The Japan Society of Boston - Onagawa

7.10.2011 – Driving northeast from Sendai, after passing through Matsushima and Ishinomaki, we arrived at Onagawa at about 3:00 in the afternoon of Sunday, July 10. A small city of about 13,000 population, Onagawa before the disasters of March 11 was known principally for two things: its flourishing fish-processing industry and its small nuclear power plant. Located at the top of the Oshika Peninsula, Onagawa sits at the end of a short fjord-like inlet, where the port occupies the head of a narrow flatland that is surrounded on three sides by sharply rising hills. Beginning at the sea, the town has pushed its way about three miles toward the hills, taking up every inch of the long flat valley. Approached by road or train from the larger cities of Sendai and Ishinomaki to the southwest, one must come over the mountains and then descend precipitously along narrow, winding roads that follow the steep hillsides down to the sea. One first encounters Onagawa in a long view over the flatland to the distant sea. As we drove over the rise and approached that long view, we were presented with a gut-wrenching shock.