tsunami stories

Hino Shunsuke, im zweiten Schuljahr der Mittelschule Koharada

Da es schon mehr als zwei Jahre seit jenem Erdbeben her ist, kann ich nun etwas gelassener an jene Sachen zurückdenken. Am 11. März war ich dabei, im Sportgebäude bei den Vorbereitungen der Abschlussfeier mitzuhelfen. Gerade als wir etwa fertig waren, kam das Erdbeben. An diesem Abend wurde meine Familie in eben jene Sporthalle evakuiert, in welcher wir vorhin alles für unsere Abschlussfeier vorbereitet hatten.

Der nächste Tag war total hektisch. Weil die Nachricht kam, das Kernkraftwerk explodiere. Meine Familie und ich evakuierten morgens früh eilig nach Koriyama. Wir hatten nicht einmal Zeit, nach Hause zu gehen, und flüchteten auch ohne Freunde grüssen zu können und ohne etwas mitzunehmen. Im Auto fragte dann der vierjährige Bruder immer wieder: „Wohin gehen wir?“ und „Was ist denn los?“. Das war sehr hart. Ich wusste nicht, wie ich ihm antworten sollte. Ich konnte nicht einsehen, weshalb wir, die nichts gemacht hatten, von zuhause fliehen mussten. Eigentlich hätte ich heute ein Baseball-Spiel gehabt.

Wir fanden dann wohlbehalten Zuflucht im Haus von Verwandten, aber ich hatte ein starkes Gefühl der Unsicherheit. Deswegen hatte ich in der Nacht einen Traum vom Erdbeben. Danach explodieren nacheinander weitere Kraftwerke. Wir zogen dann weiter, um weiter weg zu fliehen, zu den Häusern anderer Verwandter. Während wir evakuiert waren, vermisste ich unser eigenes Haus. Die News wollte ich nicht mehr sehen. Es kommt ja sowieso nur das Erdbeben oder das Atomkraftwerk. Auch Zeitung und Radio mochte ich nicht. Ich wollte mein geliebtes Baseball im Fernsehen sehen.

In unser altes Haus können wir nicht zurückkehren. Wo wir nun wohnen, in einer Wohnung in Koriyama, ist die nächtliche Aussicht schön. Ich bin nun bereits unzählige Male umgezogen. In der Grundschule, in die ich gewechselt hatte, konnte ich sogar richtig gute Freunde finden. Aber gerade als ich in die Sekundarschule ging, zogen wir wieder um. Das mochte ich überhaupt nicht. Ich hatte doch endlich Freunde gefunden.

Ich mache nun in der Sekundarschule mein geliebtes Baseball und es ist etwas Ruhe in mein Leben eingekehrt. Auch Freunde habe ich gefunden. Aber trotzdem bin ich beunruhigt. Ich kann das Gefühl nicht loswerden, dass wir vielleicht nochmals umziehen werden. Ich muss daran denken, dass nochmals eine Zeit kommen könnte, in der wir evakuieren müssen.

Es gibt auch ärgerliche Sachen. Die Trümmerberge abzuräumen ist etwas, bei dem ganz Japan helfen muss – ich weiss aber vom Fernsehen, dass es Leute gibt, welche dabei nicht helfen wollen. Ich denke, dass solche Leute sich nur um sich selbst kümmern.

Aber was ich im Moment empfinde ist nur nicht Ärger oder Sorge. Dass ich Sachen machen kann, welche ich mag, ist dank den Menschen in meinem Umfeld. Menschen, die, als wir auf der Flucht waren, ihr Essen mit uns teilten, die uns in ihre heissen Bäder liessen – Menschen, die uns ermutigen. Alle waren super lieb. Ich fühlte die Wärme der Menschen. Alle sind verbunden. Ich wurde auch dankbar dafür, in Japan geboren zu sein. Ich bin sehr dankbar gegenüber jenen Menschen, welche Güte und Hilfsbereitschaft für selbstverständlich halten.

