* * *
One thing about Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. They are not big on formalities, especially when they are touring areas hit by natural disaster.
This was particularly evident when they visited Iwate Prefecture to meet with victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The couple went out of their way to ensure that their presence did not cause problems to those whose lives had abruptly, often tragically, been uprooted.
They arrived in Kamaishi on May 6 and took a small bus used by the Self-Defense Forces to Kamaishi Junior High School, which was turned into an evacuation center, about five kilometers away.
Normally, local police will organize residents into groups lined up every several hundred meters or so when the imperial couple ventures out of Tokyo.
However, the Iwate prefectural police had their hands full dealing with the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Disaster victims stood at random along the route taken by the imperial couple and welcomed them by waving their hands.
Sitting in the first row of the bus, Akihito and Michiko stood up whenever they found disaster victims waving to them and moved to their left and right in order to acknowledge them.
Although it was May, this was northern Iwate Prefecture, and a cold wind blew into the bus.
Sitting directly behind the imperial couple was Iwate Governor Takuya Tasso, 50. He was concerned that the imperial couple might catch a cold, so he tried to close the bus window.
"When I tried to do so, the emperor turned around and told me, 'Please keep it open,'" Tasso said.
When the imperial couple were meeting disaster victims at Kamaishi Junior High School, an aftershock measuring 3 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 hit the area.
Yoshie Otomo, 57, an official with the Iwate prefectural government, became concerned about the safety of the imperial couple.
Both Akihito and Michiko were unfazed. When the aftershock hit, Michiko was standing next to a woman in her 70s who was taken by surprise by the shaking and instinctively reached out for Michiko's hand. The empress responded by squeezing the woman's hand and told her, "Everything will be alright."
Before visiting Iwate, the imperial couple had made it known that they wanted to offer prayers in Pacific coastal areas for those who perished in the disaster.
Because of fears of tsunami triggered by aftershocks, however, it was decided the couple would view coastal areas from the air.
Akihito and Michiko boarded an SDF helicopter and flew northward along the Sanriku coast from Kamaishi to Miyako.
They were pained by the destruction of the communities below.
As they were flying over Otsuchi, Tasso told them, "In Otsuchi, the mayor died in the tsunami."
Akihito asked, "Where is the town government building located?"
In 1997, the imperial couple visited Otsuchi to attend a national conference seeking to create a more bountiful ocean. They stayed in the Namiita Kanko Hotel, a five-story structure. The tsunami generated by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake flooded the hotel up to the third floor.
A general sinking of ground foundation drastically changed the topography in Otsuchi and led to the loss of much of the "chirping sands" coast that produced a unique squeaking sound when people walked on it.
Michiko turned to her husband and said, "You walked along that coast down there, didn't you?"
About seven months later, at the annual New Year Poetry ceremony held in January 2012, the theme for the traditional "waka" poems was "kishi" (shore).
Akihito's poem was a remembrance of flying from Kamaishi to Miyako by helicopter.
"Tsunami koshi/ Toki no kishibe wa/ Ikanarishi to/ Miorosu umi wa/ Aoku shizumaru" (What was it like then/ When the tsunami came to shore/ I look down and wonder/ Below me spreads the blue sea/ Quiet and perfectly still).
* * *
The previous installments of this series are available at:
(1):
(2):
(3):
(4):
(5):
(6):