{"id":116,"date":"2021-08-23T18:52:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T18:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/jbaylis3\/rikuzentakata-part-one-an-interview-with-mayor-toba-futoshi\/"},"modified":"2021-08-23T20:21:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T20:21:16","slug":"rikuzentakata-part-one-an-interview-with-mayor-toba-futoshi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/jbaylis3\/migrated-posts\/rikuzentakata-part-one-an-interview-with-mayor-toba-futoshi\/","title":{"rendered":"Rikuzentakata, part one: an interview with Mayor Toba Futoshi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I have been away from this blog for an inexcusably long time.\u00a0 I\u2019m troubled as well as being embarrassed about this, because it seems to suggest that the disaster of March 2011 is fading into the background for me with the passage of time and the intervention of distance \u00a0\u2013 a \u201cnatural\u201d development that I thought I was managing to resist.\u00a0 My trip to Tohoku last summer gave me opportunities to interview many more people than those whose stories I have shared up to this point, and I\u2019ve been ungrateful for their time and hospitality by not doing so over the past year.\u00a0 Time to do the right thing, starting with a man who had much better things to do with an hour of his time than to meet with me: Toba Futoshi, mayor of Rikuzentakata, in Iwate Prefecture.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Rikuzentakata, 8\/9\/12<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bus ride from Sendai to Rikuzentakata takes a little more than three hours, following a rather indirect route along the saw-tooth coastline of northern Miyagi and southern Iwate Prefectures.\u00a0 In better times, I could have taken the train and arrived in less time, but as with so many other towns along the coast, the tsunami washed away much of the rails serving Rikuzentakata, as well as the station, even through it stood roughly half a mile from the shore.<\/p>\n

As the bus winds its way down into the plain at the mouth of the Kesen River on which the town once stood, it is hard to believe that this was once a city of 25,000 people.\u00a0 As with most communities that were pummeled by the tsunami, but even more so than most, the vast majority of buildings that stood here have been reduced to rubble, if not yet completely cleared away.\u00a0 What remains are a handful of larger structures \u2013 such as the city hall, and a multi-story shopping complex \u2013 which stand gutted, revealing the horrific force and height of the waves.\u00a0 Upon closer look, though, the fractured concrete foundations of a whole city cover the ground, and here and there artificial hills of collected debris disrupt the flatness of the coastal plain.\u00a0 All of them seem to be losing a battle for visibility to the relentless onslaught of weeds that set root everywhere.\u00a0 Nature, or rather a peculiarly opportunistic and feral form of it, is retaking the plain upon which the heart of the town formerly stood.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The former city hall of Rikuzentakata, where the waves overcame all but the highest roof<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\""Maiya<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMaiya Department Store,\u201d which used to stand in central Rikuzentakata. Prior to the tsunami, the areas around it would have been lined with other structures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The bus lumbers up an incline out of the plain and stops before the temporary city hall compound \u2013 \u201ctemporary\u201d because this is not its original location.\u00a0 The prefab buildings look like over-sized cubicles with roofs, bolted together in haste against the weather. \u00a0I cross the road and enter the one standing at the edge of a small parking lot.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to tell how far above the bay it is here; the water is nowhere in sight and it appears that we are well inland.\u00a0 A glance down and along the road that the bus just climbed, however, reveals the desolation left by the tsunami in the distance.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The sign for the new city hall, in front of the main prefab structure housing it<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I still have a bit more than half an hour until my appointment with the mayor, so after confirming where I will meet him, I leave the city hall and begin walking down the road that the bus brought me up.\u00a0 Not too far along, I come upon a prefab structure of similar construction as the city hall.\u00a0 A sign informs me that this is \u201cTochigasawa Base,\u201d and that it is now home to several businesses.\u00a0 The one furthest from the road is a soba restaurant.\u00a0 I decide to grab a bowl of something for lunch here and duck under the short noren<\/i> curtain in the entryway, only to find that the place is full of diners already.<\/p>\n

\"TochiBase\"<\/a>\"TochiBase2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m not really hungry, anyway, but looking to kill time, I move on to the shop next door \u2013 Iwai \u2013 which appears to specialize in pottery, a variety of items that could be nice souvenirs of the area, and a selection of the local soy sauce and sak\u00e9<\/i> brews, all so tastefully displayed that it\u2019s easy to forget that these are, after all, emergency quarters for the shop.<\/p>\n

\"Iwai1\"<\/a>\"Iwai2\"<\/a>\"Iwai3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I select a couple bottles of a local brew, Kesen (named for the river and the region), and a tee shirt for my son.\u00a0 The woman at the register asks me where I\u2019m from and what brought me to Rikuzentakata.\u00a0 I am the only customer in the shop, so we strike up a conversation.\u00a0 I ask her where her shop was located before 3\/11.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were located close to the center of town,\u201d she says, motioning as she does so into the back corner of the shop, beyond the walls of which I know lay the shattered ruins of the town.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what our neighborhood in Rikuzentakata used to look like,\u201d she adds, this time pointing to the wall across from us, which bears snapshots lined up to create a continuous panorama of a now lost shopping street.\u00a0 One of the photos is marked as the original \u201cIwai\u201d shop.<\/p>\n

