April
Photos: Funakoshi, Ogatsu town, Ishimaki city, Miyagi prefecture
The third mission out of Kyoto started heading for the Ogatsu peninsula, near Ishimaki city, on April 11.
On the way, we discovered the overwhelming destruction while we were driving along the coastline. There were trace-marks where the tsunami had come up to the mountain. The houses and other buildings of these coastal areas were all gone. Hideous scenes continued even when we came away from the coastal areas and into the valley. We could really feel how fearful the tsunami had been.
As we went through the ruins and rubble, we found the remains of a fisherman’s village called Funakoshi and a lone villager. Most of the surviving villagers had evacuated to the Osu Elementary School (about 200 evacuees), or left the area to stay elsewhere, but there were still about ten villagers remaining in five houses. One couple had decided to stay in the village, even though their children had gone to Sendai because they were too scared to look at the sea. They believe that if they keep making efforts to restore the village, their children will be able to come back whenever they want. There was no electricity and not enough fruit and vegetables, but they told us that there were enough supplies to sustain life. We gave them miso, umeboshi, sake, and yatsuhashi (soybean paste for soups, pickled plums, white liquor and sweet soft rice cakes) from Kyoto.
These villagers took only an optimistic, forward-looking attitude. We would really like to support them.
May
On May 5, we finally met one of the leaders of Funakoshi, Mr. Koichi Nakazato, and he explained some things to us about the current state of the village. There were twenty-six people still living in the village, and the electricity was to be restored on May 10. The water supply was not yet restored, but there was spring water to drink. Since the road had been repaired, they were able to go shopping again. Nakazato-san is a fisherman specializing in salmon (sake). He told us what he saw from a hill and how the tsunami swallowed the whole village. There were more than a hundred fishing vessels docked or out at sea, but the tsunami took them all away. They really need volunteers who can help with cleaning up the village, and especially extra hands to repair the boats in order to recommence their working lives. They were also very concerned about the explosion of Fukushima nuclear plant. He gave us a swordfish beak, and a Japanese glass fishing-float as a gift, even though we declined the offer again and again, he insisted. He wanted to let people know how much he appreciated such a lot of support after the earthquake.
After receiving a phone call from Nakazato-san, we went to Funakoshi village again on May 16. He showed us around the village and told us more stories about what had happened at the time the earthquake and tsunami hit. There were 9 lives lost out of 350 villagers. Young people had helped elders, and also delivered blankets and food to an emergency evacuation area, a shrine at the top of a mountain. One person, who had a key for one of the evacuation centers, instantly realised that the center was too low to remain safe in the face of such an enormous wave, and shouted to others to go up to a higher place. A monk, who had stayed in a temple that had also been one of the designated evacuation centers, was swept away.
One villager, who lost his son’s family, said, “At first I didn’t want to see the awful sea again, but now I want to live in the same wind and the same season as my son’s family. I’m going to concentrate all my energies on recovery. I don’t wish for anything more than before. After I suffered loss, I learned the importance of family, my boat, friends, and the former abundance of Funakoshi. I want to live fully again. Although the sea is hateful, we’ve tremendously benefitted from it. I want to live with the sea again.”
All the villagers are truly committed to working for the reconstruction towards recovery and they asked us to help them with networking and ideas.
As of May 26, fifteen out of eighteen rescued boats were found to be useable, if only they could get some repairs. The villagers contacted us each time they found out something new about the sea: “the sea is more beautiful than we thought”, “sea-food has been growing well”, and so on. They are true fishermen. They have been spending most of their time cleaning up the beach or the land.
Robert Mangold (a carpenter from Kyoto who set up IDRO Japan), has been collaborating with Team Sake and offering assistance to some of the same areas that Team Sake are supporting. He and IDRO volunteers delivered some appliances to the Funakoshi Elementary School (evacuation centre) including refrigerators, 2 washing machines, blow-fans, and microwaves for community use. As the rubble of the school was gradually removed, clean rooms were created one-by-one for volunteers and villagers who might come back from evacuation shelters further afield. Additionally, twenty-nine villagers had started to clean up the rubble and the beach area. They are being paid for their efforts, which is a great relief. As well as the loss of human lives, homes, and material possessions, most survivors here also lost their jobs and have not had much compensation yet.
