One Man’s Search After Japan’s 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

This story, by Fukushima Central Tv Co. Ltd., was printed in partnership with HuffPost Japan and is translated from the unique Japanese footage.

We live in turbulent occasions. The warfare in Ukraine is ongoing, having simply handed the one-year mark. Then, final month, a devastating earthquake struck southern Turkey. Many individuals have misplaced family members and are persevering with to search for them with sorrow and remorse everywhere in the world.

In Japan, roughly 18,000 folks died or went lacking because of an earthquake and tsunami within the Tohoku area 12 years in the past on March 11, 2011 — probably the most highly effective quake ever recorded within the nation.

Norio Kimura misplaced his 7-year-old daughter to the tsunami attributable to the earthquake. His house was subsequent to the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Energy Plant, the place hydrogen explosions occurred because of the quake. He has been striving to seek out his daughter, despite the fact that the doorway to the realm the place he lived was restricted because of the results of radiation. Now, he desires this place to signify a lesson for future generations.

Kimura lived in Okuma city along with his spouse, first daughter Mayu, second daughter Yuna and his dad and mom. At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, Kimura’s life, and people of his household, modified utterly.

The earthquake struck with a magnitude of 9 and unprecedented shaking hit Okuma. Kimura, who was working in a neighboring city, needed to take care of the mess it created. His boss informed him the radio had introduced {that a} 3-meter (practically 10-foot) tsunami was incoming.

Though Kimura’s home was about 100 meters (328 toes) from the coast, he thought the tsunami couldn’t attain them as a result of the home was greater than 5 meters (16 toes) above sea stage. When Kimura got here house from work, nevertheless, he discovered that his home had disappeared and not using a hint. He instantly went to a shelter on the town and located his mom and Mayu. Nevertheless, his father, his spouse and Yuna have been lacking.

Kimura frantically searched different shelters and hospitals however couldn’t discover his household. It was already darkish exterior, however when he returned to the place the place his home as soon as stood, his canine ran as much as him. Trying intently, he noticed the canine was coated with sand.

“It’s potential … that the tsunami took them,” he stated.

Kimura turned very anxious and spent the entire night time trying to find his lacking household alongside the coast with a flashlight. A neighbor discovered Kimura and with a tragic expression stated: “The nuclear energy plant has grow to be harmful. We should evacuate. At this level, our precedence have to be to avoid wasting the people who find themselves nonetheless alive.”

Kimura and his mom, first daughter and canine obtained into their automotive and evacuated 700 kilometers (about 435 miles) away to Okayama prefecture, the place his spouse’s dad and mom stay.

Per week later, Kimura returned to Fukushima. He had not given up hope that his lacking relations have been nonetheless alive someplace. He made a leaflet with an image of his household on it, after which visited evacuation facilities and hospitals inside and out of doors the prefecture.

Nevertheless, his worst fears started to manifest when, on April 10, his spouse was discovered useless at sea, 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) offshore. Then, on April 29, his father was discovered useless in a rice subject in entrance of his home. Yuna was the one one who couldn’t be discovered.

The nuclear accident had made the scenario worse. As a result of great amount of radioactive materials that had leaked from the nuclear energy plant, beginning April 22, entry into Kimura’s hometown was prohibited.

Entry was solely permitted as soon as each three months, and even then, just for two hours. Kimura stored in search of Yuna alone.

“I hadn’t taught my daughters what to do if a tsunami comes. If I had informed them that you simply mustn’t go to the shoreline after earthquakes, Yuna wouldn’t have gone to our home. That’s my deepest remorse,” he stated.

After that, Kimura determined to maneuver with Mayu to Nagano prefecture, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) from Okuma.

Then, in 2014, the federal government introduced a coverage to nationalize the land round Kimura’s house. In Fukushima prefecture, decontamination to take away radioactive substances from the surroundings was underway, and Kimura’s home was additionally throughout the deliberate website of an interim storage facility, which required huge quantities of land to briefly retailer decontaminated waste.

The Ministry of the Atmosphere, which has jurisdiction over the decontamination, started negotiations with the house owners of the land, asking them to promote it. Kimura stated that he would by no means promote or hire his land.

“After all I need to discover Yuna, and on the identical time, I feel that trying to find her itself is a connection to her,” he stated.

Nevertheless, the search was extraordinarily troublesome. What he may do was to look manually within the huge pile of rubble in a restricted time.

