On August 1, 2011, four and a half months after the March 11 earthquake, the port town of Kesennuma in northeastern Japan counts 1'000 dead residents, and 417 missing.
The town still runs 36 evacuation centers, where people who survived the earthquake, tsunami, and fire continue to live in humid and hot community halls, schools, or gyms without any privacy.
The city has been building 3'400 units of temporary housing (including those still under construction)- small barracks into which people can move once they have drawn the right ticket in the lottery for these units. The application deadline for the barracks was July 12. Considering that about 13'000 homes in the town of Kesennuma were either washed away, destroyed, or partly destroyed, the number of temporary housing units is far from sufficient for all evacuees.
From July 10, the supply of food and other necessities for daily life to people who do not live in evacuation centers was stopped. Some needy people had no other choice than to move back into one of the evacuation centers in order to receive food.
Towns and villages over several hundred kilometers along the Sanriku Coast on the Pacific Ocean in northeastern Japan have been swallowed by the tsunami. The battered coast now looks the same over endless distances.
Kesennuma suffered the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and fire. Two huge fires broke out in which many people perished. Many homes and factories were burnt to ash.
The hoyaboya character: a symbol of recovery
Everybody in Kesennuma knows him. He is a symbol of this fishery town's strong will to recover and thrive again. With a saury as a sword, a scallop as a belt, and a cap that resembles a hoya or sea squirt, he courageously rides on a shark.
＜ホヤ・ボーヤ＞
Visiting Tohoku as a tourist:
Many people who travel to Kesennuma work as volunteers: They cook in evacuation centers, clean mud from homes, or organize events for children. Thanks to the kindness of the local people, SWTJ volunteers can stay in an abandoned school in the hills of Kesennuma during their support trips in the area. Other volunteers who travel to Tohoku stay in so-called volunteer villages where they can camp.
Members of SWTJ on their way to Tohoku
Children in Tohoku help paint and decorate the SWTJ transportation bus
However, slowly the hotel and pension business in the area has started to come back. So there is yet another possibility to help the area: if cooking for hundreds or cleaning out mud of houses is not your thing, you can still support the ailing local economy by using its services.
Anyone who hopes for a quick recovery of the disaster area can personally help by coming as a tourist to the region and using money here. A steady flow of people and money is essential for the region to recover. It may sound sarcastic to encourage people to be tourists in the disaster area, but it is important that people come and look at the mountains of debris that still cover the disaster area-- simply because it is just not possible to imagine the extension of the damage without actually seeing it. People, homes, shops, and factories were simply washed away. Those remaining have lost whole neighborhoods, all infrastructure, and every lifeline. Without seeing the damage, we easily forget about the fate of the survivors.
I encourage everybody to come and stay, to travel, eat, drink and buy in Tohoku. Recovery here is slow, but little by little hotels, pensions, restaurants, shops, and boutiques are reopening. Let's support them by using them!
Here is some information on hotels or businesses in Kesennuma that have reopened:
Kesennuma Tourism Association:
Text: Yamanaka Junpei (Head of SWTJ Kyoto Office)
(Edited for the English version by B.Y.)
