Ms. K (a woman in her 70’s)Ｋさん、７０歳代

September 7, 2016 On 3.11, I was in the hospital due to my leg problems. I was watching the tsunami washing away buildings and cars. I thought Japan was sinking. I saw my house and my sweets shop being washed away too. My husband evacuated with my mother in-law to a community center nearby. First, they tried to leave with a car. But a roof tile fell on the car, and it was no longer in the condition to drive. So, they walked instead. My husband returned to the shop to clean but felt the tsunami was coming. He evacuated right away and was saved. If he was one minute late to evacuate, he would not have survived. There was no food stocked at the hospital, so I also stayed in a shelter for a while. I met supporters and volunteers from all over Japan and overseas there. They were eagerly listening to my story. Especially foreigners who didn't speak Japanese tried to understand me. Their goodwill helped me out. The next day of the tsunami, my husband returned to the place where the shop was. He put up a sign board that said “I’ll reopen my shop here” and was cleaning up debris in sludge there by himself. Dark colored sludge was from the bottom of the sea. First, the Self Defense Force came to help then volunteers came. I was surprised by the youth energy. When I was young, I never thought of volunteering. I like to talk about my experience from the disaster and started talking about it since the day after the disaster. People who lost someone may not talk like me. I can heal myself by talking to others. In spring of 2015, we reopened the shop. One of the volunteers who also owned a sweets shop was about to close his business and donated his machines to make sweets. He brought the machines and tools from his own shop and set them up for us. We have never used this kind of machines before, so it was a bit difficult at first. Our shop has 140 years of history, and there is a stone warehouse behind the shop. The glass case which was on the upper shelf in this stone warehouse was saved, and we are using it in the shop now. In the stone warehouse, there also were vermilion-lacquered trays for ceremonial functions. We are using them now for displaying sweets. To save life is the most important thing. If we lost life, we can’t do anything. Around here almost all the buildings were washed away by the Tsunami. Our shop was damaged but the frame was kept. So, volunteers stopped by asking for directions. They came in when we were cleaning and turned to smile saying “this was a sweets shop, wasn’t it?” Roads were messed up with flipped ships and cars, but they still came in and asked for directions.