Understandably, Sanriku Railway Co. driver Minoru Yasumiishi stepped on the pedal to sound the train horn a bit longer than usual when a train he was driving went through the 3,907-meter Kuwadai Tunnel in Ofunato in late June.
Understandably, Sanriku Railway Co. driver Minoru Yasumiishi stepped on the pedal to sound the train horn a bit longer than usual when a train he was driving went through the 3,907-meter Kuwadai Tunnel in Ofunato in late June.
Despite being haunted by a close call in the Great East Japan Earthquake, Yasumiishi has vowed to be on the first train after services are fully resumed on the line.
Sanriku Railway has two lines that run along the coast of southern Iwate Prefecture. Much of the South Ria Line was devastated by the March 11 tsunami.
On that fateful day, Yasumiishi, 40, was driving a railcar from Sakari to Kamaishi when the quake struck at 2:46 p.m.
He still vividly recalls the fear he felt. There were two passengers on his train and he noticed they had placed small bags on the baggage rack.
Thinking they were likely tourists, he stopped the train for about a minute before entering the Kuwadai Tunnel. That allowed his passengers to view Yoshihama Bay from their train seats.
After the train entered the tunnel, it swayed violently and Yasumiishi heard over the radio from the train operation room someone shouting, "Stop! Stop!"
The train had traveled 1,377 meters into the tunnel.
Using the local dialect to assure the passengers, Yasumiishi told them that he would have to inspect the rails.
What he thought about was an accident 15 years ago in Hokkaido when a tunnel collapsed onto a national road. To check on the situation, he left the driver's seat and used a flashlight to return to the tunnel entrance at the rear of the train. Aftershocks caused adhesive connecting tunnel parts to fall and he often lost his footing on the railroad crossties and gravel.
One of the passengers was Fujio Ukisu, 61, a dairy rancher from Nasu-Shiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, who was also a railway fan.
"Although I was afraid, there was nothing I could do but wait until the driver returned," Ukisu recalled.
Yasumiishi found that the tracks had buckled outside of the tunnel. He returned to the train and escorted the two passengers outside of the tunnel.
They hitchhiked using two vehicles and after about two hours reached the Ofunato city hall about 15 kilometers away.
It was only later that Yasumiishi learned that the tracks beyond the tunnel had been washed away by the tsunami. If he had not stopped the train for that one minute before entering the tunnel, the train and everyone on it would likely have been swept away.
Thinking about that possibility, Yasumiishi had a number of dreams about the incident.
In those dreams, the tunnel collapses and he is criticized in the media for leaving the driver's seat. All the dreams end with negative results.
However, in a company meeting about safety held in May, Yasumiishi was praised for his judgment and actions.
Tetsu Yoshida, 47, the acting head of the train operations department, said, "After communications were cut off, I could only pray for their safety. I think he made the best choice."
From late April, because of the abbreviated service on the south line, Yasumiishi began working on the North Ria Line about 55 kilometers to the north twice a month. On the route between Miyako and Omoto that he operates, there are 16 tunnels. His fear has still not completely disappeared.
On June 24, about 100 days from the quake and tsunami, he was transporting the only diesel car from the South Ria Line that survived that day and he would pass through the same Kuwadai Tunnel, where he sounded his train's horn.
It is estimated that it will take three years for full service to be restored to the Sanriku Railway. Yasumiishi is thinking about being the driver on the first train after that full resumption of service, despite that harrowing experience in the Great East Japan Earthquake that he lived to tell about.