OTSUCHI, Iwate Prefecture--A hotel next to Namiita beach that was damaged in the 2011 tsunami that killed its president and four staff members is making a fresh start under a flowery name.
OTSUCHI, Iwate Prefecture--A hotel next to Namiita beach that was damaged in the 2011 tsunami that killed its president and four staff members is making a fresh start under a flowery name.
Previously known as Namiita Kanko Hotel, the business reopened on Aug. 30 as Sanriku Hana Hotel Hamagiku, with 60 guest rooms.
Shigeru Chiyokawa, 59, who almost drowned in the tsunami, refurbished the hotel as the new president under a public subsidy program aimed at rebuilding affected small and midsize businesses.
The hotel was renamed partly because hamagiku (Montauk daisy), which grows in the hotel’s vicinity, also symbolizes “standing up against adversity.”
When the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, 43 guests were in the hotel, including many from Gojome, a town in neighboring Akita Prefecture. All the guests were able to flee to safety with the assistance of hotel staff.
But Ryutaro Yamazaki, Chiyokawa’s 64-year-old brother who was the hotel’s president at that time, their sister, Midori, 53, and three hotel employees lost their lives.
The new hotel also houses an exhibition space showing photos of the town before and after the disaster, a free meeting room for volunteers participating in the rebuilding effort, and a bath for evacuees who live in temporary housing to use on day trips.
More than 10,000 guests have already made reservations through the year-end. Many of the guests who stayed on March 11, 2011, are expected to return on Sept. 11.
But in a speech given at a party to mark the reopening of the hotel on Aug. 30, Chiyokawa expressed alarm over dwindling enthusiasm among people to help those affected by the disaster.
“When I visited various places to raise publicity about the hotel last year, I received plenty of encouragement,” he said. “But now it is like the fever is gone. I want to send out the message that many stricken areas are still struggling to rebuild.”
In 1997, the hotel had the honor of hosting Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. The empress strolled along the beach and reportedly liked the hamagiku growing there.
The town presented the royal couple with seeds of the flower, which the empress is said to have at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the couple inspected Otsuchi and other affected areas in Iwate Prefecture from aboard an aircraft.
The town lost some 1,200 people, about 10 percent of its population, in the catastrophe.