YAMADA, Iwate Prefecture--Despite the hardships facing his family, a high school student in this northeastern town regularly photographs images of his changing hometown that was devastated by the March 11 tsunami.
YAMADA, Iwate Prefecture--Despite the hardships facing his family, a high school student in this northeastern town regularly photographs images of his changing hometown that was devastated by the March 11 tsunami.
"Piles of rubble, empty lots. I want to document how they will all change," said Jun Saito, 18, a third-year student at the Prefectural Yamada Senior High School.
On the 11th day of every month, Saito has taken shots at identical angles from identical locations using his small digital camera.
He makes the rounds of four sites on his bicycle, including a junior high school and what used to be a square in front of a station.
The first spot is from the rooftop of the town hall that commands a view of the entire town.
The houses that crowded the plots of land are now gone. The steel skeleton of a scorched building is the lone remaining object in sight.
"Clearance work is going ahead," he said.
Saito lived in a riverside home near the shore. He fled with his grandmother and mother after the magnitude-9.0 quake rocked the area on March 11.
The receding waves carried his two-story house far off the coast, and it took him days to get in touch with his father, elder sister and younger brother.
A foundation, covered in rubble, was all that was left of his house when he visited the site a week later. He photographed the site with his cellphone camera because he heard that the plot would be cleared away.
"I have experienced something unimaginable like this. I would rather document it all," he said he began to think.
His father bought him a digital camera of the same model that he had previously owned.
His family continues to struggle three months after the disaster struck. The family has applied three times for temporary housing, but to no avail.
They are now separated. Saito and his father are staying with a relative in Yamada. His brother, who attends another senior high school, lives with his mother and grandmother in neighboring Miyako. His sister lives in Morioka where she works.
In Saito's eyes, the rebuilding of the town runs parallel with the restart of his family's life.
"When I have a child one day, I want to show him and tell him how our native town has changed its shape," he said.