Junko Tabei: She became the first woman to climb the Mount Everest in 1975
Google today honoured Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei her 80th birthday with a doodle. Junko Tabei was the first Japanese woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and also the first woman to climb the highest peak on every continent.
Born in 1939, Junko Tabei was raised in Miharu, a small town in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture. Her love from climbing began when, at age 10, she went on a class trip to Mount Nasu. As a mother of two in 1969, she founded Japan's first Ladies Climbing Club which was to defy the notion that women are supposed to stay indoors.
In 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb the Mount Everest. She, however, preferred to be remembered as the 36th person to climb the world's highest peak. "I did not intend to be the first woman on Everest," she once said.
After successfully ascending the summit, she was honoured by Japan's Emperor, Crown Prince and Princess. Junko Tabei love mountain climbing much more than the media attention she received. She After Everest, she went on to climb the highest peak on each continent -- Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, and Puncak Jaya. She eventually reached mountaintops in 76 different countries.
Google, with its doodle, shows a graph along with seven ice-capped mountains, depicting the "seven summits". An animated Junko Tabei is seen hopping across the mountains in the doodle.
In 2012, Junko Tabei was diagnosed with peritoneal cancer. Despite her illness, she kept her passion to scale new heights alive. She died in a hospital in Kawagoe on 20 October 2016.