worked the rest of the day and eventually walked home late that night. There wasn’t much sleeping. I was an early-to-work person before September 11, and I still am. In a way, I was lucky to be at my desk at 8:40 that morning. So many of the other early risers that day, already at their desks in the World Trade Center or aboard early flights out of Boston, were not. I often think about the nearly 3,000 souls we lost that morning, and the extraordinary bravery of so many who ran toward the danger. The U.S. stock markets traditionally observe a moment of silence at 9:25 a.m. on September 11. Tomorrow, I’d be grateful if you would join us in remembering them. 🇺🇸