\"townpanorama1\"<\/a>\"townpanorama2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt must have been tough for you,\u201d I say as I look over the photos \u2013 more to myself than to her.\u00a0 But she is standing right next to me now, looking over the same photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very difficult for us.\u201d\u00a0 She seems to say this less to me than to herself, as if reconfirming the fact.\u00a0 Then, this time to me, \u201cwe lost everything in the tsunami.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is so much I want to ask her about that day<\/i>, and what she has gone through since.\u00a0 And I get the sense from the tone in her voice that she would be willing to talk about it \u2013 maybe even that she is hoping I\u2019ll ask.\u00a0 But my time is running short.\u00a0 Feeling awkward, full of thanks and apologies, I leave the shop and begin walking at a brisk pace back up the hill to city hall.\u00a0 I glance back at Iwai after a few strides and see her waving from the entrance.<\/p>\n

A Meeting with the Mayor<\/strong><\/p>\n

I arrive back at city hall with a few minutes to spare \u2013 enough time to stop sweating from the march uphill.\u00a0 A packed cluster of gray, metal desks with people at them who seem tremendously busy stands between me and the door to Mayor Toba\u2019s office, along the far wall.\u00a0 A woman at one of the desks rises, knocks on the mayor\u2019s door, and enters \u2013 emerging after a few minutes with a group of people in business suits in tow.\u00a0 They exchange farewells, thanks, and bows with the mayor, who seems to be standing just inside the doorway.\u00a0 Then the group departs.\u00a0 I imagine that these visits go on throughout the day, and now I\u2019m next.\u00a0 After a few minutes the same woman approaches me and informs me that Mayor Toba will see me now.<\/p>\n

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\"Toba<\/a><\/p>\n

Toba Futoshi, Mayor of Rikuzentakata, in his office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He greets me with an easy-going handshake as I enter the room.\u00a0 He\u2019s a bit shorter than I had expected \u2013 it\u2019s interesting how our mental image of people who do tremendous things in the face of adversity sometimes takes on an almost cartoonish physicality in our minds.\u00a0 The man standing before me \u2013 if the American media\u2019s spin on the political situation in post-3\/11 Japan is to be believed \u2013 is Japan\u2019s \u201cangry mayor\u201d: a firebrand outsider calling for fundamental reforms in the way the Japanese government deals with reconstruction from disasters, in a way that challenges deep cultural attitudes of deference toward those with more power.\u00a0 I have also read the book he authored in the early months after the tsunami \u2013 Hisaichi no hont\u014d no hanashi o shiy\u014d<\/i>, masterfully translated into English by Amya Miller as Let\u2019s Talk About It: What Really Happened in the Disaster Area<\/i> \u2013 and his sense of frustration at bureaucratic ineptitude and red tape is palpable on many pages.\u00a0 Still, the man standing before me in a tieless short-sleeved dress shirt, with a smartly trimmed chin beard, doesn\u2019t look like a hell-raiser, nor does he seem at all worn down under the weight of adversity and frustration; on the contrary, he seems to radiate a welcoming sense of optimism and confidence.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t attempt to summarize his entire story in this posting.\u00a0 Those who are interested can obtain a copy of Amya\u2019s translation of his memoir here<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s definitely worth the price of admission.\u00a0 This is the man who watched the town he had just recently become mayor of get washed away on March 11th<\/sup>, 2011.\u00a0 He had spoken to his wife for what turned out to be the last time just moments before the quake that triggered the wave hit.\u00a0 He and others clung to an antenna on the very highest roof of the city hall and watched the tsunami rolling in from and then back out to the bay, pulling countless unfortunate neighbors out to an icy death at sea \u2013 all the while unable to do anything to save them.\u00a0 This was the man who was so overwhelmed by the responsibilities of his position in the early days after the disaster \u2013 and so conscious of the fact that the survivors were counting on him<\/i> to do whatever he could to help them \u2013 that he never reported his wife missing to the local authorities.\u00a0 His eldest son did so instead, without being asked to or even telling his father that he had filed the report.\u00a0 Out of the sheer weight of his responsibilities as mayor in a time of crisis \u2013 as well as the enormity of telling a small child that his mother had been found, but dead \u2013 Toba did not tell his youngest son the news until the day of her funeral.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to comprehend that kind of pain \u2013 the scars of trauma it must leave on the hearts of parent and child alike \u2013 yet I realize that it was by no means uncommon in areas along the Tohoku coast after March 11th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