Ich kann den Menschen, welche uns halfen, zwar kein Geld zurückgeben, aber ich will es ihnen so danken, indem ich jetzt mit ganzer Kraft mein Leben lebe. Und, ich will zu einem Menschen werden, der vielen anderen Leuten helfen kann.

– der 11. März 2011 –

Seit jenem Tag sind nun bereits zwei Jahre und vier Monate vergangen.

Mein Heimatort Kesennuma ist nach wie vor um den Wiederaufbau bemüht. Die Infrastruktur und der öffentliche Verkehr, welche nach dem Erdbeben komplett zerstört waren, ist nun wieder aufgebaut, und zahlreiche Geschäfte konnten ihren Betrieb wieder aufnehmen. Meine Familie führte einen Familienbetrieb, aber der Tsunami spülte unser Geschäft weg – auch unser Haus wurde zerstört. Heute leben wir jedoch in einem Haus, welches wir von Verwandten mieten, und seit letztem Oktober können wir unser Geschäft wieder in einem Provisorium betreiben. Ich konnte also endlich zu einem sicheren, geregelten Leben zurückkehren.

Doch auch während ich nun wieder ein frohes und glückliches Leben führen konnte, gab es ganz in meiner Nähe noch jemanden, welcher mit unfassbarer Unsicherheit Leben musste, ganz ohne dass es mir aufgefallen wäre.

Letztes Jahr, Ende Dezember. Plötzlich ereignete sich folgende Begebenheit. Ich bekam eine Email einer meiner Sekundarschulen-Kouhai. Deren Inhalt konnte ich kaum glauben. „Senpai, Dein (ehemaliger) Mitschüler XY sei wohl vermisst.“ Ich dachte, es sei ein Scherz, aber dann kamen nach und nach Nachrichten desselben Inhalts von anderen Freunden.

Jener Mitschüler war im zweiten und dritten Jahr der Sekundarschule im selben Jahrgang wie ich gewesen. Ich hatte gehört, dass seine Eltern und seine grössere Schwester im Erdbeben umgekommen waren, und er nun mit seiner jüngeren Schwester zusammen bei seiner Tante lebe. Er war ein stiller Junge, der es doch bisweilen vermochte, alle zum Lachen zu bringen. Aber ich glaube, dass er hinter seiner lachenden Gestalt bekümmert, und mehr als wir es uns vorstellten, unter einer unveränderbaren Angst am Leiden war.

Ich versuchte ihm also auf das Handy anzurufen und dachte: „Bitte, nimm ab!“. Und genau in dem Moment, als ich das dachte, hörte der Verbindungston auf. „Hallo? XY?“. Nach einem kurzen, erleichterten Augenblick stellte sich heraus, dass seine Tante abgenommen hatte. Er habe Brieftasche und Mobiltelephon zuhause gelassen, als er verschwand. Ich hatte eine schlechte Vorahnung. Wir alle teilten uns auf und suchten ihn verzweifelt auf den Strassen, aber als wir ihn nicht finden konnten, mussten wir ihn schliesslich bei der Polizei als vermisst melden.

Anfangs Januar kam dann die Nachricht seines Todes. Er habe sich in den kalten Ozean gestürzt. Ich fühlte mich verantwortlich und machte mir Vorwürfe: „Hätte ich ihm doch bloss zugehört. Weshalb haben wir nicht länger gesucht? Hätten wir ihn früher gefunden, hätten wir ihm vielleicht helfen können...“ Sogar jetzt kann ich es immer nicht so richtig glauben. Denn irgendwie habe ich noch das Gefühl, als ob er jeden Moment wie immer lächelnd wieder auftauchen würde. Aber, wenn man immer nur leidet, kann man nie vorwärts gehen. Wir haben uns also alle zusammen entschlossen, seinen Anteil auch zu leben. Ich für meinen Teil werde ihn auf jeden Fall ganz sicher nicht vergessen.

Zum Schluss gibt es zwei Sachen, welche ich Ihnen mitteilen will.

