go nakamura

Tohoku, Japan 9

2011-05-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Onagawa March 31,2011

This gentleman was talking to two other men, maybe talking about business.
Before I took this shot he said to me " I owned ten facilities in this town,
fish processing plant, some office buildings, some warehouses, and some
apartment buildings. Now they are all gone."
Then he laughed. He laughed loud.
From his laugh,I felt resignation that he can't do anything to prevent that,
and his intention not to give up.

Behind them, there were their houses. The couple used to live right behind them, the gentleman on right used to live next door and he lost all his families by tsunami....
They come here to look for remaining stuffs from their houses.

A Japanese Self Defense Force officer.

A platoon of the Self Defense Forces. I tried to talk to one of them,
I said "Are you cleaning the area?" He never reply.
Then I said " Are you trying to search for something" Then he just nodded his head.
They were searching for bodies, and he was not being rude to me, he was being serious to me.

It's a graveyard on a hill about 15 meter above sea level.

They are visiting their auntie's grave.

There are a shelter near by and they are on their way to go back.

This gentleman did not want his face on a photo he said because he is a politician and a little bit famous, sometimes he goes on a TV news.
He travels around the disaster stricken area and report what he sees to the government.
He said he will write something down so take a picture of that instead of his face.
The writing says

"This great earthquake is the first time in millennium. Japanese people do not give up and trying so hard to reconstruct.

April 1,2011 a brave man with no name."

I was actually walking on this road about 2 hours before, now it's under water because of high tide.
They say the costline of Tohoku area , which is about 500 kilometers long, fell in about 2 feet overall the coastline.

Tohoku, Japan 8

2011-05-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

Onagawa March 31, 2011

I entered Onagawa in the morning of March 31 2011.

Onagawa is a small town located just about a mile east from Ishinomaki City, the town is sandwiched between a bay and mauntains
Although Onagawa and Ishinomaki City are right next to each other, situation there are totally different.

When I first saw the town, I was speechless..... whole town was just gone, I could not even image how the town looked like.

There is a good size hospital on top of a hill in the center of the town, now it's a shelter for the victims, I went there first to take a look at the town from higher ground.

A view from top of the hill.

This man was working to control traffic at parking lot of the hospital. He is a local here in Onagawa. After he heard the news that tsunami is coming, he fled to here by driving his car. The hill is about 55 feet higher than sea level so he thought he is going to be ok there but he was wrong. The water came over the hill top so he had to run to second floor of the hospital.
He said he saw everything from the top.
By the time, the parking lot was packed by cars and all washed away, people were still there in some of the cars. You can see some concrete buildings in the back, he said he saw a lot of people on roof top evacuating and after the tsunami they were all gone.....

She was walking with heavy bags in middle of nowhere, well this place used be lots of houses and stores, so I asked where she is going. She said she is on her way back from her relative's house to a shelter. She's got some clothe and stuffs she needs from her relative.

They are a troop from India called NDRF. They said they are not military forces, they are specialized for rescue missions.

The captain of NDRF.
When I was taking this photo, there were about 10 NDRF personnels working behind me on top of rubbles, one of them yelled that they found a human body underneath.

In front of his shop, trying to clean up. He has to work in morning time because this area sank 3 feet by the earthquake, will covered by water when high tide.

Inside of the shop. The shop used be a dealer/maintenance for farm machines.

Salvaging car and debris from seabed.

He said the salvage ship is from Ishinomaki. They have to clean up the seabed so that more bigger ships can come in and out to transport materials.

They evacuated to Sendai City, about 50 miles from Onagawa, came back to town 3 weeks after.
They were grieving that they can not recall how the town was like from it is now after tsunami.

A husband and a wife. Behind them was where the wife's parents' house used to be. Parents are not found yet after 3 weeks.
They come here every day to search for parents' bodies and anything remains from the house for keepsake.
Thay said chances are low to find parents' body near here because they know bodies can travel tens of miles by water flow.
They were shedding tears while they were talking about their stories. Then when I asked for a photo, they smiled at my camera to show they are going to be alright.

Tohoku, Japan 7

2011-04-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki City March 30, 2011

Random pictures in Ishinomaki.

At Minato Elementary School. Used as a shelter now. It's a Teruterubouzu doll. People hang it to wish for a sunny day.

A mountain of canned foods. There was a cannery by the ocean and after the tsunami you could find those canned food anywhere in town.

Making phone calls. Many people were not be able to use their cell phone because they had no way to charge the batteries.

He is off to see a doctor. He said there was a clinic near by but now he has to ride a bike for 40min to get to a hospital.
He said he lost all his family by the tsunami.

In a buddhist temple.

He came to get sea water. I asked him sea water for what, he said to wash dishes and stuff.
They only have enough fresh water to drink.

cleaning up his house. but half of the house was just destroyed.

U.S. Military is giving a big help for Japan.
Operation "Tomodachi"

They were watching the US Military working to help them, kept saying "they are sooo cool!!"
they said they are cousins.

Had fun with kids. They are all so friendly.

They showed me their new Pokemon cards proudly.

