ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Recovered personal items that were washed away by the March 2011 tsunami are on display for the last time at an exhibition that opened March 1 in this northern seaside city.
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Recovered personal items that were washed away by the March 2011 tsunami are on display for the last time at an exhibition that opened March 1 in this northern seaside city.
Discolored wedding photos, water-damaged award certificates and spirit tablets are among the many items shown at the Kahoku Sogo Center.
The Ishinomaki city government held the first such exhibition in May 2011. The current exhibition, which runs until March 11, will be the city’s last one.
“We want to return as many of the memorabilia to their owners as possible,” said a city government official.
By the end of January 2014, the municipal government had returned about 230,000 recovered items to their owners.
In July 2012, Ishinomaki set up computer terminals in city government offices and other areas that enabled visitors to view photographs of items recovered after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.
Since 2013, however, the number of users of the terminals has decreased, sometimes fewer than 10 people a month.
The city government currently has about 150,000 recovered photos and about 3,000 other objects. If it is unable to locate the owners, the government said the items will be incinerated after a Buddhist priest holds a memorial service for them.