YAMADA, Iwate Prefecture--As northeast Japan struggles to come to terms with the magnitude of destruction triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, some survivors in evacuation centers are beginning to put together the shards of a shattered normality.
YAMADA, Iwate Prefecture--As northeast Japan struggles to come to terms with the magnitude of destruction triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, some survivors in evacuation centers are beginning to put together the shards of a shattered normality.
Hirohito Sasaki, 18, had been preparing to take up a job at Takigawa Chemical Industries Ltd., a plastic products company in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, when the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated his hometown of Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, on March 11.
"I am sure I won't make it to start working in April," said the recent high-school graduate at an evacuation center in Yamada on Thursday.
"I had been looking forward to it very much," he said.
His new life in Funabashi would have been the first time he had worked outside his hometown.
As he prepared for his first steps into adulthood, he had been learning to drive. He was at a drivers license center in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, when the quake hit.
His mother was with him and they took refuge in a building from the earthquake and the huge tsunami it triggered. Their car was swept away by the wave, stranding them at an evacuation center in Kamaishi for three days. They returned to Yamada town and took refuge at an evacuation center at Oura Elementary School, close to their home.
In the chaos, Sasaki lost contact with his prospective employer. The school is 6 kilometers from Yamada's town center and the town office where telephones are available.
Meanwhile, Takigawa Chemical has been desperately trying to confirm the well-being of recruits from high schools in the Tohoku region. Its employees repeatedly called and left messages for 10 new employees from the region following the earthquake. Sasaki was unaccounted for.
Told that Sasaki was safe, Yoshio Hoya, executive director, said the company was waiting for him.
"We selected him from many applicants," Hoya said. "We definitely want him to come. We want him feel easy now. The company is waiting for him."
Hoya asked The Asahi Shimbun to deliver a fax message inviting Sasaki's family members to live with him in Funabashi. "We will prepare an apartment. Why don't you bring them along?" the message said.
Sasaki smiled as he read the fax on Friday. "I am glad," he said. His mother said she planned to stay in Yamada.
On Friday, Sasaki also met his girlfriend for the first time since the earthquake. She is also working in Chiba Prefecture.
"I want to save money to build a new house in the future," Sasaki said.