KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--For about 20 years, oyster cultivator Shigeatsu Hatakeyama has tried to give back to the sea.
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--For about 20 years, oyster cultivator Shigeatsu Hatakeyama has tried to give back to the sea.
His efforts to clean the water and conserve ocean resources won Hatakeyama recognition as a prominent environmentalist whose advice has been sought nationwide.
But as he recently gazed over the piles of rubble on the beach and debris floating in the cove that once provided his livelihood, he muttered, as if to himself, "This is also ... one reality of the sea, I suppose."
The massive tsunami following the magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11 not only destroyed his oyster farm, but claimed the life of Hatakeyama's beloved mother.
Things were looking bright for Hatakeyama, 67, before the disaster.
About 30 years ago, Hatakeyama, who now heads a nonprofit organization called Mori wa Umi no Koibito (The forests are lovers of the sea), heard complaints from merchants that his oysters were blood red inside and had to be destroyed.
Hatakeyama suspected that waste water seeping into the Okawa river that flows into the cove was causing red tide--an outbreak of algae believed to be triggered by water pollution--that had became common during Japan's high growth period.
He started an ambitious project in 1989 to plant deciduous trees upstream to help reduce pollutants flowing into the sea. His group has since planted more than 50,000 trees.
The efforts finally appeared to bear fruit as oysters and scallops grown on Hatakeyama's farm became plump. His cultivation work was about to reach its peak.
But then, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
Hatakeyama, who had been tending to his farm, snatched up his 3-year-old grandchild and ran up a hill after hearing the tsunami warning siren.
"I kept thinking about the tsunami that struck after the 1960 earthquake in Chile," he said. A high school student at the time, Hatakeyama faintly recalled how his father's oyster farm was partly damaged by the 2-meter-high waves that plowed into the cove.
But on March 11, the changing sea was much more ferocious.
"The first wave was more like a swelling of the ocean, rather than a giant wave crashing in," said Hatakeyama, describing how he saw the inflated ocean swallow up the coastal community below.
Also shocking was the way the tide ebbed to a point where the bottom of the entire cove was exposed.
"It was like watching Niagara Falls, with white water gushing down and destroying houses and cultivation factories along the way," he said.
Then, according to Hatakeyama, a monstrous wave about 20 meters high crashed down on the coastal area.
That night, as about 20 neighbors huddled at Hatakeyama's home, explosions could be heard from central Kesennuma, just beyond the mountain, and black smoke rolled in.
While 10 members of Hatakeyama's extended family, including his son, daughter-in-law and child, were safe, his 93-year-old mother who was living in a nursing home in central Kesennuma remained unaccounted for.
Hatakeyama, who was born in Shanghai in 1943, survived the confusion at the end of World War II because his mother had managed to board a ship repatriating Japanese citizens.
The morning after the earthquake, Hatakeyama rushed to the city center, only to find his mother's body on the second floor of the three-story nursing home.
The waves washed away just about all of Hatakeyama's business, including 70 oyster rafts, five boats and machinery. The total damage is expected to reach about 200 million yen ($2.5 million).
Hatakeyama said he was unsure if he would be able to hold an annual tree-planting ceremony, a key event in his organization's activities.
"I can't really think about anything right now," Hatakeyama said, looking out to the water. "But no matter what happens, I believe that there is no way a fisherman can live away from the sea."