A plastic boundary marker belonging to a town in northeastern Japan, swept out to sea by the March 2011 tsunami and ending up on a beach in Canada, has made the long journey back home, thanks to a group of college volunteers.
A plastic boundary marker belonging to a town in northeastern Japan, swept out to sea by the March 2011 tsunami and ending up on a beach in Canada, has made the long journey back home, thanks to a group of college volunteers.
When the students from the Tokyo-based International Volunteer University Student Association (IVUSA) visited Ucluelet, British Columbia, in March to clear debris that had drifted there from the disaster, they were asked to return the marker to the town of Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture.
Ucluelet Mayor Bill Irving, who learned that the IVUSA had assisted recovery efforts in Yamamoto, made the request.
Irving added that he hoped that the town will exhibit the sign in a conspicuous manner, and its return will bolster friendship exchanges with Canada.
Hiroki Takai, 32, an IVUSA staff member, is expected to consult with Yamamoto town officials on how to present and exhibit the post.
“Bonds were formed as a result of the disaster,” he said. “We want to utilize the connection.”
Residents of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island, discovered the marker on a beach in March 2013. It is about 60 centimeters tall and has the town's name engraved on the upper portion.
After inquiries to Japanese living in Canada, town officials handling environmental issues learned that it came from Yamamoto.
The IVUSA dispatches volunteers, who are college students in Japan, in and out of the nation on assignments.
Yamamoto, a coastal town devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, was one such site where IVUSA assigned volunteers. They helped evacuees in
temporary housing and other recovery efforts in the town on about a monthly basis.
In Ucluelet, the 70 Japanese volunteers recovered and sorted through about 10 tons of debris that collected on the beaches, including fishing nets and pillars of houses.
According to an Environment Ministry estimate, about 5 million tons of wreckage was swept out into the Pacific Ocean by the raging tsunami.
They visited Ucluelet at the suggestion of Takai, who previously was involved in clearing wreckage that had washed ashore from the tsunami in the Canadian town. When the disaster ravaged the Tohoku region, he was studying in Vancouver. He returned to Japan last year.
Of this, 70 percent sank in Japan’s coastal waters and the rest drifted across the ocean. Localities along the western coasts of Canada and the United States began reporting the arrival of some of the debris in late 2011. But the bulk is expected to reach those shores through autumn, totaling about 400,000 tons by October.
The Japanese government has offered a total of $6 million (612 million yen) to localities in the United States and Canada to help dispose of the wreckage.