A mother was lamenting the loss of her child in the tsunami when she saw the infant's toy making noises and moving across the floor by itself.
Another grieving person saw "grandmother sitting in the 'engawa' (veranda) with a smile on her face, dressed in the same clothes as she was wearing when she went out on the morning of the day she was swept to her death."
These are just two of the reported supernatural occurrences included in a book by established nonfiction writer Shuji Okuno.
Okuno has compiled these mystical tales told by survivors of the 2011 tsunami that devastated the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan in his new book “Tamashii Demo Iikara, Soba ni Ite” (Be with me even if you are a spirit), published by Shinchosha Publishing Co.
The journalist was first baffled when a doctor friend in Miyagi Prefecture told him in 2012 that some survivors had been talking about ghostly experiences.
Eventually, the prolific writer and winner of the prestigious Oya Soichi and Kodansha nonfiction awards found himself wanting to listen to stories about the living yearning to meet the dead.
The problem for Okuno was that there was no way of verifying the accounts of those grieving.
Okuno spent three and a half years gathering material for his book. He visited disaster-stricken areas almost every month in search of people willing to discuss their weird experiences.
Based on his many years of experience as a journalist, Okuno decided to see each person at least three times. He would simply listen for about three hours during the first meeting, and start asking a few questions during the second meeting. By making contact with people in such a courteous manner, even those of few words opened up to the experienced journalist.
As a result, the writer was convinced of the certitude of “facts” told by the survivors.
One man who lost a 22-month-old daughter as well as his wife said he has mysterious experiences when he gets sick of living. He also writes in his notebook about how he spent time with the two in his dreams and draws sketches of the scenes.
On one occasion, his wife told him she was waiting for him. He has her words etched in his mind as his “ultimate hope” and uses them as a crutch to keep on living until he is reunited with them in the afterlife some day, according to Okuno.
“When we lose someone dear to us, we can’t have a 100-percent ‘restoration of the heart.’ And certainly, we have moments when we experience things that can only be described as a mystery,” the author said. “Those who encounter such stories should not label them as absurd and neglect them but instead embrace them. By doing so, I think we can come to terms with our sorrow one step at a time.”