By Seth Browner

                        Humans are in contact with nature everyday. Nobody is scared or endangered by a benign rainstorm. However, natural disasters are chilling reminders that the same natural forces that surround humankind everyday, such as waterways, the sun, or storms, also have the potential to cause misery. When nature destructively disrupts human activity, or regrettably takes human life, there is a narrative that comes along with these experiences. This fact holds true in respect to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which ravaged Japan’s northeastern coast and left everyone who survived with a story to tell. By comparing multiple accounts, one can determine how victims survived, what they lost, and what they gained during the course of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Everyone survivor’s story is specific. No two accounts can possibly be exactly same. Yet, there are commonalities that victims ultimately credit for their survival. Analyzing various accounts provides those who did not experience the disaster with a more clear and comprehensive picture as to the “how” of survival. To start, preparation for a natural disaster saved lives. Preparedness can be classified into two forms: individual preparedness and government preparedness. Furthermore, preparedness should take into account the immediate aftermath and the long-term one. Individually, victims had emergency preparedness supplies, like blankets and food, accessible. Toshie Abe, an assemblywoman in Higashi Matsushima City, had provisions with her before evacuating to a shelter (Toshie Abe, “Experience,” p. 11). For the most part, governments made recovery less chaotic. Municipalities established “Disaster Prevention Centers” that managed shelters, or designated areas as shelters, for evacuees and determined evacuation routes ahead of time (Masami Soto, “Experience,” p. 7). After the fact, temporary housing, maintained by city workers, gave long-term refuge to those who lost their homes; the women in this interview was living in temporary housing in June of last year (Nagako Ikeda, “Gratitude,” p. 8). Between prudence and the state, many were saved.

Additionally, some victims credit their survival to others’ kindness. These people often had little familiarity with one another, but all were in danger. For example, Ayumi Okuda escaped to her friend’s house just as the ground floor was flooding. A neighbor’s husband “led us one by one to his house…the second floor was warm with stable walls and we all felt happy and relieved” (Okuda, “Experience,” p. 5). Rikiya Aoto spent a short period of time looking for an elderly person who he did not see evacuate before Mr. Aoto fled to higher ground himself (Rikiya Aoto, “Experience,” p. 9). Firstly, these acts go beyond kindness; these are acts of bravery and leadership. There is an element of risk here that was universally understood by all those in the tsunami’s path. However, I argue that survival should consider how victims coped with the disaster after the immediate impact. After waiting in line for one hour and a half, the same man mentioned above bought potato chips for the group of evacuees he was staying with. “Let’s share and eat to survive” were his words (Rikiya Aoto, “Experience,” p. 9).

Ingenuity and proactivity played a role in many victims’ survival. Supplies were often limited yet widely needed. People were consequently forced to rely on themselves in the immediate aftermath. While taking refuge at Akai Elementary School, Toshie Abe used electric generators to cook rice while the main power was offline (Toshie Abe, “Experience,” p. 11). Others helped coordinated a small effort to find some miso and shrimp for the rice. Eventually, there was enough food for everyone, but “it didn’t easily come to us to use it. I guess we were in a panic” (Toshie Abe, “Experience,” p. 11). Another example, two men got stranded at an observation deck after the tsunami violently interrupted their workday at Seaside Adventure Park. To alert potential rescuers, they wrote a message in a rock: “five evacuated-safe” (refer to 2:25) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=142&v=Bpkpq9GDHTc). Anticipating a long stay, they also found some plastic bags and a plastic tarp in the two-wheeled cart they were pulling to make a tent (refer to 3:45). Their ordeal was short as a Self-Defense Forces helicopter arrived early in the morning. While the military stepped in to save these two survivors, they were incapable of knowing this beforehand. Their survival initiatives would have kept them unharmed had they remained trapped for a longer time period.

Like certain elements in the victims’ survival, many Japanese, and others in Tohoku during 3/11, feel they have lost similar things. Obviously, many lost family members when the tsunami hit. When Takato Matsutani’s, a survivor, eldest son walked in knee-high water to the disaster shelter alone, he saw “dead bodies” lifelessly and eerily floating in the water (Takato Matsutani, “Experience,” p. 17). It is easy for everyone to think of these people as anonymous victims, particularly for those who did not experience this sight, but they certainly were not anonymous to loved ones. Other testimonials make the loss more specific. Kazuko Hiratsu, a worker in a nori-processing factory, lost her older sister: “her body was found near the industrial plant nearly two months later” (Kazuko Hiratsu, “Experience,” p. 29). In this class’s conversation with Amya Miller, a volunteer worker, we learned how death was such a common experience in Rikuzentakata- “everyone lost someone” (Amya Miller, 4/10/15, Hartford). The nature of these deaths is a commonality as well; they are all unexpected and unfair.