Erstens: schätzen Sie bitte jeden Tag aufs Neue wert, ohne ihren jetzigen Lebensstil für selbstverständlich zu halten.

Zweitens: lieben und achten Sie bitte das eigene Leben.

Das glückliche Leben, welches Sie und ich heute führen können, welches Stück für Stück aufgebaut wurde, halte ich für ein „Wunder“. Ich bitte Sie, hegen und achten Sie ihr „Wunder“ auch von heute an auf immer.

Es sind wir, welche besagten Wiederaufbau nun fortführen müssen. Vielleicht wird es noch Mühsames und Qualvolles geben. Aber ich will mich nicht unterkriegen lassen. Ich möchte von nun an kräftig leben und mit allen zusammen Kesennuma unterstützen.

On my way home, a very strong earthquake struck.

I was shocked when a huge tsunami arrived. It was the first time that such a huge tsunami had happened. There was no one around. I felt lonely and pulled myself together, as I was alone on the second floor at my school building.

I found two friends of mine and felt OK. The tsunami had swept away all our precious things. I will go to search for those lost belongings which were in my house.

As I watched from the windows, the tsunami looked like it was 50 metres high.

Still, I managed to spend a day at school.

I could not sleep well in the evening as there were evacuated people talking and also I was afraid of the aftershock. When it was time to sleep in the evening it was cold.

The tsunami left everything in complete rubble.

After evacuating from my school, we moved on to a junior high school building where I spent another day. The next morning, we moved to a martial arts studio and stayed there for many days. When I evacuated from there, I thought I would not be able to sleep but, although I don’t know why, I was able to sleep in the evenings. I was longing to go home soon. When I woke up in the morning, I was sleepy but I was patient.

When we were at the place of refuge, I was glad that there was some food available.

The tsunami was dark in color, and smelly.

If I had been in a normal house, I think I would have been able to sleep but I could not sleep well in the refuge. After having some food, I was full.

The tsunami attacked us with enormous power but I did my best.

I still think that there may be another tsunami attack. There are a few fun experiences now, but I still feel afraid.

On 11 March, a tsunami warning siren sounded in the town. We were in the Otsuchi primary school buildings at that moment. An earthquake had happened and all of us crawled under our desks right away. I could not stop my tears from falling. After a while, an announcement came through the school loudspeaker to all the students. “Calmly, please evacuate to the school playground.” I was crying as I proceeded to the playground. The teachers were having a meeting and we were crying. It seemed like the lower grade students were not crying so much. I thought to myself that probably because they don’t know about the tsunami and its power, they have no fear of it.

Later on as we were gathered in the open space in front of Shiroyama gymnasium, we heard the earth rumbling. “Ghor-ghor-ghor-ghor-gho-ghorrrrrr!!” The tsunami was attacking us. It blew up clouds of dust. We dashed to escape to the top of the hill. As we were running, we saw the tsunami. A house caught on fire, spreading to other houses and eventually, there was fire even on the water. We were all looking at the tsunami for some time and someone said: “There is fire on the mountain”.

We returned to the gymnasium afterwards.

That evening, I was finally able to meet my Papa. I was very relieved. After the day broke on the following morning, we went to Morioka to pick up important medicine for me. At one point we ran out of gas. We filled the car up again and stayed at the house of a friend of Papa’s for three days. We then moved to Katsushi primary school. Some days passed and school started again. On the first day of school, I was able to meet my friends again after a long time. I now go to the temporary school which is located at the Yamada youth centre. In a few months, I am supposed to go to Kita primary school.

My mother is still missing. I want to find her for sure and would like all three of us to live together.

We must keep on hoping and hanging on.

On 11 March, a huge, unforgettable earthquake happened. The tsunami caused by this earthquake affected millions of people. I was doing a cleaning up job at school at the time. When it started to shake a little at the beginning, I just thought “Oh, just an earthquake…”, but the shaking became strong and stronger and finally, it registered M9.0 on the scale, with the intensity of 7.

