On 29 November 2011, I visited again the temporary housing in Natori City, located near Mitazono Station, built for the victims of the 3/11 tsunami disaster, lived in Kitagama town around Sendai Airport. A night before, I met one of the leaders from volunteer organization called Tomodachi in Natori, Mrs.Wakayama, to talk about what I could do as a volunteer. She requested me to write about what I had seen that day in Watari town. That night, when I was typing in front of a computer, a lady sitting next to me, in front of another computer, was watching videos of the disaster day. She showed me a video taken from inside the airport, where she was during the doom day. I could see the tsunami wave came, bringing houses, cars and boats, washing away cars in the airport parking area. People of Kitagama town who had succeeded arriving in the airport survived the disaster while others not, her husband and her father were two of them. At first, I felt less sympathy with the lady since I thought it would be much better if she stopped watching the stressful videos and moved on with the new life, but later on, I was informed that the lady was just able to watch the video at the first time that night after she recovered from the trauma.
I arrived about 10 in the morning and continued writing what I had started previous day. A man, working with his computer was sitting nearby, with Mrs.Wakayama, preparing reports on the temporary housings condition in Natori City. Since he had difficulties with the computer, he asked me to help him. People survival of the disaster living in the temporary housing came to the community hall where we were, to talk and socialize. Tomodachi in Natori, helped them to ease the trauma, not only by supplying materials, but to be with them to help them heal spiritually. The wall of the community hall was decorated by various things sent from all over the countries, with encouraging words.
At noon, I was invited to have lunch together. Mrs.Wakayama tried to prepare wafels for everybody. Though she failed to make perfect shape of ones, the wafel tasted delicious. Another lady brought good Japanese pickles. A volunteer came from Amamiohsima, in the far south of Japan joined the lunch. She was a nurse and had been there volunteering for several months already. I felt the warmth during the lunch, the warmth that was required to heal the victims' trauma.
After the lunch, Mrs.Wakayama, with others, took me to a drive to see the tsunami affected area. The man who worked with the computer, drove us around, first to his city, Kitagama, near the Sendai Airport, and then to Yuriage town, which was worst destroyed by the tsunami. The view was quite depressing since barely the cities were destroyed to the ground. Most of the areas had been cleared up and the ruins were collected and piled up into hills in the designated area. However, I could see still few damaged cars and ships on the fields. I could see some damaged houses and schools and temples. Those were of the few could stand still during the tsunami.
We stopped and climbed up a small hill. On the hill, there were signs of shrines, and there were flowers for the dead. We could see large area of nothing but remains of foundations. The whole city was destroyed by the water. Gravestones from the cemeteries were collected and put into order by the name for the family to collect. By the sea, breakwater stones and pine tress, which had been there to protect were not there anymore, except few. We could see a school where during the tsunami, the children were evacuated on the rooftop, some were trauma to see the dead bodies flowing with the sea water. I had a chat with a man working as a traffic controller near the hill who lost his wife when she was going out for work with her car. He now had to raise their three children himself.
Before returning to our base temporary housing, we stopped by in a temporary building called Town Cafe, where people who were not living in the temporary housing could come to get some support, or to just socialize. Volunteer organization ran the place. Things such as clothes and snacks received from many places, were distributed here to the people in need. It was written on the wall that each person could take up to five items.
Back to our base temporary housing, I continued helping the man with the reports. The man kindly took me back to Natori station after our session finished. The old man had lived with his three sons after his wive left him 10 years ago. He had been a farmer of melon and vegetables. But after the tsunami, it was impossible to grow anything since the land became salty and so was the underground water. As a victim, he was entitled to live in the temporary housing for 2 years and get financial support for 1 year. But he still had no idea what to do after all the support ended. Nine months have passed after the doom day, but it takes many years for the survivals to recover from the trauma and the losts, and to get back on their feet to live their new lives.
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| Damaged cars on the yard |
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| Cars still remained on the field |
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| Ship still remained on the field |
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| Few stood still |
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| Putting the gravestones in order |
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| The shrine signs on the hill |
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| Hard to imagine there was a city full of house here before |
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| The flowers on the hill, and (behind) the piles of the ruins |
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| The Town Cafe ran by the volunteers |
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| A ship still laid down by the fixed road and electrical poles |
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