Evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster began arriving in their hundreds and chaotic scenes were unfolding at the site of a former school in Saitama Prefecture designated to house them.
Officials overseeing the influx were working without rest and barely able to keep track.
A phone call from the Imperial Household Agency on March 31, 2011, suddenly made everything seem much more urgent.
In the 9:40 a.m. call, an agency official asked Noriko Fujino, an official in the secretariat section of the Saitama prefectural government, to prepare for a visit by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on April 8, just over a week away.
"Their majesties want to visit the evacuees from Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, who moved to the former Kisai Senior High School," Fujino, 52, quoted the agency official as saying.
The imperial couple had visited disaster victims at the Tokyo Budo-kan gymnasium only the day before.
Futaba is one of two municipalities that hosted the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Many of the residents, including the town government from Mayor Katsutaka Idogawa to lower-level officials, had evacuated en masse to Saitama Prefecture after the triple meltdowns triggered by the earthquake and tsunami disaster.
The evacuees initially stayed at the multipurpose Saitama Super Arena. But with events scheduled there from April, the evacuees had to move again.
Saitama Governor Kiyoshi Ueda, 66, realized that the evacuation would likely be prolonged and arranged for buildings formerly occupied by Kisai Senior High School in Kazo to be used. The high school shut in 2008 after merging with another senior high school.
Ueda contacted Idogawa, now 68, to gain his approval and preparations to receive the evacuees moved into high gear. Tatami mats, donated by a local cooperative of tatami mat makers, were laid on classroom floors. Neighborhood women volunteered to clean the high school building.
The move from the Saitama Super Arena got under way on March 30. Fujino received the phone call from the Imperial Household Agency just as the evacuees arrived at the former Kisai Senior High School.
The agency official asked Fujino to come to the agency on April 4 to present a briefing on the preparations being made for the imperial visit.
Fujino swung into action, knowing that annual personnel changes in the prefectural government would take effect April 1, the start of the new fiscal year. She knew it would be much more difficult to contact the relevant officials once the personnel changes had been made. She visited the former Kisai Senior High School on the afternoon of March 31.
She carefully combed the high school site where the Futaba evacuees had just arrived. Based on that inspection, she marked out the precise route in her mind that the emperor and empress would use when they visit the evacuees.
On a sheet of paper, Fujino also listed the locations in Saitama Prefecture the imperial couple should stop at, as well as the expected times of arrival and departure.
With the paperwork in hand, she visited the Imperial Household Agency on April 4.
An agency official asked her: "How many people are in each of the classrooms? What is the average age of the evacuees?"
Fujino was at a loss for words.
The number of evacuees was swelling on a daily basis. The first group that arrived numbered 1,300 or so. But by April 4, at least another 100 evacuees had turned up. The number of evacuees in each classroom also changed by the day.
Neither the Saitama prefectural government nor the Futaba municipal government were in a position to accurately grasp the overall picture.
On April 6, two days before the scheduled visit, officials from the Imperial Household Agency as well as the police went to the high school to assess security risks.
The itinerary called for the emperor and empress to immediately meet with the evacuees after arrival without time for even a break.
As far as Saitama prefectural government officials were concerned, the 80 or so Futaba municipal government workers who had all moved to Kazo looked exhausted. Although those local government workers were themselves evacuees, they had to handle every aspect of the human tide, from deciding which rooms the evacuees would occupy to the distribution of "bento" box lunches and other supplies. An added responsibility was to try to ensure the evacuees remained in good health.
The Futaba government workers were functioning on "remote." Saitama prefectural government officials suspected the Futaba workers did not have the time nor the energy to prepare for such an exalted visit.
Idogawa, the Futaba mayor, asked a Saitama prefectural government official, "What should I tell the Futaba residents?"
Imperial Household Agency officials had already cleared that hurdle, telling the Saitama prefectural government: "Do not give out any instructions to the evacuees."
In the end, Saitama officials asked Idogawa to tell the Futaba evacuees to behave as naturally as possible in the presence of the emperor and empress.
The couple arrived a little past 3 p.m. on April 8.
Akihito walked up to Idogawa, who was wearing a disaster management uniform, and said: "You have faced a terrible situation. I hope you will look after your health and do your best for the evacuees."
Idogawa wanted to tell the emperor how his town of Futaba had suffered since the accident. But since he had evacuated with literally the clothes on his back, he had no reference material with him to explain about the damage from the quake and tsunami.
All he could do was present a pamphlet about the town that was published pre-3/11 and say, "This is how the town once was."
The office formerly occupied by the school principal was taken over by the mayor. Ueda, the Saitama governor, explained what the prefectural government had done to make the evacuees as comfortable as possible.
"We at the Saitama prefectural government dispatched doctors, public health nurses and massage therapists to ensure that the evacuees do not experience a decline in their health," Ueda said.
The emperor and empress thanked Ueda for what the prefectural government had done in such difficult circumstances.
When Akihito and Michiko left the principal's office, evacuees were lined along both sides of the hallway. Some of the evacuees were taking photos with their mobile phones. Although normally officials would clamp down on such activity, Saitama prefectural government workers and the police did nothing because they had been told not to interfere.
The imperial couple walked right up to the evacuees and talked with them separately.
Ueda vividly recalls that scene, even though three years have passed.
In an interview in his office, the governor leaped from his chair and got on his knees to show how the imperial couple spoke to the evacuees.
"They talked to the evacuees while maintaining eye contact at the same height by either kneeling or bending over," Ueda explained. "That posture is a very tiring one. But they kept that posture throughout the visit. I felt that they were truly concerned about the evacuees."
For his part, Idogawa had mixed emotions as he trailed the imperial couple.
"I was truly moved by the visit of their majesties and truly appreciative," Idogawa said. "But, at the same time, I became acutely aware that we had been placed in such a terrible situation."
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