RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Prefecture--Rikuzentakata, a city devastated by last year’s Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, set up an official Facebook page for its “miracle pine tree” on July 5.
RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Prefecture--Rikuzentakata, a city devastated by last year’s Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, set up an official Facebook page for its “miracle pine tree” on July 5.Titled “Ganbappeshi Rikuzentakata” (Let’s hang in there, Rikuzentakata), the Facebook page (“We want to leave it as a symbol as we work toward recovery,” Rikuzentakata Mayor Futoshi Toba said. “I want to ask the entire world for assistance.”The tsunami killed nearly 70,000 pine trees of the renowned Takata Matsubara forest on the city's coast on March 11 last year, leaving just one 270-year-old pine tree standing.It became a symbol of hope for the disaster survivors, but the tree is now dying because of the salt water left in the ground by the tsunami.The city needs an estimated 150 million yen ($1.88 million) for preservative treatment to save the tree.