By IPPEI NAKATA / Staff Writer
By IPPEI NAKATA / Staff Writer
At first glance, a new photo-sharing website looks like so many others dedicated to the unique sights of Japan: local summer festivals filled with smiles and fun; fishermen praying for a bountiful catch; the colors of a Tanabata star festival.
But these photos tell the story of a region in happier times. On March 11, the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami devastated the picturesque Tohoku region.
Following the big quake, people around the world saw only the images of devastation from Tohoku. But on the social networking site Twitter, Nanaka Shimotani read a tweet asking if there was a website that provides photos taken in those disaster-stricken areas before the big quake and tsunami struck.
Shimotani, president of Rafco Inc., a web system development company in Tokyo's Nakano Ward, went to work with her staff, creating the website "Tohoku Memorial Gallery." Nearly 6,000 pictures have been submitted to the gallery since its launch April 21.
"I hope the site will help earthquake victims imprint images of their hometowns in their minds," Shimotani, 45, said. "I also hope the website will help them sort out things in their minds and help them start over."
The website posts photos taken in hardest-hit Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, as well as from Aomori, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures. The photos are arranged by municipalities.
Shimotani admits there are people who do not want to see the photos.
"I understand some people do not feel like seeing the photos after going through a too painful experience," Shimotani said.
Still, she knows there is a need to show the region the way it was, and adds, "I hope to keep managing the website so that such people can see the photos in the future, even if it is 10 years from now."
Anyone with photos from Tohoku can post them by registering their e-mail address and other information and input the location and time of the photos.
To access the Tohoku Memorial Gallery: (http://www.tohoku-pics.net/)