I have an hour of his time.\u00a0 It\u2019s always difficult for me to interview busy people like this; I can\u2019t help thinking that they might be wondering why they are wasting their time with me instead of doing something important.\u00a0 I push the thought into the back of my mind and start at the beginning, no doubt covering some of the same ground Toba did in his book.\u00a0 The first question, though, is about him, before from Rikuzentakata and the tsunami.<\/p>\n

Mayor Toba is not actually a \u201cnative\u201d of Rikuzentakata, after all.\u00a0 His father was born and raised here, but Toba himself was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1965, and raised in the megalopolis environs of the Greater Tokyo Area.\u00a0 He came \u201cback home\u201d at his father\u2019s request, after Toba found himself \u201cdownsized\u201d out of his salaryman job in Tokyo in the economic fallout of the infamous collapse of Japan\u2019s \u201cbubble economy.\u201d\u00a0 His father had returned to Rikuzentakata years before, and had even gone into local politics.\u00a0 After his return, Toba also began to consider this path, eventually winning a seat as a city council member.\u00a0 More than just following in his father\u2019s footsteps, though, as someone who had been raised in the urban environment of Kant\u014d, Toba wonder why it was that the people of Rikuzentakata, living in the lap of such natural beauty, didn\u2019t seem to take pride in their city.\u00a0 He felt that through public service, he might be able to change that.\u00a0 To that end he ran for the office of mayor and was elected in February 2011 \u2013 roughly a month before the tsunami.<\/p>\n

I move on to questions about 3\/11 and the immediate days that followed.\u00a0 These are hard questions to ask \u2013 and to answer; how can one really ask, casually and in good conscience, about the worst experience of one\u2019s life, and how does one go about answering such a question?\u00a0 Toba has written about this and obviously answered the \u201cwhat happened\u201d question many, many times.\u00a0 I\u2019m more interested in how he felt \u2013 and how everyone around him did \u2013 through it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we knew what had happened \u2013 we\u2019d been hit by a tsunami \u2013 but we were at a loss for what to do.\u00a0 Should we look for survivors?\u00a0 We did at first, but the Self Defense Forces came and took the lead there.\u00a0 Problem was that in a tsunami, unlike just an earthquake, there really aren\u2019t many survivors.\u00a0 So, should we gather blankets and other supplies for the survivors? We did, but the amount that we could gather was really limited.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know what we could do that would be of help to anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was just in a state of shock.\u00a0 That\u2019s why no one cried out when the tsunami hit \u2013 we just couldn\u2019t believe this was real.\u00a0 In the days after, it began to sink in, but slowly at first.\u00a0 On top of that, though, there was the anxiety and a real sense of hopelessness.\u00a0 Everyone was feeling that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut one thing I realized was that, even in a situation like that when everything is uncertain, you can\u2019t let that anxiety show.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help anyone to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toba\u2019s vision for Rikuzentakata<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mayor seems much more interested in talking about the future of the city as a whole than about his own past.\u00a0 When he begins to describe to me what an ideal Rikuzentakata would be like, his enthusiasm is obvious.\u00a0 We get on this topic when I ask him what the omnipresent, post-3\/11 term fukk\u014d<\/i> (reconstruction, revitalization) means to him in regard to Rikuzentakata.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the most concrete level, simply rebuilding what was here before \u2013 that\u2019s what is really called fukky\u016b<\/i> in Japanese.\u00a0 That replaces what was lost, certainly, but doesn\u2019t really do anything to address the problems that were there prior to the disaster.\u00a0 In the fullest sense of the term, fukk\u014d<\/i> does just that \u2013 takes account of the problems that the city had previously, and deals with them through the reconstruction process.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, one of the biggest problems that Rikuzentakata faced before the disaster was the loss of population, particularly among younger people.\u00a0 They\u2019d leave town to go to universities or to technical colleges, or find jobs in Sendai, and thus never come back.\u00a0 This led to a vicious cycle, since fewer young people of working age meant fewer children in the area, and also fewer companies here that would employ young people of working age.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t have to be that way; I think that Rikuzentakata is a great place to raise kids.\u00a0 If there is a way to bring jobs to the city, and to promote the benefits of raising a family here to younger people, we might be able to stop and even reverse this population loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another key component of Toba\u2019s vision for rebuilding Rikuzentakata is to make it a comfortable, \u201cbarrier free\u201d city for the physically challenged.\u00a0 \u201cIf you think about it, since we lost everything \u2013 restaurants, shops, schools, even the city hall and all of our other municipal buildings \u2013 we can achieve this as we rebuild.\u00a0 We can build buildings that are completely wheelchair accessible.\u00a0 The whole town could be set up this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

