A Tokyo cartoonist has created a manga epic inspired by his own experiences in the northeastern Tohoku region devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami to “share the feelings of disaster victims.”
Takehito Shima, 42, created “Michinokuni Michitsukuru” (Creating a road in Michinokuni) because he said he felt "guilty" about not being victimized by the disaster, unlike many of his friends, and wanted to do something constructive.
The manga work consists of two volumes totaling 600 pages and is based on Shima’s 700-kilometer trip made a few years after the March 2011 catastrophe.
Shima sent a donation immediately after the earthquake and tsunami and then volunteered to remove debris in Sendai three months later.
But he said he felt impotent at the time while watching barbers cutting victims’ hair, restaurant owners cooking food for them and other specialists doing volunteer work in Tohoku.
“Manga creators are some sort of specialists. I wondered if I could do something for them,” Shima said. “No matter what reason it may be, such as a curiosity about what the region now looks like and feelings of guilt like the ones I had, I hope people who have read my manga will become interested in the quake-devastated region.”
The manga features three protagonists: a cartoonist who hopes to create work based on what he will experience while walking through the quake-ravaged region; a freelance writer who has quit his job at a media outlet after he was told to find “tragic affairs” in the quake-affected area; and a female student whose mother’s hometown was swamped by the tsunami.
All of them were not directly victimized by the disaster but feel uncomfortable. And they each represent a part of the creator’s personality, according to Shima.
The trio walk the Michinoku Shiokaze Trail, a 700-km coastal hiking road that is being developed by the Environment Ministry to link Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture and Soma in Fukushima Prefecture two and a half years after the disaster.
While traveling, they view firsthand the scars left by the earthquake and tsunami and hear the stories and feelings of victims.
A young man who appears in the comic says his family survived the disaster and they continue living in their family home after having repaired it. He is seeking employment but he declines a job offer so that another person who lost his family and house can take the opportunity.
The protagonists also meet a woman who is searching for her dog that went missing after the disaster. She says she feels a sense of guilt for searching for a pet dog when "many humans are still missing.”
After hearing stories like these, the three protagonists realize the victims have different feelings, and that local people are irritated with the delays in reconstruction efforts as well as the dimming of memories of the earthquake and tsunami.
When the three feel a sense of guilt, they lose sight of their goals. But they do not stop traveling, believing that just enjoying beautiful landscapes and local delicacies is a way of helping out.
“I felt nonvictims going to the disaster-stricken region, agonizing over something, smiling and crying, could help encourage disaster recovery,” said Shima.
The artist was born and raised in Tokyo, but his mother’s family home is in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, and he studied at a university in Sendai. He has many friends and relatives in the Tohoku region.
When thinking of how he could help, Shima watched a TV program about the Michinoku Shiokaze Trail. He had just released “Aruki Henro Zukan” (Walking pilgrim pictorial book) through Futabasha Publishers Ltd., which is themed on his pilgrimage on Shikoku island before the Tohoku disaster, and thought a reportage-like manga could become a hit.
He walked 600 km of the 700-km course alone between September and October 2013 and in March 2014, and traveled the remaining 100 km by car and train. He paid the travel expenses of 300,000 yen ($2,600) out of his own pocket.
Masato Chiba, 64, who runs a “soba” noodle shop in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, is one of the disaster victims Shima came across during his trip.
A character modeled after Chiba crops up in “Michinokuni Michitsukuru,” which, like his Shikoku book, is published by Futabasha.
“I feel he depicted the quake-hit region as it is,” Chiba commented. “(His book is) a record of the disaster and will be useful when handing down stories about the crisis from one generation to another.”