In September 2019, the mayor of Fukuoka, Japan, made a pilgrimage to see Kane Tanaka at her nursing home. She was 116 years old then and fielded questions from a gaggle of reporters with the cocky confidence of a prizefighter.
What, they asked, was the secret to living so long?
“Being myself,” she said.
Happiest moment?
“Now!”
Best diet for staying healthy?
“Appreciate anything I eat.” She had developed a taste for chocolate and Coca-Cola on an American military base and regularly consumed fizzy drinks for a half-century.
When Ms. Tanaka died last week at 119, not far from the now-shuttered base in the southern city of Fukuoka, she was the world’s oldest person and had lived seven years longer than the oldest American veteran of World War II.
