Katsunobu Sakurai has run for mayor in the past, and he won that race. Now, he will run to honor victims of the March 11 disaster.
Katsunobu Sakurai has run for mayor in the past, and he won that race. Now, he will run to honor victims of the March 11 disaster.
Sakurai, the 56-year-old mayor of Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, will run the Tokyo Marathon on Feb. 26. With over a quarter of his city's land inside the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the disabled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, there are approximately 27,000 residents still unable to return to their homes.
The mayor wants to remind the entire country about the disaster victims and their determination to recover from the tragedy by running in the full-length marathon as their representative.
Just after 6 a.m. recently, Sakurai dashed off from an elementary school located about 21 km from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The mayor ran from Haramachi's Shidoke district to the Kaihama district. The strip of land where once stood homes and rice fields has become a vast wilderness, overgrown with a blanket of Japanese silver grass. More than 640 of the city's people are dead or missing.
Sakurai ran among twisted guardrails and foundations where homes once stood. Suddenly, the morning sun rose over the sea in a picturesque display.
"Last year, in May, the sunrise was a different color, a strange purple or pink,” said Sakurai. “Maybe that was because of the radiation, too."
Sakurai says the color of the sun, which reflects in his eyes as he speaks, only recently returned to normal.
The mayor has been involved with marathons for a long time. He ran every day as a student with his friend and practice partner in the track and field club, and in his 30s he participated in public marathons. Sakurai has now run at least 10 full-length marathons.
While working in agriculture and opposing the construction of industrial waste disposal facilities, he joined city council in 2003 and became mayor in 2010. All this time, running has been an essential part of his day.
That habit was suddenly interrupted last year on March 11. First came the earthquake and tsunami, then the nuclear disaster. Sakurai quickly found himself busy evacuating citizens.
The city's population of 71,000 temporarily dropped to around 10,000. Some suggested that city hall's functions be transferred to another location, but Sakurai said, "I never once thought about fleeing."
For 50 straight days he only took short breaks to sleep, wrapping himself in blankets in his office. People outside Japan were touched by his pleas for assistance on YouTube, thus showing the world the distressing situation in Fukushima. He was even named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2011.
Sakurai began running in the mornings again on May 1, when he stopped spending his nights at city hall. Since he cannot enter his home inside the 20-km evacuation zone, he stays at a friend's house at night. His "only time to himself" is when he runs.
Sakurai says he "can feel on (his) skin the sadness and frustration of the people who suddenly perished" when he runs among the rubble. This is why he wants to bury the collected rubble into an embankment for a levee forest that will help rebuild the coast, thus allowing people’s spirits to be reborn in the trees that will protect the town.
"The rubble is not just trash,” he said. “The lives of families who died remain within. The government and central bureaucracy just don't understand this."
The mayor, who has called for the abolition of nuclear power, has rejected subsidies for areas that host nuclear facilities.
The Tokyo Marathon, which winds through the capital, is the largest public marathon in Japan, with approximately 36,000 runners taking part. Suginami Ward Mayor Ryo Tanaka, who has engaged in various relief efforts since the March 11 earthquake, inspired Sakurai to run in the Tokyo event.
"It's almost been a year since the earthquake,” Tanaka told him. “If you run as a representative of the disaster victims, then you might be able to stop (memories) from fading... It would be the greatest favor you could give to all the people of Japan who have helped (your city)."
Although Sakurai has plenty of experience running public marathons, he has not run a full-length marathon since 2009. Due to all his hard work over the past several months and his advancing age, he knows fully well that completing a full 42-km marathon will be no easy task. Even so, he is determined to get it done.
"I have to do it," the mayor said.