Tohoku, Japan 6

2011-04-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki City March 30, 2011

This time I would like to talk about this couple.

On the day I was with Mr. Takahashi, the donkey guy, we had a little time to spare before we go to next shelter so he decide to drive around the town to take me to places I have not been yet.

We found a destroyed hardware store like a Home Depot and we went inside.

The store floor was completely wiped out covered by mud and debris.

The building was a story building and there was parking lot on the roof top.

We found stairs to parking lot, went up stairs, and found a van in the parking lot.

We were going back and forth in parking lot to see if there is anything,

then suddenly the van's door slid open and a lady said "Are you looking for someone?"

We were bit surprised because we thought we were alone.

There are a gentleman too and they are husband and wife. I tried to ask some question to them then they started talk their stories.

They are owners of the inn and the husband is also a fisherman.

When the earthquake struck they heard the siren of tsunami warning so they drove the van to evacuate to this roof top, looked down on the town waiting for tsunami to come hoping not to come of cause, then they found a mother and her little daughter calling for help on second floor of a house. By the time they saw tsunami was coming.

The husband jumped out the hardware store to get them out the house and tried to take them to the hardware store.

He succeeded to rescue the mother and child but he failed to rescue himself.....

The wife actually saw the husband caught by wave and dragged away.

" You know my nickname?" the husband said "people call me Kappa( a legendary monster known for good swimmer) I'm a very good swimmer. But I've learned a lesson that people are helpless in the water flow like that."

He almost got drowned but luckily he found a car tire floating and he clung on to that for his life.

He was dragged for over a half a mile and landed on an apartment building.

He could not move his body because of hypothermia.

The wife said she was ready to admit that the husband might be gone because there were no sign from him for a day and a half.

But he was OK! He came back to the roof top parking lot then they embrace each other firmly.

The husband said, to get out of hypothermic condition he used his own urine to warm up his body.

That was a method he was told by his grandfather long time ago.

Now they are staying in a van during a day and they go to the shelter at night to get food and water.

They said " There are not only bad things about tsunami. Fish breeding was a big industry in this Ishinomaki City and the Environmental Group was pointing out that the industry is polluting the sea by fish food and feces, it became a big problem in Ishinomaki.

But the Tsunami wiped everything away now the water and seabed is very clean.

More fish will come back eventually, Ishinomaki will be better fishing ground."

They also said

"There are no rich and poor anymore, we all came down to zero. Now we have to rise together to reconstruct the town. It's a start over."

At last I asked them for a photo.

Even though they had a terrible experience and they just talked about it to me, they smiled at the camera.

Tohoku people are truly strong.

Tohoku, Japan 5

2011-04-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki City March 30, 2011

On the night of March 29, I went to say thank you to the worker at the shelter again,
then I was walking back to my car to sleep.

Suddenly this guy with a donkey came out from darkness and said "where are you going with that big backpack! "
I asked him " Where ARE you going with that donkey" in my mind.
Then, we started to talk.
I thought he was a local farmer or something but he was not.

His name is Mr. Yohane Takahashi.
He is from Shonan, Kanagawa Pref.
He drove over 300miles with his 3 horses and 1 donkey on back of his truck.

The reason why he is here in disaster area........well, I'll just show you the photos.

He owns those horses and donkey and travels shelter to shelter for kids.

He had been doing this for over a week at the time I met him.

After the disaster he asked him self is there anything only he can do for people there and the only answer was this.

As you can easily imagine the earthquake and tsunami caused severe mental trauma to some people especially to kids.

Mr. Takahashi said that he knows those animals have power to heal people's mental.

more simply, this is a very good entertainment for kids and kids forget bad things while they are having fun!

I am so sure that they had fun because I had so much fun taking picture of them.

Tohoku, Japan 4

2011-04-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki City March 29th 2011

I woke up in a shelter (actually it is an elementary school now used as a shelter)
started try talk to people to collect information around the town.

I hear a good news and a not good news.
The good news was that I might not have to worry about gas any more.
A person told me it is very hard to get gas from gas stations in towns,
but go to gas stations on Tohoku-Express Way( It's a tollway ) at night,
there would be very small lines and I don't have to be anxious about me taking away local people's gas because tankers can access those gas stations easily so they have lots of gas.
The not so good news was, some people break in to cars for steeling stuffs (it started to happen after the earthquake) so it is not a good idea to leave a car in one place for long time.
As I said on previous post, I left my car 20 miles away, I had no choice but to walk 20 miles back to get my car.
aggh..... what a wast of time.

This gentle man walked up to me and said " Oh look at my town!! look how horrible it is! I wonder how long it's gonna take to restore to how it was..."

This is by a swimming pool in a elementary school. People use its water to wash their clothe.

Have you ever seen those charactors?
It's "Kikaida" created by one of the most famous Manga creator in Japan and this Ishinomaki is known as his home town.
Photo below is his museum.

missing person posters.

Precious 9 hours has been wasted to go back and forth to get my car.

It was already dark when I get back to Ishinomaki.

But my day was not a total waste after all because I met this great person at the end of the day!

I will talk about this donkey guy on my next blog.

