Yuka Kobayashi hopes that her daughter, born a day after the Great East Japan Earthquake in a quake-hit area, will learn about the disaster and speak about its meaning someday.
Yuka Kobayashi hopes that her daughter, born a day after the Great East Japan Earthquake in a quake-hit area, will learn about the disaster and speak about its meaning someday.
Kobayashi, 28, took her daughter, Yukia, to her parents' home in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, a city devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, at the end of July.
She spent a day taking Yukia around the disaster area in a car. In one weed-strewn location, members of a bereaved family were weeping before a bonfire set up to guide the souls of their beloved ones.
"I wanted my daughter to see the quake-hit area even though she will not remember it," Kobayashi said.
Yukia was born early on March 12 at Iwate Prefectural Miyako Hospital, which relied on an in-house emergency power generator, while strong aftershocks continued.
Kobayashi returned to her home in Tokyo's Suginami Ward with her husband, Masatoshi, 42, two weeks later.
Yukia, who weighed 2,544 grams at birth, now weighs three times more.
Kobayashi is pleased with her daughter's growth over the six months, but feels sad when she thinks about tsunami victims.
Kobayashi spent five days in the Miyako hospital. She shared her room with a woman who lost her husband and survived with her child and another whose family members remained missing after her home was washed away.
At night, she heard people weeping behind curtains that separated their beds in the room.
"Many people lost their lives, and new lives have come into the world," Kobayashi said.
Kobayashi feels that she is responsible for nurturing one of those new lives.