April
We first visited the Nishiyama family on April 21. Walking along a muddy path, we saw a house in the distance and smoke coming from a chimney. Then, we saw a sign which read “Nishiyama Evacuation Center”, there in the midst of such deep, extensive rubble.
On the night of March 11 when the earthquake and tsunami struck, the Nishiyama family heard people’s voices from the mountain above their house. They went up to the mountain and saw about 30 people evacuating to the mountain, so they invited them into their home. Though the Nishiyama’s house was also flooded and damaged, they all spent the first 3 days together there. They could see piles of rubble in the neighborhood, and in the fields, a few upper parts of houses with the lower parts gone.
About 10 people are still staying at the Nishiyama’s house. Donations of basic survival goods, such as food, seasoning, and daily commodities are appreciated. The villagers appreciate alcohol, too. We were told that a man who doesn’t usually drink had had some alcohol to warm his body up as it was just too cold to fall asleep. There are no shops around the house. Access to electricity was restored just the day before we arrived (April 20). There is still no water supply. They have been getting water from water trucks or from people staying here who have been bringing it in for them. As the electricity returned back to normal, they were able to start using a well for their water supply.
The massive tsunami waves wiped out the roads, so the only way for us to go back was on the same road we had taken to get there. 30 people are still missing. Even though the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) have come to search for them, no-one has been found yet. Male villagers are also helping them. The Nishiyama’s fed us sweet-red bean soup with rice cakes, sent by their family friend, and pickles, too. The local fishermen really thanked us for visiting from so far away, and asked us to give our contact information to the Nishiyamas so they could send us some fish when they started fishing again.
May
When the Team 4 Mission had visited them in April, even though one month had already passed since the earthquake, they didn’t have enough basic necessities such as blankets. Since the last diary entry, the Nishiyama family has been receiving a lot of relief goods from all over Japan because of the extended efforts of Team Sake’s networks. Thank you all for your support.
The Team 5M Mission left Kyoto and headed to Hakozaki Peninsula on the night of May 2. On May 3, the traffic was slow on the Tohoku highway due to the Golden Week National Holiday. We finally arrived at the Nishiyama’s house at 11:30am. Nishiyama-san welcomed us and introduced us to her daughter’s and son’s families who were visiting them.
As we had phoned her ahead of our arrival, and knew what was needed in the village, we started clearing rubble as soon as we got there. When we were preparing to start working, we met one of the volunteers who’d been helping out. He told us that only 45 out of 275 houses had remained in Hakozaki village. Although he was volunteering mostly with the police dogs, on that particular day he was searching for missing people with the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). He was appreciative of us coming from afar and wanted to introduce us to everyone at the evacuation center. The JSDF and/or other support vehicles were clearing houses and rubble. As Children’s Day National Holiday was coming up on May 5, a large number of flying carp streamers (koinobori ) were seen in Hakozaki as well as in many other villages.
After one hour of work, Nishiyama-san prepared lunch for us, whereby we gave her alcohol and Kyoto sweets in return. While having lunch, we saw the remains of unstable houses being taken down. Some people were watching their houses being cleared away, while others were looking for things in the rubble. We talked to a couple who were visiting the hometown from Tokyo. They told us that they didn’t know what else to do but just look on at what was happening.
Cleaning up the rubble was tougher than expected. Some timber was wet and too heavy to move single-handedly. We cleared one block and ended the day’s work at 4pm. We went out to the east side of the village to see some other villagers. We talked to some women and it seemed like people were now receiving enough supplies. After giving a cooking pot and some pepper to them, we talked to the leader of the village. He said that food was being sufficiently supplied and appreciated all the support from all over Japan.
This is an article on a volunteer working in Hakozaki village.
The Mainichi Daily News, May 18, 2011
“Trainee Police-dog “Clala” finds Six Bodies with her Amazing Nose.”
Nobuaki Konno from Hakozaki village in Kamaishi city has been searching for missing people with his police dog in training and found 6 villagers. “Thanks to her nose!” he says.
On May 11, Mr.Konno was driving home from work when he saw the approaching tsunami waves. He turned around straightaway and was able to escape from them. His house was safe as it was on a hill, yet he still evacuated to his friend’s house.
As they were on hills, 45 houses were safe out of 275 in the entire village. As of May 16, 49 villagers have been confirmed dead and 22 villagers are still missing. Mr.Konno started searching for villagers 5 days after the earthquake. On March 18, 12 of his friends and their police-dogs from both inside and outside Iwate prefecture joined him.
Since 1983, Mr.Konno has been engaged in police investigations and in missing person searches as a police-dog trainer. He just lost the police-dog he’d had for 5 years, and had to search with one-year-old Clala who is still in training. He told Clala to look for villagers and when she could smell something she barked or pawed the ground. He then wrote “Dog” as a sign for the JSDF to search the spot further.
Mr.Konno lost his job with the company he worked with for 40 years because it was damaged by the earthquake. However, he helped in the search for missing people and contacted their families. He is now employed to help clean the affected areas. “I appreciate all the friends I’ve met as a police-dog trainer and all the police-dogs, including Clala.”
June
We would like to introduce some articles on Hakozaki village.
The Mainichi Daily News, June 24, 2011
“Citizens’ Future Town Building Plans in Four Villages of the Hakozaki Peninsula.”