I find this surprising, simply because, in general, the handicapped are not as visible in Japan as they are in similarly developed countries in North America and Europe.\u00a0 In light of this, why was the mayor of a city in a very rural (and thus supposedly \u201ctraditional\u201d) town so interested in this?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was about 20, I spent three years in Tampa as a college exchange student.\u00a0 I remember one night, shortly after I had arrived, when I was in the library studying: as I was waiting to get on the elevator, the doors opened and two people in wheelchairs got off.\u00a0 Neither of them had legs.\u00a0 This surprised me, because you didn\u2019t see people like that in public places in Japan back then.\u00a0 But I got to know quite a few people with disabilities like that while I was in Tampa.\u00a0 They were friendly to me and very out-going.\u00a0 In fact, after I was there a while, I saw all kinds of people regularly. You\u2019d go out to a bar on a Friday night, and people with disabilities would be having a good time just like everyone else. They all seemed very independent and comfortable in any social situation.\u00a0 This was new for me at first, because there was nothing like it in Japan.\u00a0 Here, people with disabilities are made to feel like they have to hide the fact from public view \u2013 or even hide themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I thought: what if we could make Rikuzentakata a place like that \u2013 a place where people with disabilities could come to visit or live and feel perfectly accepted, a place where they wouldn\u2019t have to worry about people judging them?\u00a0 To that end, I\u2019ve been thinking: The London Olympic games have just ended and soon the Paralympics will start.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be great if someday in the future Rikuzentakata could be the home of training facilities for Japanese Paralympians?\u00a0 We\u2019d have to build facilities for it, of course, but if we could realize something like that, the town would really make a name for itself as a place that overcame such extreme adversity to really do something new, important, and unique.\u00a0 I think there would be economic benefits as well to doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how would a local economy to support such unique facilities take root in a place like Rikuzentakata?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about it, no one is going to build something like a parts factory in a place like Rikuzentakata, because it\u2019s too remote \u2013 everything would have to be shipped over land of sea to get to market, or to the point of assembly, adding cost to the process, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than struggle at the periphery of the Japanese production network, Toba sees the town\u2019s future in capitalizing on its location and environment.\u00a0 Certainly IT sector jobs could be brought to Rikuzentakata, as well as revitalizing its agricultural and marine products sectors.\u00a0 He also feels that the climate, the abundance of nature, and the easy-going lifestyle afforded by its location make it a potentially attractive place for development as a retirement place for people in the northeast.\u00a0 This, in combination with the idea of making Rikuzentakata into a progressive lifestyle center for the physically challenged, would bring health care and social service jobs into the community.<\/p>\n

Rebuilding, and Red Tape<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, what stands in the way of achieving all this \u2013 or even part of it?\u00a0 The mayor becomes very emphatic in his speech and gestures as he begins to explain this to me.\u00a0 Obviously he has given this same information time and time again in interviews, and I imagine he is as tired of talking about it as he is of the situation he feels compelled to describe.\u00a0 Even so, I\u2019m greatly impressed by both his patience and his passion.<\/p>\n

Toba tells me that his frustration with bureaucratic red tape has not been lessened in the year since he wrote his book.\u00a0 Laws, rules, and regulations seem to stand in the way of every measure needed to bring about timely reconstruction and the possibility of revitalization.\u00a0 As an example, he brings up the problems involved in developing the higher ground of the hills overlooking the former city into residential areas. \u201cWe\u2019d like to develop the hills right behind this spot and put up a high-rise building with enough living units for 300 households.\u00a0 We drew up the plans for this back in October of last year, but we haven\u2019t managed to even break ground on the project yet.\u00a0 The first problem is that it involves clearing the forest, which means we have to get special dispensation for the plan under the stipulations of the Forest Act (shinrinh\u014d<\/i>).\u00a0 After that, we need to get official clearance to level the land, and then to build anything on the wide area that the city would gain as a result of that leveling, since it would be classified as a major development project (dai-kib\u014d kaihatsu<\/i>).\u00a0 In addition to this, the town\u2019s plans for rezoning and reconstruction to mitigate the loss of life in the event of future tsunamis have to be approved by various agencies at various levels of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this is where Toba voices his greatest sense of frustration: at every turn, the process seems to get bogged down by the time required to receive bureaucratic approval.\u00a0 The typical response from the agencies of the central government to any petition is that it will take at least six months to obtain approval.\u00a0 With a little cajoling, Toba says that the same bureaucrats are capable of greatly accelerating the approval process.\u00a0 What frustrates him is the fact that they never say so up front; a lengthy negotiation is always involved. The problem is that there is no coordination between agencies with different realms of authority and conflicting rules and regulations, nor is there much evidence of a will to think creatively in order to coordinate and streamline the process.\u00a0 There are natural obstacles, but it is the man-made ones, the red tape in particular, that are the most vexing.\u00a0 \u201cDo they really what to help?\u00a0 What the hell do they really want to do?\u201d\u00a0 The establishment of the Reconstruction Agency (Fukk\u014d-cho<\/i>) within the central government, a development that occurred since the publication of his book, was designed to streamline the process by coordinating the actions of the various government ministries and agencies involved.\u00a0 But Toba tells me that it has fallen short on this score: the Agency hasn\u2019t made the situation worse, but it hasn\u2019t improved things much, either.\u00a0 Despite the idea behind the new agency, most of the bureaucracies in the central government that are supposed to cooperate with it have no interest in giving up any of the authority they have over their specific jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