Tohoku, Japan 3

2011-04-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki City March 28

After I said good bye to the lady who gave me a ride to Ishinomaki,
I spent 5 hours walking around the town trying to photograph.
Then...... I was overwhelmed by the sight before my eyes...so badly.
My mission was to talk to the people there and photograph them, but I couldn't.
All I could do was shut my mouth and take pictures. I was speech less.

For today's post, I just attach photos of Ishinomaki briefly.
I want you to see what's it like a city after walls of water struck.

This building used be a kids day care center.

Paper sign below says " to the parents of Yuika (a girl's name) and

Shiryu (a boy's name)They are safe with us"

can you see the house is actually upside down?

looks like the house was a two story building

but the first floor has just gone.

all streets and alleys were covered by mud and debris.

I was told that half of the city was just wiped out by tsunami.

You can see how powerful the water was,
It could just punch through concrete walls.

   at the end of the day, I looked for a place to sleep.
   so I headed to one of the shelters.
   I knew I shouldn't. It is for people who lost their homes.
   but I could not help it because it was too cold out side.

I went to talk to volunteer workers there that

I have my own food, water, and a sleeping bag

so I just want a tiny space to lay myself down.

and they said ok.

   I slipped into my sleeping bag around 8pm.
   then, someone knocked on door and opened it a little bit, just enough
   to slip in a plastic bag, then left there some bread and a bottle of green tea.
   Then I cried.
   I cried because I knew how they are short of food, water and everything else.
   Plus they have just experienced a disaster of a life time.
   and how can they be so generous to an outsider like me?
   I began to realize Tohoku people are not weak.
   even huge tsunamis can't break their spirits.

Tohoku, Japan 2

2011-04-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Matsushima City to Ishinomaki City March 28

By the time I got to Tohoku area, I almost had no information about that area.

I had no acquaintance or nor friends.

All I know was huge disastrous event happened then tens of thousands of people have died and thousands others were still missing.

I only had a rough plan which is to stay there for one week and try to photograph as much as I can.

One of my biggest concern was gas.

As I driving through the cities, I found out about three fourth of the gas station were closed

because they were badly damaged.

The other reason why was they were simply out of inventory because less tankers could access to that area.

Cars were making a very long line at a gas station which was open for business.

I asked how long the waits going to be and one worker answered

" At least 5 to 6 hours. some people have to wait over night "

Even local people were struggling, how can I, an outsider, steal their precious gas?

I gave up the idea of filling gas in the area.

Then I decide to walk instead of drive.

I found a free parking lot for tourists in Matsushima City ( Matsushima is a major tourist destination but in the time like that, I saw no tourists )

So I left my car with half a tank of gas so I can go back to Tokyo, packed food, water, some clothe and a sleeping bag into my back pack and started to walk.

My destination was to Ishinomaki City, about 20 miles away from where I was.

Even though tsunami did not hit this area in the picture,

the earthquake itself was huge enough to crush down houses like this.

After I walked for four or five hours, this lady stopped her car in front of me

then asked me where I am going and if I want a ride.

Of cause I said yes.

   She was on her way to see her friends who now live in a shelter,
   delivering some stuffs they have asked.
   She said she was lucky because her house is standing 7 miles inland so did not
   have toworry about tsunami and also she does not have to worry about food
   because she is a farmer.
   With that advantage she has, she was running around day and night trying to
   help other people.
   She was a great person and I could not stop admiring her.

   She gave me a pack of strawberry and said
   " It's grew in Ishinomaki, where we are heading right now.
   Try them ( actually they taste super good!! )
   and please see what really happened there"

You can see why they are still out of power.

The lady dropped me off at Ishinomaki Port, the west end of the city and
we said good bye to each other.

Now I am in Ishinomaki.

Tohoku, Japan 1

2011-04-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

March 28th Shiogama City 6:00am

It has already been one month and one week since the earthquake and Tsunami hit Tohoku(north-east)area of Japan.
Like everyone else, I could not believe what I was seeing on TV news on that day.
As I watching huge wall of water destroying my home country through TV screen,
I became very emotional and could not stand just sit here and do nothing.

Then my phone rang, it was from my mother, said her mother ( my grandma ) was visiting Shiroishi City, where the earthquake hit really hard, on that day and still not be able to get touch with her.
That made me decide to go to Japan to see and photograph what is going on there.
Four days later we finally found out that my grandma is OK in a Onsen Ryokan ( a Japan style Hotel)and my uncle brought her safely back to Tokyo.

I arrived to Tokyo on March 24, went to see my grandma (she was totally fine), rent a compact car, and started my journey to Tohoku on March 27.

I drove through Sendai City, the biggest city in Tohoku, arrived at Shiogama City before
mid night, slept in my car, and those photos were taken next morning.

almost three weeks had past and people were starting to clean up the town.

I may look clean but dirt and water once filled entire ground floor.

A lady told me because the 2nd floor is livable, people in that area

staying in their house Whith no power and no running water.

She also said she has to go to city hall, which is about half a mile away,

just to go to bathroom.

The Shutter is down but it is easy to imagine it is a clothing store.

The paper sign says "still using them ( so don't take them )"