Survivors in 4 villages of the Hakozaki Peninsula (Kamaishi City jurisdiction) have started working together on future town building plans which consider minimization of potential damage from natural disasters. After the earthquake, the road that connects the peninsula to the city center was cut off and the peninsula became isolated. They are discussing the possibility of building new roads which connect the 4 areas on the peninsula. “We would like to assemble ideas on the peninsula and tell the government,” they say. At the time of the disaster, “there was no means to contact the city, and it wasn’t until three days after the earthquake that I could make contact.” “I’m afraid that villagers will not come back to the peninsula.”
On June 6, 20 representatives of each village in the Hakozaki Peninsula (Ryoishi, Nehama, Hakozaki and Kuwanohama) gathered in a junior high school in Kamaishi City. It was the first gathering after the earthquake and they pointed out some problems regarding disaster prevention.
A 19m-high tsunami wave hit the Ryosei Bay area. About 200 villagers died and all the fishing grounds were destroyed. A part of the road along the coast was devastated and each village was temporarily isolated. The famous Negishi beach lost its sandy foreshore due to the ground sinking into the sea.
Mr. Matsumoto from Ryoishi village had called for people to participate in that meeting on June 6. Villagers had been discussing how to reconstruct their village since March, but he thought it best that all the villages in the peninsula should co-operate together.
At the first meeting, all the villages agreed to build another road in the mountainous area. They also discussed how villagers living in shelters could come back to the villages as soon as possible, and how beach-focused reconstruction should commence. Mr. Matsumoto says “I was a little bit nervous how the meeting would be, but found out that all the villages’ stances were the same. I would like to have some more meetings and gather opinions.”
The Mainichi Daily News, June 20, 2011
“280 Flying Carp Streamers in Hakozaki, Iwate, Symbolize Everyone’s Wishes for All Villagers to Return.”
Responding to the calls by some volunteers, 280 carp streamers (koinobori) were gathered in Hakozaki and hung up on the roof terrace of the old Hakozaki Elementary School.
Before the earthquake there were 280 houses here, yet 90% were swept away by tsunami waves and only 70 people remain living in the village.
A local fisherman, Akihiro Nishiyama, suggested putting carp streamers up to send the message to the missing villagers to come back; koi has two meanings in Japanese - “carp” and “come”. Seiichi Watanabe, who visited the village in May as a volunteer, wrote about Mr. Nishiyama’s idea on an online message board, asking people to send carp streamers to the village for free.
A cheer arose from the villagers when those colorful carps were hung up. There were messages from the senders on some. One was, “I hope that this carp that was flying in the sky in Saitama Prefecture will fly in the North and watch over the reconstruction.” Gazing up into the sky, Mr. Nishiyama said, “I was feeling sorrow but it’s gone now thanks to everyone’s encouragement.”
Excite News, June 8, 2011
“Comic Artists (mangaka) Volunteer in Affected Area.”
From May 26~28, mangaka volunteered in Hakozaki village, Iwate Prefecture clearing rubble. As we are known to be night people, it was surprising that all the mangaka participants gathered at 5:50 a.m. at a hotel lobby in Morioka City. It took over 2 hours to drive from Morioka City to the volunteer center in Kamaishi City.
In Kamaishi City, we saw a temporary used car store set-up in the car park of a ramen shop. It was hardly surprising, considering the great number of cars which had been swept away by the tsunami waves in a suburban city where people had relied so much on cars. The primary school play ground was being used as the Self Defense Force base; dark green cars were all parked in row. Leisure facilities by the sea were being used as storage buildings for relief goods. The inhabitants seemed to be trying their best to reconstruct the village using whatever was left there.
While driving on, we sometimes saw messages hung up by locals, stating “Thank you for your support”, “Never give up!” or “We appreciate your encouragement.”
A while later, we got to an apple farmer’s house that was in a closed-off section of the bay in Hakozaki. That area had also been affected by the tsunami and most of the houses had been swept away. Luckily, the apple farmer’s house was on a hill and had escaped damage. However, the house was trapped in by mountains behind it, and by piles of rubble by the sea in front of it, isolated from the outside world for two weeks. Even after the clean-up of the rubble by the sea, relief goods continued to be in short supply, so they were living off the food sent by relatives.
Rubble by the sea had been cleaned up using heavy equipment, but as yet their apple fields still required attention. Since they’re on a higher elevation and there is rubble in between the trees, it is difficult for heavy equipment to gain access. Villagers have to clean the rubble away by hand and they lacked the manpower. We came here for this reason.
Through this work, we saw the wreckage brought on by the tsunami close at hand for the first time: concrete, mortar, parts of broken houses, smashed glass and wood. Wires were coming out of pieces of concrete and rusted nails were sticking out of bits of timber. We had to wear rubber gloves over normal gloves and put iron plates in our boots.
We had to move the wreckage to a place where heavy equipment could come in. Us mangaka usually don’t carry anything heavier than a pen, but we were working so hard. Among the rubble, things one could feel had made up the villagers lives were blended in together: photos, letters, bankbooks, certificates… Those things should not be thrown away as it may be possible to find out who the owners are at a later date.
We don’t remember how long we were working for but in the late afternoon, the dusk settled. It was not perfectly clean, but for us, desk workers, we did quite well. We will never forget the sweetness of the food offered to us by the apple farmer’s family.
