YAMADA, Iwate Prefecture--Beaming children flashing V-signs. A traditional wedding portrait at a Shinto shrine. A family trip to a hot spring spa.
YAMADA, Iwate Prefecture--Beaming children flashing V-signs. A traditional wedding portrait at a Shinto shrine. A family trip to a hot spring spa.
As residents at evacuation shelters struggle to rebuild their lives after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the town hall of Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, has become a treasure house of mementos from happier times.
The hall is displaying photo albums that were found scattered amid the rubble of the tsunami disaster zone.
About 200 photo albums, many still covered with mud, are on display in the first-floor lobby of the town government building. Many of the photo collections, whose owners are unknown, were brought in by residents.
The albums are opened to show touching family portraits, making it easier for surviving owners to spot their own albums. An endless stream of people have been arriving to search for what may be the only solid reminder of their memories.
Tamiko Seki, 54, was one fortunate visitor who had her precious mementos returned.
Her tiny album of about 20 pictures was retrieved by an acquaintance who found it lying near Seki's home. Among the images pasted inside were photos of her family and relatives taken during a visit to Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens some 30 years ago.
"Perhaps it's because we had traveled from the countryside to Tokyo, but our son, who was 3 at the time, looks so excited to see the lions and giraffes," Seki said with a smile.
Seki said that while everyone in her family had escaped the tsunami unharmed, their home had been washed away.
"I am so happy to have found at least something of our own that we can keep," Seki said, fighting back tears.