All of this is frustrating to Toba not only because his town is slowly dying as the bureaucrats drag their feet, but also because it presents a missed opportunity for Japan as a whole to redeem itself on the stage of international image politics.\u00a0 Here is where Toba\u2019s regional pride and a sense of national patriotism link up: \u201cThe sooner reconstruction is completed, the sooner the world will have a better image of Japan.\u201d\u00a0 Toba mentions how Japan\u2019s position in the global economy and, with it, its reputation and importance in the world, have declined.\u00a0 The bursting of the bubble was one element of this, but the problem also involves the fact that the very things that the Japanese were once so highly regarded for \u2013 the quality of their cars and electronics, just to take two examples \u2013 are now being equaled by neighboring countries like Korea.\u00a0 Japan had been left by the wayside even before March 11, 2011.\u00a0 But the disaster also provides Japan with a means of impressing the world and regaining its reputation.\u00a0 \u201cRikuzentakata has become very well-known due to the destruction we suffered.\u00a0 Now, if this city gets rebuilt in ten or fifteen years \u2013 well, you\u2019d expect that, right?\u00a0 But, what if the reconstruction could be achieved in five years, and the new Rikuzentakata was a very different and better place to live?\u00a0 The world would notice. \u2018A place that was so badly hit recovered so quickly?\u00a0 The Japanese are really incredible!\u2019\u00a0 People all over the world would see us that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

This too is the kind of vision that the bureaucrats in the central government don\u2019t seem to have; their aim is to replace infrastructure, not to create something new, like Toba\u2019s idea for a city that would be welcoming to the physically challenged.\u00a0 This is another reason why he has put his hope in the private sector.\u00a0 \u201cThese people are the innovators \u2013 there is more imagination there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rikuzentakata\u2019s \u201cmaster plan,\u201d and the problems of population and demography<\/strong><\/p>\n

At present, the survivors are in residential limbo.\u00a0 Toba tells me that there are about 2,200 kasetsu jutaku<\/i> (temporary housing units) in Rikuzentakata \u2013 and they are all full.\u00a0 \u201cThe hardest thing for the people to take is waiting to see some sort of change \u2013 nothing seems to be happening, and it frustrates them, just as it frustrates me.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s worse for them, because they don\u2019t have any way to try to push things along.\u00a0 All they see is that nothing is changing, despite the plans we have made.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cmiracle pine\u201d in the distance (left of center).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Those plans are tremendous \u2013 even without implementing Toba\u2019s \u201cbarrier free city\u201d concept from the very beginning.\u00a0 To explain it to me, he directs my attention to a survey map of Rikuzentakata from prior to the disaster. \u00a0Pointing to the southwestern edge, near the mouth of the Kesen River and the site of the \u201cmiracle pine\u201d (the only tree among a coastal forest of thousands, originally planted in the Edo period, to remain standing in the wake of the tsunami), he tells me that here the water reached a height of 13.8 meters (45.3 feet).\u00a0 This easily breached the 5.5-meter high wave wall that stood between the town and the ocean at the time, and would still surpass the height of the 12.5-meter high wall that will be built to replace it.\u00a0 The wave was even higher on the eastern side of town, reaching 18 meters (59 feet).\u00a0 The planned 12.5-meter wall will probably be more than sufficient to protect the town against most tsunamis generated by seismic activity off the coast, but there is of course no guarantee that another monster tsunami won\u2019t strike in the future.\u00a0 The plan is thus to create separate zones for industrial, commercial, and residential use, with the last being located on top of the hills surrounding the plain on which the original city stood.\u00a0 The earth that will be removed from these hilltops in the process of leveling them for construction of dwellings will then be used to raise the height of the areas closer to the coast by 5 meters.\u00a0 Areas closest to the coast will be zoned for industrial development \u2013 the idea being that people will only be at work there during the day, when it will be relatively easy for workers to head for higher ground in the event of a tsunami warning.\u00a0 Further inland from this zone, another zone will be for commercial use.\u00a0 Here, shopping districts will be rebuilt on artificially raised land.\u00a0 The idea here is similar: these areas will primarily be frequented during the day, when the people in them can evacuate quickly in the event of a tsunami warning.<\/p>\n

