Simon Boas: How I learned to accept my death

Read the letter in full A Beginner’s Guide to Dying by Simon Boas My favourite bit of understatement ever comes not from a Brit or a Spartan but from the Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In August 1945, following Japan’s defeats in every recent battle and the obliteration of two cities with nuclear bombs, he broadcast that “the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage”. First of all, I take comfort from the thought that I’ve had a really good – almost charmed – life. And if the book of my life is shorter than many modern people’s, it doesn’t make it any less of a good read. In fact, there are so many bits of extraordinarily unlikely good luck that have occurred just for us to be born, that it’s like hitting the jackpot every day of the year.