Anna Umemiya, the daughter of the late Tatsuo Umemiya and a celebrity who announced that she has stage 3A breast cancer, appeared on the ABEMA program "Women Who Can't Be Damned" on December 20th. The program followed Anna and her family closely after her mastectomy.
At the beginning of the program, the camera goes to Anna's stylish home where she is currently battling breast cancer. In the living room, her favorite photos from a nude photobook she published with her ex-boyfriend 25 years ago are displayed, but she says, "I don't remember him. It's been 25 years."
Anna said that the most shocking thing about her battle with cancer was losing her hair, which is a woman's lifeblood, as a side effect of chemotherapy. "The moment I washed my hair with shampoo, it fell out in clumps," she said of the side effects of losing her hair. Her mother, Claudia, expressed her heartbreak at seeing her daughter's sadness, saying, "I felt like, why not me?" However, Anna is looking forward and reveals a positive attitude, saying, "I'm going to stop showing my hair loss. I'm going to find a way to make it look more realistic by making a nice wig. I thought that's what I should show."
Anna's only daughter, Momoka, returned to Japan from the U.S. after learning that her mother had breast cancer. Momoka, who had established a life in the U.S., expressed concern that she would have to start from scratch again when she returned here, but explained the reason for her return by saying, "Even over there, I would just keep thinking about it and nothing would be fun anymore. I would just keep thinking about it."
During the close-up coverage, Anna Umemiya underwent surgery to remove her right breast and lymph nodes from her armpits, and was hospitalized for eight days. When Anna returned home from the hospital, she was greeted by a surprise balloon art decoration by Momoka. Anna was overwhelmed with emotion and cried, saying, "What?! I had no idea...!"
When asked why she decided to announce her breast cancer, Anna said it was because she grew up watching her father, Tatsuo, as she watched him. "When I was in elementary school, my father had lung cancer and he would give lectures all the time," she said. "He would talk about his experiences and people would gather around him. Even though I was young, I thought that was cool."
She said she began to think, "I want to do something for other people," and revealed her thoughts, "I hope that I can give hope to just one person, by making them think, 'This is what you can do even at Stage 3A,' or 'Anna is doing this.'"