Toba admits that the leveling of the hilltops to create the residential zones will change the shape of the community, making it more compact.\u00a0 While he doesn\u2019t believe that high-raise \u201cmansion\u201d apartments will become the sole form of residence, people who wish to build a single-family home will have to purchase the land on which to do so, which will be at a premium due to the demand for space cleared at such difficulty.\u00a0 Many in the community won\u2019t be able to afford this expense, and will thus have to move into the \u201cmansion\u201d style apartments, no matter what the nature of their living situation was prior to the disaster.\u00a0 Still, this will be a great improvement over the crowed conditions in the kasetsu jutaku<\/i> facilities.<\/p>\n

I ask him how large a population he thinks the new residential zones should be built to accommodate.\u00a0 He acknowledges that the city has lost population, both due to the disaster and the exodus of people leaving the area in search of jobs and a more stable lifestyle since. Be that as it may, he feels that the city should be prepared for future growth, within realistic limits.\u00a0 Thus, the residential zone would ideally be able to accommodate around 25,000 \u2013 essentially the same population as Rikuzentakata contained prior to the tsunami.<\/p>\n

The key to bring population growth back is of course to bring jobs into the area and also create a town in which young families will want to raise their children.\u00a0 Toba thinks it is possible to do this, as he said before, but acknowledges obstacles to too much change from within the community itself.\u00a0 \u201cIn and area like this, with a fairly high percentage of elderly residents, their opinions obviously carry a lot of weight.\u00a0 These are the people who, more than anything else, really just want their old town back.\u00a0 Younger folks in the town are more open to new ideas, but they sometimes find it hard to speak up when the older generation voice their opposition with a kind of \u2018village elder\u2019 authority.\u201d\u00a0 Be that as it may, however, time is on the side of the forces of change, provided that younger residents remain to see it through.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s say it takes ten years to rebuild the town.\u00a0 In that time, a 16-year old high school student in town today will become a full-fledged adult, maybe even with a family of his or her own.\u00a0 If they stay, they will become the mainstays of a new Rikuzentakata \u2013 but the trick is getting them to stay, and getting new people from outside to settle here as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the question of young people leaving the area, I ask Mayor Toba if Rikuzentakata is experiencing the same kind of loss of younger people that I have heard is the case in other coastal communities in Tohoku \u2013 exacerbated and accelerated since the tsunami as working age folks leave in search of jobs, normality, and new lives.\u00a0 \u201cI know it\u2019s happening here, too,\u201d he begins, \u201cbut at the same time, there are young people born and raised in Rikuzentakata who have returned from college or from working in places like Tokyo after seeing the destruction here.\u00a0 Some have set up NPOs and are volunteering their time and effort to help the people here out in any way they can.\u00a0 If you think about it, this is really surprising: if you\u2019re young, you\u2019ve got the best years of your life ahead of you \u2013 why not move to a place like Sendai or Morioka, where it\u2019s easier to live comfortably and enjoy yourself, right?\u00a0 But these young folks have decided to come back here \u2013 at a time like this, with things as bad as they are \u2013 and make a new life here.\u00a0 The power of love for one\u2019s hometown is pretty incredible\u2026I really hope they will stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s \u201cthree wishes\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

My hour of the mayor\u2019s time is winding down \u2013 a fact that I barely took note of while being drawn into his ideas.\u00a0 With time pressing, I decide to end with three more questions:\u00a0 The first is rather corny in format, perhaps, but I figure it is still worth asking:\u00a0 if the mayor could be granted three wishes from the central government, what would they be?<\/p>\n