There were three carpenters present, but they hadn’t yet been able to repair the houses because there were so many other things to do. Visits by volunteer carpenters, both short-term and long-term, would be much appreciated.
June
The day starts around 4:30am for villagers. After their morning work, they have breakfast and finish before 7:00. Around that time, about thirty evacuees arrive by car from other areas: Ishimaki, Tomai, or Sendai. They don’t have houses or any other possessions in Funakoshi. They commute for a couple of hours and help with the clean-up, looking for things and still searching for missing people.
As the time living in evacuation shelters lengthens, it becomes harder to keep the heart together, especially for long-term evacuees who don’t have any easy access to know the situation outside. In Funakoshi, when they closed down an evacuation shelter in the village on April 10, villagers began living at separate locations. At a meeting on April 1, it was decided that meetings for all the villagers would thereforth be held on 1st and 15th of each month. There is no way of knowing how many people will come to each meeting. On June 1, we joined a special meeting aimed at informing everybody of the images of the recovered parts of the village. It also served to ask people for a show-of-hands as to whether they want to live in Funakoshi again or not. The meeting was held on the third floor of the elementary school. A hundred people gathered there. It’s impossible to explain all the details in this blog, but we were at a very important point of their history. There were powerful, touching and grateful scenes of love, but there were also such sad scenes that we couldn’t hold back the tears. More than anything else, we could really experience the nature of humanity and what it is to be human. It was anticipated that there would be many people present again at the next meeting. On the phone, Nakazato-san told us “After the tsunami, there were lots of situations where we saw each other’s bad sides. I don’t think they were caused by humans, but rather by the tsunami. A big tsunami won’t come again. The human heart will return. We don’t want to blame each other again. We just want to live again with everyone”.
On June 6, the natural wakame (seaweed) harvest began. Before the tsunami, there were more than eighty vessels, but this year, everyone shared the available boats and tools. Including two repaired boats, there were now five useable vessels. On June 10, Funakoshi started selling wakame and had good sales on that day. We also started selling excellent quality Funakoshi kombu (kelp) at several shops in Kyoto.
Despite the fact that people have been living at the elementary school, one of the effects of the disaster on March 11 was that the glass in all the windows was shattered and the frames alone could not keep out the elements. The last time Robert (IDRO Japan) was in Funakoshi, he searched for and found frames in the rubble, as well as removed some from the building. In all, he trucked eighteen broken frames back to Kyoto to be repaired. With assistance, he had each window repaired with new glass and as of June 15, we brought back them to the elementary school. Some frames were replaced with blackboards, instead of glass, which will also be very useful. By mid June, the school had been cleaned up and repaired using recycled materials from the rubble. It looked very stylish. We attended a meeting there, at which a Team Sake-introduced architect brought a 3D-model of Funakoshi. It acts as a tool to help construct the future village. As humans, we always want to reach our goals quickly, but it is important to think, share and listen to opinions, and then to think again.
As of June 30, we collected \400,000 in donations (within a day of our announcement!) in order to purchase necessary fishing tools. Thank you all very much. Since most of the boats and fishing tools in Funakoshi were swept away, we were able to assist by buying the equipment listed below and could send them directly to the village.
fishermen’s waterproof coats \11,700×20=\234,000
knives \2,600×30=\78,000
boots \5,000×14=\70,000
scissors for cutting ropes \3,410×10=\34,100
arm covers \1,050×10=\10,500
Here is the Funakoshi village blog
“Path toward recovery in Funakoshi”
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/funakoshi-ogatsu/
Please keep checking out “VILLAGERS’ NEEDS.”
