As she celebrated the Rakuten Eagles’ first Pacific League baseball title on Sept. 26, team cheerleader Sawayaka Nagai thought of the devastated Tohoku region's long struggle since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami to reach this joyous moment.
As she celebrated the Rakuten Eagles’ first Pacific League baseball title on Sept. 26, team cheerleader Sawayaka Nagai thought of the devastated Tohoku region's long struggle since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami to reach this joyous moment.
Nagai, a member of the team's Rakuten Golden Angels cheerleading squad, commutes to the Eagles’ Kleenex Stadium Miyagi in Sendai from her tsunami-stricken hometown of Ishinomaki in the same prefecture.
She said when she cheers on the team, a symbol of hope for the region, she hopes spectators won't forget the areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
She had just graduated from high school when the earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.
She was at her grandmother’s home in the city’s Minato district. With other residents, she fled to the nearby Makiyama mountain by truck and ended up staying near the top for a week. She could not return to her home because the parking lots and roads were filled with cars.
Evacuees grilled scallops, loaded in someone’s vehicle, and shared them among themselves. They shared a small amount of milk they had as well.
“All I could do was survive,” Nagai recalled.
She gasped in surprise when she first saw her devastated town. Her grandmother’s house and the elementary school that held so many memories for her had been swept away by tsunami.
Nagai walked around, getting covered in mud from head to toe, but she could not even find a sign of the former road to her school.
Stunned, she was unable to think about anything for a while. She could not take a bath, either, and survived on food delivered by volunteers.
Water left behind by the tsunami had pooled beneath her family's home. It took some time until they were able to live in it again after repair work was done.
When Nagai revisited Sendai’s city center a few months after the disaster, she found that stores were back open for business and that people had regained a sense of normalcy.
“What a difference,” she said to herself, comparing it to the situation in Ishinomaki.
Soon, she learned of auditions for the Eagles’ cheerleading squad, the Angels, from a younger member of her high school cheerleading club. Joining the Angels had been Nagai's dream since she was in high school. She felt happy just by watching them.
She then remembered her friends who lived in provisional housing or volunteers who came to help victims.
“I want to bring smiles to their faces by my cheers,” she thought. “I want many people to learn about the disaster-stricken areas.”
She went to an audition and poured out what was in her mind. She was accepted into the squad.
When the Angels attended games played by farm teams in Ishinomaki or Minami-Sanriku, Eagles fans came from nearby provisional housing units.
“Thank you for coming all the way,” fans told the Angels. “Give it your all so the Eagles will win!”
She realized the Eagles were encouraging the disaster survivors, which in turn gave her more motivation.
The next goal of the Eagles is to win the Japan Series. To help that happen, Nagai said she will dance and cheer to her fullest potential.
She said she believes that if the Eagles capture the national baseball championship, the happiness of the people in the disaster-stricken region will touch the nation even more deeply.