Similarly, many people lost their possessions or homes. One married couple, the wife was interviewed at the Sendai City Library, lost their home and many valuables in the aftershock on April 7, 2011. The main earthquake already damaged their home. Many of their neighbors lost their homes as well. Eventually, every house on the street was demolished and the government has removed the rubble in preparation for rebuilding (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=165&v=jTLkdOQQ93k). While this couple’s ordeal is relatively minor compared to that of the tsunami victims, they were impacted nonetheless. Another man’s home in Miyagino-ku suffered substantial damage in the tsunami. After the deluge, the floorboards were covered in mud and past the point of repair. The tiles on the roof were almost entirely stripped away and all the furniture was washed into the ocean (refer to 10:42) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=641&v=XaimwtqIQNc). Furthermore, this loss had an emotional toll: the land on which the home was built has been passed down for several generations. The owner has lived there for seventy-five years (refer to 17:43). As of 2011, the home was in the process of being refurbished and he plans to bequeath it in the future. These two situations above are similar in multiple senses. While both people lost their homes, they are also rebuilding. As this essay will go on to discuss, there is sometimes more to a survival story than loss.

Many survivors reported in interviews that the tsunami altered their sense of what constitutes a meaningful life. Gratitude was what most survivors felt they gained. The ordeal gave some survivors with an appreciation for things previously taken for granted. For example, Ayumi Okuda, the owner of a hair salon, stated that “when I felt I was finally safe, I sincerely felt that I didn’t need anything else as long as I was alive. Since I survived, I would like to live the rest of my life never forgetting that feeling” (Ayumi Okuda, “Gratitude,” p. 3). Yasuko Kitaura, an employee in a restaurant, felt she became more sacrificial. Ms. Kitaura desires to “live life to the fullest for myself as well as for the people who lost their lives in the disaster” (Yasuko Kitaura, “Gratitude,” p. 14). Even if people were physically unharmed by the tsunami, the experience was clearly life changing. Surviving a disaster is a sobering because it shows how all the possessions and success we pursue, sometimes without deep reflection, can be taken away instantaneously. Ms. Kitaura mentioned how her new life philosophy is true for her and the victims of 3/11. This comment displays the universal importance of prioritizing happiness; the disaster cut short so many people’s opportunities to find it. In some ways, seeking happiness is a method of standing in solidarity- a concept known as itai in Japan (refer to 1:20) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=82&v=Jfodp-95-cE).

Many people gained friends or maintained friendships more dedicatedly as a result of their experiences. Masao Takeda lost his wife in the tsunami and he feels crushingly lonely without his late partner. In the evacuation shelter, Mr. Takeda met a Canadian girl named Elizabeth who brought flowers to a Buddhist altar with a picture of his wife (Masao Takeda, “Gratitude,” p. 2). The two developed a playful and sanguine relationship by the time she left Japan. He called her “grandpa” and they were exchanging postcards as of 2012 (Masao Takeda, “Gratitude,” p. 2). The terror of the tsunami inspired others to maintain friendships, after learning why living a meaningful life is crucial. Seiko Shinoyama, who moved to Miyagino Ward after the disaster, makes a deliberate effort to keep in contact with childhood friends. “I have to live as long as possible” was the last line in his interview (Seiko Shinoyama, “Gratitude,” p. 16). Mr. Shinoyama clearly has hope that people can recover.

A final example of friendships, Shichigo Elementary School was converted into an evacuation center after the earthquake. Over one hundred children live at the school and each have different circumstances. Children are often forced to watch their parents struggling. Volunteers come to play with the children and make them feel comforted (refer to 2:20) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=140&v=q98QE_mQSCU). The vice principal, who was interviewed, said that the situation “is a good chance to deepen ties with the community” (refer to 8:20). These friendships are especially formative because they are being made between adults and children; the vice principal later said that these children will be “raised by this community” (refer to 8:18). The earthquake and tsunami reminded almost all the survivors what was worth pursuing. Indeed, this feeling of happiness is so satisfying that people want to experience it for as long as possible. All these companionships are critically important because they are healing mechanisms. Whether mental support is the goal of social interaction in all of the above examples, the subconscious effect is taking place. Otherwise, the survivors would not have spoken so warmly of their friendships in the interviews. Hopefully, these gains will be a powerful memory that the survivors take away from a horrific experience. There is more of life to live ahead.