Billed as “the largest fireworks display in history,” a barrage of 850,000 shells stained the skies over Washington on July 4 with an almost preposterous brightness—a celebration of 250 years of American independence.

By comparison, Tokyo’s annual Sumida River Fireworks Festival, the capital’s best-known traditional display, sends up roughly 20,000 shells. That alone gives some measure of how far the Washington spectacle exceeded ordinary scale.

What passes through the mind as one gazes up at fireworks?

“I am the living death, the Memorial Day on wheels. I am your Yankee Doodle Dandy, your John Wayne come home, your Fourth of July firecracker exploding in the grave.”

So........

© The Asahi Shimbun