In March 2011, Japan endured the strongest earthquake in its recorded history, followed by a severe tsunami. The Tohoku tsunami involved waves 40 meters/132 feet high and over 15,500 deaths. Over 450,000 people lost their homes during the floods, and the destruction spread to infrastructure all over the country, including the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that displaced even more people and their businesses.
The ripple effect of this disaster continues today, and with so many people and homes gone, the survivors’ scars may never truly heal. Here are a few stories among thousands.
Diving Ever Since the 2011 Tsunami
In March 2011, Yasuo Takamatsu lost his wife Yuko when the catastrophic tsunami hit Japan. Less than two years later, he received a high-level diving license that allows him to do underwater searches and cleanups. The authorities had failed to recover his wife’s body, so he decided to do it himself.
The couple married in 1988 and had two children, both of which survived the tzunami. Yuko was working in a bank at the time of the disaster. Her employer had them go onto the roof for safety but the building was shorter than the massive wave. Her final message to her husband read: “Are you alright? I want to go home.”
After two years, a rescue team recovered Yuko’s cell phone, which revealed the true final text, which didn’t send in time: “The tsunami is huge.” This reinforced how terrified his wife must’ve been in her last moments, and it renewed Yasuo’s motivation to fulfil her final wish and bring her home, even if it is only part of her body. He is determined to search as long as he is able to, saying he feels closest to her while he is underwater.
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“She told him to survive…”
Yoshihito Sasaki, 70, lost his home to the tsunami wave. He worked as a principal in an elementary school. After ensuring his students were safe and hearing one of his son’s was alive, he searched for his wife and younger son. Unfortunately, 28-year-old Jinya was a “hikikomori” (recluse), who had been home during the disaster. He had hoped his wife, Mikiko, had survived, so he searched all of the evacuation centers. It took weeks for responders to find her body.
He later learned that his wife had tried to convince Jinya to leave, but he didn’t want to see other people. Mikiko finally escaped to a neighbor’s roof with the elder son, Yoichi, when the two got swept away. “I asked my son what my wife said to him at the end,” Sasaki said. The last time Yoichi saw his mother, she was holding onto debris and shouting after him. “He told me that she was screaming for him to live. She told him to survive.” Yoichi drifted on wreckage for hours until he was rescued.
Sasaki has since studied and written about hikikomori, in addition to leading a support group for parents who were once in his position. He regrets not doing more to help Jinya’s condition. “I thought maybe time would solve things, but I know now that’s not the case. There are things you want to forget but can’t. Some memories, those key memories in your mind, are actually more vivid now.”
A Lawsuit Against a School
Airi Sato was a kindergartener who lost her life in the 2011 tsunami. She was in school at the time of the earthquake, and the teachers put her and four other students onto a bus that took them closer to the coast. After three days of searching, Mika Sato found her daughter. The parents were all searching together for their lost children amongst the rubble, including the charred remains of the school bus. “By the time we found them, all that was left of her was as small as a baby,” said Sato. “We were so afraid the wind would blow them away.”
The parents tried to get an explanation of what happened that day. They even filed a lawsuit against the school to get answers but they still didn’t get a clear reason why the staff put the kids on a bus heading toward the coast, but the teachers claimed they didn’t hear the tsunami siren. Part of the settlement included the now-closed school taking legal responsibility and promising to apologize to the families. Although Sato has received flowers, she never got a formal apology.
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“I’ll be waiting for you”
Migaku Kumagai, 71, went missing during the tsunami. Three months later, his wife, Sachiko, began writing letters to him. She has written hundreds of them, often describing the weather, the breakfast she had made for him, and questions about his whereabouts. A few times, she writes as Migaku, giving herself encouragement: “Mama-chan, I won’t be able to return even if you keep brooding over it… I’ll be waiting for you, you can do it, you can.”
In 2017, Sachiko finally filed her husband’s death certificate before dying a year later. In one of her final letters, she seemed to have accepted her loss. “Good morning Migaku-san. Not many days left in the year. Seems like we’ll finish out another year without finding you … Wouldn’t it be a miracle if you wander back to the Ono Bay? I’ve heard miracles exist, but it doesn’t seem to in this disaster.”
Saved By Debris
Yoichi from Rikuzentakata suspected a tsunami would follow the earthquake, so he immediately took his parents to a shelter before returning to check on his neighbors. When they heard the news of an oncoming tsunami, Yoichi and his wife, Tasuko, rushed to another shelter but were barred from entry because of debris. They ran to a schoolyard on higher ground where they watched the wave destroy the entire neighborhood and most of Rikuzentakata, including the shelter where his parents were.
Saving Himself and Others
When the earthquake began, Toru was working at a factory near the Ishinomaki coast. After the first tremor, he ran to his car to escape the tsunami he had assumed would come.
“First I headed toward my home, which was on high ground, but I was soon caught in a traffic jam,” Toru said. “I heard on the car radio that the tsunami had already reached a nearby city. I opened my car window so that I could escape if it hit my area. Soon a huge wall of black water over six feet (2 m) high came rushing toward me. The cars in front of me were hurled back into mine, and we were all washed far inland.”
Fortunately, Toru got out through the window before getting washed away. “I was thrown into an auto repair shop, where I grabbed hold of a staircase and climbed onto the second floor. With great effort, I was able to pull three people to safety. A few of us survived the rising water and the cold, snowy night.” However, they regret not being able to save others they heard calling for help.