On Nov. 20, 2016, Kimura determined to ask the Ministry of the Atmosphere to look utilizing heavy equipment. His request was granted. So, on the ninth of the next month, after utilizing heavy equipment to look the pile of rubble, a employee knowledgeable Kimura that that they had discovered one thing wanting like a neck bone.

When Kimura wiped off the mud from a winter scarf that Yuna had been sporting on that fateful day, he noticed what have been unmistakably just a few centimeters of neck bone. This was the primary proof of Yuna because the earthquake occurred 5 years and 9 months earlier.

“As a result of nuclear accident, it took virtually six years to seek out it. It’s like we let my daughter die, so my remorse received’t fade away,” Kimura stated.

Kimura’s guilt over the demise of Yuna brought on deep, deep anguish, and he felt indignant that the nuclear accident delayed him find his daughter.

In 2019, Kimura moved to Iwaki metropolis, a coastal space in Fukushima prefecture providing higher entry to Okuma. Because it took six hours every manner from Nagano prefecture, he may solely go to about 30 days a yr. However from Iwaki, he may go to 5 days per week. Nevertheless, no extra bones have been discovered.

“I believed her bones is likely to be unfold in spots apart from the place we discovered her neck bone, so it’s fairly troublesome to look the entire space. I don’t know the place to look,” he stated.

The frequency of Kimura’s searches for Yuna regularly decreased.

Round Kimura’s house, the preparation of the interim storage facility was quickly progressing. Ninety p.c of residents within the native district had determined to promote or lease their land to the Ministry of the Atmosphere. And not using a place to retailer waste, the decontamination couldn’t be performed as deliberate.

“Am I disrupting the reconstruction?” he thought. Since Kimura had determined to not promote his land, he had conflicting emotions swirling inside his thoughts.

There was one man who buoyed Kimura’s spirits: Takamatsu Gushiken, who has 40 years’ expertise as a volunteer accumulating the stays of warfare useless in Okinawa prefecture, a southern island in Japan. He has discovered stays in caves utilized by residents through the Battle of Okinawa, a few of which have been delivered to bereaved households.

In spring 2021, Kimura visited Okinawa after being launched to Gushiken by means of a mutual good friend. Then, he witnessed firsthand the place Gushiken collected stays. Gushiken thought deeply about Kimura’s burden and spoke with form phrases.

“Digging up and approaching a deceased individual is a form of memorial service. Even when you can’t discover her, I feel that the perspective of making an attempt to get near Yuna is one thing very significant. If you happen to hesitate to talk up, I feel folks round you must help you. You don’t have to carry again in any respect,” Gushiken stated.

Gushiken’s phrases impressed Kimura.

In January 2022, Gushiken traveled to Okuma, and Kimura resumed his seek for Yuna for the primary time in about three years. Gushiken walked across the website and checked bumps on the bottom. Abruptly, he stopped strolling. It was the place the place a part of Yuna’s neck bone had been discovered years earlier than.

Utilizing shovels, they started digging a gap a number of meters under the place the stays had been positioned. About 20 minutes later, Gushiken found what regarded like an extended, skinny stick within the floor. “No manner.” Kimura continued to dig there.

“Yuna, wait! Your dad is right here!” Gushiken’s voice trembled.

What Kimura unearthed was the femur of a kid, measuring about 25 centimeters (10 inches) lengthy. Yuna was the one baby killed by the tsunami within the speedy space. Kimura’s eyes full of tears, and he discarded his shovel, digging along with his arms.

“Possibly I haven’t searched sufficient. Yuna was right here,” Kimura stated.

He held his daughter’s stays in his arms, gently stroking them over and over. “I lastly discovered Yuna,” he stated. What he felt at that second was totally different from the primary time he’d discovered her stays.

Kimura began telling folks about his experiences. In October, he gave a lecture concerning the catastrophe at an elementary college. The scholars have been 8 and 9 years outdated — about the identical age as Yuna — and had but to be born when the earthquake occurred. Kimura requested the youngsters to consider what they’d do if a catastrophe struck.

“I would really like everybody to have the ability to shield the lives of your self, your households and your pals. Please take into consideration this rigorously, collectively.”

About half the realm of Okuma is now liveable after evacuation orders have been partly lifted. Kimura hopes to in the future return to stay within the city, the place Yuna is and the place he has many recollections of his household.

When confronted with a tragedy akin to an enormous catastrophe or warfare, victims are usually expressed in numbers. Nevertheless, we should not neglect that every sufferer has family members, and that the significance and lack of life can’t be measured in numbers.