IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--Buoyed by memories of her father and grandmother, who died in the 2011 tsunami, a Fukushima woman has overcome her fears of the ocean to ride the waves again as a pro surfer.
IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--Buoyed by memories of her father and grandmother, who died in the 2011 tsunami, a Fukushima woman has overcome her fears of the ocean to ride the waves again as a pro surfer.
Yuka Kitago, 28, won in the competition organized by the Japan Pro Surfing Association in August and qualified to become a pro surfer.
Her family home once stood about 50 meters from the coast of a small bay in Iwaki. In her second year of senior high school, Yuka obtained a second-hand short board and wet suit.
Driven by a strong desire to improve, Yuka practiced surfing even after she became a company employee. She would awake at 4 a.m. and hit the waves for two or three hours before work. Even in the dead of winter, she would often spend as much as five hours in the water.
She read books about surfing and practiced her form on tatami mats. Practicing by watching others, she quickly established a name for herself among amateur surfers.
In 2010, Yuka climbed to third on the points list put out by the Nippon Surfing Association for those between ages 19 and 34 in the short board category.
She practiced almost daily until March 11, 2011.
When the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake struck, the only person at the Kitago home in Iwaki was Yuka's grandmother Sumiko, 72. Normally, Yuka lived at the Iwaki home with her parents and grandparents.
When the quake struck, Yuka's parents were both working at a supermarket in Hirono, Fukushima Prefecture. Yuka's father, Masaaki, 47, used a supermarket vehicle to drive to the Iwaki home to evacuate his mother to higher ground amid the tsunami warning. He was never heard from alive again.
Yuka waited at her workplace in Iwaki. In the evening, she climbed an embankment of the JR Joban Line situated in front of her home. The house had been totally demolished, and the only thing left standing was a large cedar tree in the yard.
The next day, Sumiko's body was recovered from the rubble that had piled up on what used to be the home. Yuka's dirtied wet suit was also found, but all her surfboards were broken.
Because of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Yuka temporarily evacuated to a relative's home in Saitama Prefecture with her mother and grandfather after they had cremated Sumiko.
In April 2011, the family returned to a relative's home in Iwaki. On the 49th day after the quake and tsunami, which also marked the final day of searching for the missing by the Self-Defense Forces, a body was found by a cliff about 500 meters from where the family home stood. It was Masaaki, still wearing a jacket labeled with the supermarket name.
Yuka became more fearful of the ocean.
In May, a friend invited her to a coastal area in Ibaraki Prefecture. Borrowing a friend's board, Yuka entered the ocean. When she was wiped out by a wave, Yuka could not help but think of how her grandmother must have suffered. Living as an evacuee, Yuka had put on about seven kilograms. She also was concerned about radiation from the nuclear accident.
She could no longer enjoy surfing as she had once loved.
About a year after the disasters, she met with five or six former classmates from elementary and junior high school. Although they had also suffered from the twin disasters, they all appeared to be enjoying their daily lives again.
Yuka realized she had made her own life a miserable one through her negative thinking.
She decided to start surfing again at Yotsukura beach, her home waters.
In August 2013, she entered the All Japan Surfing Championship held in Kochi Prefecture. The tournament is considered the highest echelon of amateur competition in Japan.
"My father and grandmother will be rewarded if I produce good results," Yuka thought, and she carried photos of the two in her bag.
She could only place second, but that was enough to give her the overall No. 1 ranking for the year. At the championship held in Miyazaki Prefecture the following year, Yuka came out on top for her first title and she again gained the annual No. 1 ranking.
At the trials held by the Japan Pro Surfing Association in Aichi Prefecture in August 2015, Yuka became the first woman from Fukushima Prefecture to qualify as a pro in the short board category. She accomplished the feat on her 28th birthday.
After the competition, Yuka returned to the site where her home once stood. Tiles have been placed at the base of the single cedar tree to serve as a simple altar.
"I have become a pro," Yuka told her father and grandmother.
Although she competed in two events as a pro in September, Yuka did not make it to the finals in either.
"I want to become better," Yuka said. "I also want to enjoy surfing without feeling any kind of pressure from anyone."