Japan: Legacy of the Tsunami

Last year at the 2012 Yeosu Expo in Korea, I was able to go to the Japan pavilion and see an animated film story about a boy who lost his parents in the 2011 tsunami and how Japan was rebuilding. After watching I wanted to go to the tsunami region and see for myself but feared getting radiation from the Fukushima meltdown. So I waited a year for things to calm down and went to Japan this past May and headed north by train to the tsunami region.

I went through several devastated small towns like Yamoto and got off at the fishing town of Ishinomaki, about 90 minutes north of Sendai station. Although some coastal areas were completely wiped out, Ishinomaki was recovering. At first I was nervous that the people would perceive me as a foreigner gawking at their suffering, but they were welcoming and seemed glad that a tourist was there.

I was able to walk freely around the town and did not see anything that showed there was a recent disaster. There were restaurants, grocery markets, a tourist museum and displaced middle school students heading to the train station going to alternate schools. Things looked normal, so I headed further into town toward the ocean front. As I got closer to the sea, I came across damaged buildings and homes marked for demolition. Further on some lots were nothing more than a foundation. And on these empty lots were the remnants of people’s lives. I decided to quietly take pictures of what I saw.

I can find more dramatic images on the Internet of destruction or buses and boats resting on rooftops, but it is the small stuff that has more lasting impact for me. Many people drowned in their hometowns or were washed out into the ocean never to be seen again. All that remains is the debris of their past lives.