six

In the month following the earthquake I scoured the internet for news of anybody I had known in Ohtsuchi and Kamaishi. I had no email addresses or cell numbers so I searched my old address books and Nengajo (New Year’s Cards) for telephone numbers or home addresses which might still be current.

It was also a stressful time for our friends Astuko and Yuka who both had family in Kamaishi and Rikuzen Takata on March 11th and could get no news until several days later:

“A week has passed since the earthquake.
Yesterday, at last, I got phone calls from my family.
They are fine,
SHINPAI　SHITE　KURETE　ARIGATOU

Regarding  Sano-san and the master of “town hall”,
they and their family are fine as well
Since I’ve got HP as below from Jane, you can see their information
and please leave a message for cheering them up
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/
In Kamaishi, electricity and water have been restored
and telephone have been restored, just one-way connection from kamaishi to us though.
and today c-phone battery have been supplied at the evacuation center.
Everythings getting better. but their life still hard.”

There was even less news coming out of Ohtsuchi. I managed to make contact with Kazuko Kagaya, the daughter of my Kamaishi home-stay family 19 years previously, and despite the fact there was a petrol shortage, she drove the ten miles to Ohtsuchi to find out more news about Ogawa-san, who had treated me like a son for the two years I lived in the town and who I called Okasan (mother).

Kazuko described the difference between Kamaishi and Ohtsuchi as “Heaven and Hell” – as it had not only been struck by the earthquake and tsunami but also by fires. She located Ogawa-san’s daughter, Haruko, who had been my high school student, working at a new, make-shift town hall. Haruko must be lucky to be alive because I heard later that more than 30 people at the old Ohtsuchi town hall right be the water including the Mayor had died. Unfortunately, there was no news of her mother and it was not until two months later in June that her tragic death was confirmed. Although no longer unexpected I still felt a deep sense of loss and regret.