As silly as the question is, he answers it without pause:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first would be to really think about the situation of the people now living in the devastated areas, and what their feelings and needs are.\u00a0 Every so often you see TV reports on the plight of people in the kasetsu jutaku<\/i>, and the things that they long for.\u00a0 So, why haven\u2019t these needs been addressed?\u00a0 Why is it necessary for them to be announced on TV like this to make them known?\u00a0 It\u2019s because the people in charge of taking care of the situation \u2013 the folks who make the rules \u2013 really don\u2019t know what is going on in the hisaichi<\/i>.\u00a0 They don\u2019t know what life is like here, what people are struggling with.\u00a0 Just to give an absurd example: we get a budget from the Finance Ministry to address various needs in the community.\u00a0 Great, right? The problem is, we can\u2019t use it to do the kinds of things we need to do, because there are numerous rules and stipulations attached to how the money can be used, and for what purpose, etc.\u00a0 So, most of it gets left untouched.\u00a0 And this is all because the guys who make those rules and stipulations just don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on here \u2013 what it\u2019s like to actually live in the middle of all this.\u00a0 So, first of all, I wish for them to stand in our shoes, and to really learn to think about how the people of Rikuzentakata look at things in the here and now.\u00a0 To be able to figure out for themselves something like, \u2018ah, winter is coming \u2013 I bet they\u2019ll probably need warm clothes and blankets\u2019\u2026that\u2019s what I wish they could do.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than that, I guess my wish would be \u2013 and this is related to the first, of course \u2013 that politicians not forget about us in the course of their constant party and factional struggles.\u00a0 The political parties of course don\u2019t want to lose face \u2013 and at the same time they want to do everything to make the opposition do so.\u00a0 Because of this, it\u2019s been a year and five months now since the disaster, during which time the situation in the hisaichi<\/i> has been used as a pawn in a game of chess within the factions of the Democratic Party of Japan, and between the DPJ and the LDP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third is of course the problem created by the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant.\u00a0 We\u2019re quite a ways from it, so it hasn\u2019t really affected us directly \u2013 but that\u2019s not to say that it hasn\u2019t done so at all.\u00a0 The reputation of the whole Tohoku area has suffered because of it \u2013 people don\u2019t think it\u2019s safe here.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mention the problem with the Gion Festival in Kyoto last summer as an example \u2013 how logs made from the fallen coastal pines of Rikuzentakata were rejected for use in the bonfires of the famous Kyoto festival due to fears about radioactive contamination of the wood.\u00a0 Toba agrees.\u00a0 \u201cThe problem is that politicians and their parties aren\u2019t really doing anything to address this.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got a disaster on your hands that threatens the survival of an entire region, and on top of that, you\u2019ve got a manmade situation that threatens the entire nation \u2013 but is every single politician in the Diet giving these problems the kind of attention they deserve?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Instead, these people are squabbling about whether taxes should be raised to pay for taking care of it, and if so by how much, and from where, etc.\u00a0 And what they\u2019re really worried about is how all this will affect their chances of getting reelected in the upcoming general election.\u00a0 The people of Fukushima in particular have been forgotten and abandoned in the process.\u00a0 The country \u2013 the government \u2013 bears some responsibility for the situation at Fukushima.\u00a0 In any case, it is up to the government to bring it under control.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to see the government and the politicians own up to this, and do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point, Mayor Toba\u2019s trans-Tohoku regional pride, in opposition to the typical way that the disaster gets nationalized in the foreign \u2013 and even the domestic \u2013 press, truly comes to the fore:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of Fukushima, it\u2019s Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), but up here were have Tohoku Electric Power Company.\u00a0 They operate nuclear power plants, too, and do so much like TEPCO does in Fukushima.\u00a0 Fukushima is really part of Tohoku, after all, and if you look at the region and its history, there are a lot of small, poor communities \u2013 places that embraced the power plants when they came in because of the benefits to the local economy.\u00a0 TEPCO built in Fukushima instead of closer to Tokyo for reasons that should be clear.\u00a0 But think about it \u2013 if a nuclear power plant had been built in a heavily populated area like Tokyo or Osaka, and then the same kind of catastrophe occurred, would the government just leave it alone for a year and five months, like they\u2019ve done with Fukushima?\u00a0 Japan would collapse if it did. \u00a0One could say that it\u2019s all about population and amount of political influence, of course \u2013 and that\u2019s true.\u00a0 But the people living in the countryside \u2013 in iinaka<\/i> \u2013 places like Fukushima or here, are also Japanese.\u00a0 But most ministers and politicians don\u2019t think of it that way \u2013 they think in terms of political and economic \u2018weight,\u2019 and what each region means in that sense.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t mean much, I guess.\u00a0 We get a lot of politicians and bureaucrats up here, but it\u2019s very rare to see them moved to tears by what they find.\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful even for those who do little more than shed tears; the others say their pretty words, but they probably forget about us as soon as they are back in Tokyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteerism, disaster fatigue, and the need to be remembered<\/strong><\/p>\n

My second to last question concerns the state \u2013 and fate \u2013 of volunteer involvement in Rikuzentakata.<\/p>\n

