NATORI, Miyagi Prefecture--Walking through the scarred landscape of Natori's Yuriage district, in Miyagi Prefecture, Yuko Tanno tells visitors of the destruction left behind by last year's tsunami.
NATORI, Miyagi Prefecture--Walking through the scarred landscape of Natori's Yuriage district, in Miyagi Prefecture, Yuko Tanno tells visitors of the destruction left behind by last year's tsunami.She tells of the 740 residents who lost their lives, of the buildings swept away in the blink of an eye, and of a son who never came home."A town full of life was lost in an instant. I want you to remember that," she tells her listeners, often fighting back tears.Tanno, 43, lost her eldest son, Kota, then 13, and her mother-in-law and father-in-law in the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake.Now, to keep their memory alive, she volunteers twice a month at the "Yuriage no Kioku" (Memory of Yuriage) center, housed in a simple prefabricated structure. The center was built by a nonprofit organization to convey the horrors of the disaster, and monitors show photos and videos of tsunami taken by local residents and others. Nearly 100 people a day visit the house each weekend, and many hear Tanno's story.On March 11, 2011, after attending a thank-you party at the local junior high school where her eldest daughter graduated, she evacuated with others to a community hall. From the second floor, she watched as black water covered the town and wondered where her son was.When she comes to Yuriage now, she says she still smells the tsunami, and thinks of Kota, who went to a friend's house and never returned. Telling about the disaster is difficult for her, and sometimes she grows stiff and weeps uncontrollably.She wonders, “Why did I survive while Kota died?” That thought compels her to speak.“Kota cannot talk any more. So I talk for him. By doing so, I want many people to remember that Kota and my husband's parents were living in this town,” Tanno says.In order to reconstruct the damaged areas, the Natori city government plans to create residential areas by elevating grounds and to attract plants and firms to coastal areas. However, opinions of local residents in the city are divided over the reconstruction plan.Tanno herself is at a loss as to whether to return to the Yuriage district or not.“I want my daughter to live in a safe place,” she said. “But I feel that Kota is still walking through the town of Yuriage. If we leave there, Kota will move on to a different world from ours.”