KESENNUMA Before and After . . . and 6 months after

Before the earthquake and tsunami.

 

After on the same street as above.

It is painful to see the images above, but there is recovery happening. Six months after the tsunami, the mountains of rubble on the sides of the street are now gone--cleared by faithful workers and volunteers who are bringing order, healing, and life back to the city. The work is not finished, but progress is being made. Please keep praying for Kesennuma.

The Lost is Found

This 81 year old woman went through a more traumatic experience than most of us could ever imagine. On the day of the earthquake and tsunami, she left her home and tried to seek safe shelter. She made her way to the third floor rooftop of a building where she watched as the tsunami pushed into the first two floors of the building she was in. The nursing home next to the building she was in was completely engulfed and all in it drowned.


As day turned to night, she watched as the sea that was filled with oil from the hundreds of cars that had been tossed like toys by the tsunami became an ocean of fire. She watched as a gas station caught fire and exploded beyond them. She spent 2 days with a handful of other survivors on top of that building before being brought to an evacuation center in a gymnasium. Her son walked the devastated area looking for her. At the evacuation center, she was in shock and couldn't ask her rescuers to help her get to her son. Finally her son found her in the evacuation center and brought her to their new home--the Hotel Boyo. The home that they had lived in was gone. After that she spent 1 month in the hospital getting blood transfusions and recovering from bleeding ulcers and PTSD caused by the stress of her terrible ordeal.


My husband and I had the honor of being with her and her family when they went for the first time to a gymnasium where volunteers had painstakingly gathered many personal items they found after the tsunami. Six months had passed and she never expected to find any traces of the items that had been washed away and burned on March 11th. But as we walked through the hundreds of small items and photos lovingly restored by volunteers, her son suddenly said "Here! Look!" As we gathered around we were all astounded to find there was her father-in-law's memorial plaque. She cried and hugged the plaque saying "You came back to me. You came back to me."


The volunteers had carefully labeled every item they found with a number, the location of where it was found, and the numbers of any other items found at the same location. The woman also found an intact photograph of her 70th birthday celebration. Lost treasures found.

Hiro the Hero and the other Boyo Boys (and girls!)

Hiro is an amazing young man who had passed through Kesennuma 3 years earlier on a bicycle tour around Japan. Hiro’s bicycle tour was not your average cross country cycling excursion. Hiro and his friends set out on “mama-chari” bicycles (not the type of bicycles intended for cross country travel—see photo)　to protest global warming . ( see their adventure here→　http://greenz.jp/mamachari_toyako/ ). They rode all over Japan on their bicycles and on the day they passed through Kesennuma they met the lovely Mrs. Kato who let them stay for free at the Hotel Boyo. After sleeping outside throughout their tour, Hiro and his friends had found heaven at the Hotel Boyo where they slept in clean soft futons for the first time in weeks.

mama chari

After meeting Mrs. Kato, Hiro kept in touch with her by exchanging New Year’s greeting cards each year. Little did they know that their next face to face meeting would be after the worst natural disaster in Japan’s recent history.  When the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11^th, Hiro tried to contact Mrs. Kato, but couldn’t get a connection for days. However, Hiro did not give up and finally was able to talk to Mrs. Kato on the phone. Hiro wanted to go and help, but Mrs. Kato said “No, it is too dangerous. Stay where you are safe.” But Hiro would not take no for an answer. He went to Kesennuma and started working alongside the Katos at the Hotel Boyo which had become a makeshift evacuation site for more than 50 people who had lost their homes. 

Hiro was scheduled to start a new job in Australia in April, but he contacted his employers and asked them to wait, saying “there is something I have to do.”  That “something” was to stay in Kesennuma and work to help the Hotel Boyo and many others recover from the disaster.  Today, more than 6 months later, Hiro is still working in Kesennuma and has welcomed countless friends and even strangers who have appeared at the Hotel Boyo to volunteer.  Along with Hiro, Yusuke who has also been working faithfully in Kesennuma since he arrived one week after Hiro, Pokemon who is a university student, Ike-chan a young craftsman, and Nomaguchi-kun a medical student from Kyushu have all been working for Kesennuma. And these are just the heroes that I met, there are countless others who have left their lasting mark on the hearts of the Kato family and the community.

Less Than Zero

This was a neighborhood. After removal of the ruins, there is nothing left.

We were welcomed like family members by Mr. and Mrs. Kato, the owners of the Hotel Boyo where we stayed.  They shared their friendship and hospitality with us and gave us much more than we were able to give them through our simple volunteer efforts. The Katos are heroes who survived the disaster and also saved the lives of others as they mourned the loss of the life they once knew. They lost their family home and everything in it to the tsunami and to the fire that followed. During our stay they taught us many things about the situation now in Kesennuma. 

One of the most shocking things to me was to learn that all of the people who lost their homes in the tsunami are still being forced to continue paying the loans on houses they will never see or live in again. It is understandable that the banks need to be repaid for the loans they made, however it is not within reason for them to expect these people who have lost everything—including jobs—to continue paying them. This is where we need the government of Japan to stand up and say “we will pay—we will help you to get back on your feet.” At present, there has only been a payment of 3,000,000 yen per household (approx. 39,000 US dollars) to those who have lost their homes. However, the home owners are currently paying off loans for nearly 10 times that much money.  Millions of dollars of aid has been sent to Japan from countries all over the world. Where is it now?  These people need financial help. They are currently in a situation where they have less than zero. Can’t we at least bring them up to zero where they can begin to build and have hope for a future? 

Home owners are not allowed to rebuild for 3 years, and don't even know if they will be allowed to rebuild after the 3 year waiting period. The earthquake and tsunami have cause the land to sink and erode leaving much of it still wet or covered in water when the ocean tide is high.

Some people have already committed suicide out of despair from the deep financial hole they have found themselves in. The government should go directly to the banks and pay the loans. The world wants to help the people of Kesennuma and the other devastated areas of Tohoku. Let them help! Please use the money donated to help free the victims of this terrible disaster of their outstanding loans.

Kesennuma

A week ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to visit Kesennuma to do some volunteer work in the earthquake and tsunami stricken Tohoku region of Japan. Six months had passed since the disaster on 3/11/2011, but the devastation was still very clear to see. We stayed at the Hotel Boyo. I would like to share our experience with you through a series of stories. These are the actual stories of people who lived through the 9.0 earthquake and devastating tsunami that followed and the heroes that emerged in response to the disaster.