Toba says that at more than a year beyond the disaster, the numbers of volunteers arriving in Rikuzentakata from foreign countries has dropped to almost nil.\u00a0 Japanese volunteers, however, continue to arrive in significant numbers \u2013 sometimes as many as 300 a day.\u00a0 The city has established a volunteer center, through which over 100,000 people have done volunteer work in the city since its establishment.\u00a0 He admits that in this area, Rikuzentakata is in a better situation than many smaller towns that were hit by the tsunami. Toba has also taken to YouTube \u2013 not only to promote volunteering in the city, but even short of that, to encourage people to visit, if only out of sheer curiosity.\u00a0 In essence, he is promoting \u201cdisaster tourism,\u201d or even \u201cgawking.\u201d\u00a0 While I\u2019m somewhat surprised to hear this, his reasoning is convincing: \u201cEven if people just come here to look at what happened, they\u2019ll learn something, form an impression, and take that back with them \u2013 which may develop into something more helpful in the long run.\u00a0 At the very least, if they buy even as little as a can of soda while they are here, they\u2019re contributing to the local economy in some way.\u00a0 Even in Japan, the media doesn\u2019t pay much attention to us anymore, so if we don\u2019t welcome whoever is willing to come and let them see what happened, we\u2019ll end up being totally forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toba says that the sense of isolation and abandonment that the people of Rikuzentakata feel as the disaster fades further into the past for most of the rest of Japan is a source of increasing discouragement.\u00a0 \u201cPeople in the kasetsu jutaku<\/i> watch TV, and at the end of the year they see all of those programs, like the annual \u2018Red and White Song Competition,\u2019 which are usually big family viewing events.\u00a0 Sure, many of the artists and entertainers on the program last year performed songs dedicated to the people who died in the tsunami, or made encouraging statements to the survivors, but the whole thing really suggests that life moves on.\u00a0 The gap is just too big.\u00a0 And the folks living in the kasetsu <\/i>who lost loved ones in the tsunami watch this and are forced to realize again just how much they have lost.\u00a0 It\u2019s absolutely heartbreaking.\u00a0 So, when the volunteers come and wish the people here \u2018good luck,\u2019 or say things like \u2018hang in there,\u2019 it may not seem like much, but for the survivors here it is reassuring in a way \u2013 they realize that they haven\u2019t been completely forgotten by the outside world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a kind of psychological dimension of the situation that may be very characteristic of the Japanese \u2013 I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 But for many people, the knowledge that they haven\u2019t been forgotten seems to help them keep themselves together.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we advise younger volunteers to at least say \u2018hello\u2019 when they see folks from the town \u2013 especially in the case of the elderly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard this from one of the old men in town.\u00a0 He ran into a group of volunteers who were students at a university somewhere, who greeted him warmly.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like they had a whole lot of time to talk with him, but he said that even so, when they parted he felt sad.\u00a0 At the same time, though, they wished him the best and said they\u2019d come again.\u00a0 This seemed to give him hope \u2013 it was something to hang on for\u2026that kind of experience is as important as anything else that the volunteers can provide here.\u00a0 There are survivors here in town who are in their 80s, and who lost a spouse with whom they had lived most of their lives until March 11, 2011.\u00a0 What are they supposed to hope for, to go on living for?\u00a0 Even if for only a few moments, the chance to meet and talk with young volunteers who are concerned, but also positive, seems to ease their burden.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the mayor has gained<\/strong><\/p>\n

My final question is the same one I asked Kato-san in Kesennuma \u2013 the awkward, seemingly insensitive one about what \u2013 if anything \u2013 positive was gained from the experience of the tsunami and its aftermath.\u00a0 This is especially hard to ask a man who lost his wife in the deluge, and I almost balk at asking it for that very reason.\u00a0 I do in the end, apologetically, if only for consistency\u2019s sake.\u00a0 Again, Mayor Toba answers with reassuring readiness:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I became mayor, right before the disaster, it really hadn\u2019t occurred to me just how important it was to rely on the people around me and to seek out the advice of others and learn from them.\u00a0 Right after the disaster, there was so much that needed to be taken care of, and so much information I needed to obtain to do so, and so much to process even when I got it.\u00a0 There was no way that I could study enough on my own to figure out what I needed to know to make the best decisions.\u00a0 So, I learned to reach out to others for advice and help, and to grasp the opportunity to meet more people who could help.\u00a0 I started to get around more, in order to meet all kinds of people, listen to their opinions, and seek their advice.\u00a0 To do this, I needed to be open and honest with people.\u00a0 I guess the typical image of a mayor is of somebody who has it all figured out \u2013 or at least pretends to \u2013 and doesn\u2019t seek advice from too many people.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t afford to be like that, even if I had wanted to.\u00a0 I had to rely on anyone who was in a position of offer help.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, I came to realize that putting on a show of fortitude \u2013 a brave face in adversity, like none of this had phased me \u2013 was pointless.\u00a0 I had to be honest and up front with people about how I felt.\u00a0 That, anyway, was the only way I could make the kind of friends I could really rely on.\u00a0 Rather than being stand-offish with people, and suspecting some sort of ulterior motive on their part for wanting to get to know me, I found that it\u2019s better to get to know as many people as possible, because in this line of work, you never know where you\u2019re going to find people who can really help you out.\u00a0 In this job I get to meet a lot of people all over Japan, but this is the same attitude I approach them with wherever I go.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gotten to know a lot of people all over the country this way \u2013 people that I never would have gotten to know so well if I went around overly conscious of my status as a mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as he finishes his answer, the same woman who brought me into his office knocks and enters with the news that the mayor\u2019s next appointment is waiting.\u00a0 I wonder if he ever manages to get out of this room during the course of a day for more than a bathroom break.\u00a0 In gratitude or his time and insights, I leave him with three Boston Redsox caps \u2013 one for him and one each for his two sons.\u00a0 He accepts them with genuine enthusiasm, shakes my hand warmly again, and sees me to the door.<\/p>\n

As I leave, I hope that some day soon I\u2019ll be able to make a return visit to the kind of Rikuzentakata that the mayor envisions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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