We were cleaning our classroom. Everyone had gathered at the centre of the room and we covered our heads with our school bags. I thought that this school building might collapse. The strong shaking lasted for a few minutes and was very terrifying. Later, all of the school students and people from the town got together and evacuated. About half an hour later, I heard a sound like thunder several times and wondered what it was. I looked in the direction of the town and there was this unbelievable sight. Houses, cars, and people were being swept away by the tsunami. I wondered if this was happening for real.

All the students spent that night on the ground floor of the school. I was trying to get to sleep but could only sleep for about three hours because it was very cold. On the following morning, we all went to our classroom. I was very hungry then. My friend was also hungry and weak, as if he were dead. In the meanwhile, each of us was given an onigiri (rice ball). I was very happy and took nearly one minute to eat it. My friend also looked very happy and he was smiling again.

Later, my parents came to see me and we moved to the gymnasium building. I played with my friends there. On that evening, we stayed at our classroom, where we lived for the next month. During that month, something happened that I still recall. Mr. Sonoda, who came to help us as a volunteer, taught me a lot about baseball, bought me baseball gloves, bat and balls, and set up a place for us to bathe. I am deeply thankful to him. I am also very thankful for the people who came from various places including some artists to cook food for us or to entertain us.

Two months passed. I now realize that you should never underestimate even minor shaking. I will not be discouraged by anything from now on and want work hard to contribute to the restoration.

The 11th of March, 2011, is day I will never forget. It was a day of terror and sadness. I am the second son in a family of six brothers and sisters. My younger brother and sister were in bed with colds and absent from school. When my youngest brother came home from his kindergarten, there was a minor shake. I thought “It is just a little one as usual” and did not flee. The shaking became stronger and stronger and my father shouted “Get out!” We all escaped outside and squatted on the ground until the shake ceased.

When the shaking became even stronger, I wondered “How long is this going to last? Is Japan going to sink…?” I was filled with fear. When the lengthy shaking ceased, we packed the family car with some blankets in case of more shaking and also put our family dog there. My father was picking up the broken light bulb, and my mother had come home after picking up my other brother from primary school when the big tsunami warning and the urgent evacuation was announced over the town loudspeaker system. We all underestimated it and did not think that the tsunami would actually come. We kept ourselves busy tidying up the place.

I was surprised when our next door neighbor shouted “The tsunami is coming! Run and escape now! It is right around the corner! Hurry up! Hurry!” I went around to have a look, thinking it is just as high as 10cm. When I saw a small wave and a big wave just so close to us, I started to run with my brothers. The roads were jammed with cars with people all trying to escape. My father shouted at those people as we were running “Get out of the car and run!” My mother was looking for my younger sister, Urara, and shouting her name. As she was trying to go back to the house to look for Urara, my father shouted at her “What on earth are you thinking with the tsunami coming? Are you trying to kill yourself?! Urara must have run away before us. You must run as well.” He forced her to run, too. The tsunami was now very close to us. My mother ran last, with the tsunami right behind her. She was crying and calling out the name of my older brother who worked in Onagawa, the names of our two family dogs and the name of my missing sister.

After a while, she stopped running, saying “I can’t run anymore. I give up. Please take care of the family.” I shouted back to her, “You must be joking! The tsunami is right there! Run, don’t give up and run!” She slowly started again but to be honest, I was thinking to myself “Maybe we are too late. We may all be swept away by the tsunami.” I was so scared by these thoughts.

We managed to climb up the elevated footbridge at the primary school and my mother looked for my sister without success. When my father saw her trying to return home again for my sister, he told her “She must have escaped to the primary school before us. She is all right.” Then she turned around to go to the primary school.

I saw my mother being so exhausted and thought she would easily be swept away by the tsunami for sure and offered to go and search for my sister myself. “I will go and find her; it is going to be all right.” I ran as fast as I could, faster than I had ever run in my life, completely absorbed in continuing to run. When I finally reached the gymnasium building at the primary school, I found my sister hysterically crying there. As I held her hand, thinking I would never let go, whatever happens, the tsunami wave rushed into the building. I had my sister on my back as I pushed my way through a crowd to the school building. The wave rushed towards us and I was soaked up to my waist. I pulled myself together and managed to get inside the building, where I calmed my sister down.

Eventually, it got dark and cold. We spent a sleepless night in the complete darkness, away from the family, without any contact, feeling so nervous. Early next morning I left my sister, who had developed a temperature, with the school nurse, and went home to search for my family. I was still soaked up to my waist. On my way, I saw so many dead people floating here and there or trapped inside a car, having failed to escape.

When I finally reached home, I could not stop my tears from falling at seeing the state of the house which we had been living in as recently as yesterday. The sight of the whole town being completely swept away made me wonder if I myself had died in the tsunami and what I was looking at was the sight of the hell. I returned to the school, disappointed that I had not been able to see any of my family.

On the second morning I was feeling exhausted after not having eaten or drunk anything at all. I felt like crying, but then my father appeared. He looked injured. He too was soaked up to his waist. I stopped myself from crying and said “Thank you. Is everyone all right?” It made me feel very happy when he thanked me for saving my sister. The three of us walked to the place of refuge where my mother and brothers were waiting for us.

After two days of not seeing us two, my mother cried and said “Thank you. Have you two been all right? You guys must be hungry.” She gave me four pieces of biscuit.

I asked her about my older brother who was working in Onagawa. Crying, she told me that the whole town had gone and that probably he did not make it.

After the tsunami, whenever I bump into my friends we hug each other. “Have you been all right? And your family?” We always ask these questions, as if this is our password.

Days passed at the shelter at the gymnasium building of the junior high school. One night when our family was talking by candle light, a voice called my mother’s name. “Mika-chan, I finally made it from Onagawa on foot”. After five days, it was my older brother, who we all thought had died. My mother held on to him and cried hard, and my father said with joy, “Now my family is complete.” We, the family of eight, spent that night talking to each other until nearly the morning. There were times when I did not get on well with my big brother before, but I am now truly happy that he is alive.

The tsunami took the life of our uncle who had cared for us a lot since we were small. We lost our two pet dogs. Neighbors, my seniors, my juniors, my friends, and so many other people were also taken away from me. If only the earthquake had not happened, if only the tsunami had not come at all, I would not have lost so many precious things from my life. This is what I think every day.

In my 16 years of life so far, I have experienced grief, pain, regret, loneliness, sorrow, fear, hunger, joy, pleasure, and joy. We can’t live in our house anymore and are still living at the shelter. However, I would like to cherish my life, which I managed to save despite being chased by the tsunami, and live with all my strength, whatever happens.

Last of all, I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the people who sent us relief goods from all over the country, who supported us, who came to help as volunteers, and the members of the self-defense force who are working and helping us night and day.

Hold on, Japan! Revive Ishinomaki! Our family will stand firm!

On that day, I was at Onagawa Dai-ni primary school. Then the earthquake happened and we went out to the school playground.

When we started to hear the sound of the tsunami, we all evacuated to the mountain. Those who evacuated to the mountain survived but my grandmother is still missing and I am worried. Many people died or went missing. I hope they are found soon.

Onagawa is in a terrible state. There is a house on top of a roof and on top of this house, there is a car. It is awful. Everybody lost their house and was evacuated to the gymnasium building. I am now in the gymnasium building of Kamaishi primary school with my brother, aunt and my cousin. My brother and I changed our primary school.

I made friends at the shelter. I now have many friends at Kamaishi primary school. I think someday I will make friends with people who are not my friends yet. I have many friends at Onagawa Dai-ni primary school. I play tag with friends at Kamaishi primary school everyday. I have gradually got used to Kamaishi port. I am glad that my aunt is around. I have got used to this life at the shelter. When my friend returned, we played and ran a lot.

Everybody, please live with a positive attitude.