Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
3/11 Another Take
There are many beaches like this along the coast on the way to Kobuchihama. Why did you end up here?
In late April or perhaps in the May holidays, I collected relief supplies to begin with.
About a truck-load of supplies.
I loaded as many supplies as possible onto my car and went to look for a place to deliver them...
...with my sister who happened to visit me.
We thought Oshika Peninsula must be in dire straits.
When you go the other way at San Juan instead of coming this way, you find Takehama or somewhere like that.
We passed through there. On the way, we talked with people.
They said they weren't so in need of help. People in other places said the same thing.
Whenever we encountered people, we asked how their life was.
We passed through here once.
Because areas along the coast around here were seemingly not as damaged as other areas.
We thought it was alright here and went on to Ayukawa.
Ayukawa was fine since the Self-Defense Forces were there and supplies were distributed.
We wondered, does anybody need help? Then we turned back.
And we found signs of Evacuation Center here and there.
I asked what's going on. Then I knew they were built in different locations.
People said relief supplies hadn't reached here very much except minimum supplies.
If so, it would be best to deliver supplies here.
A few days after that, we loaded goods onto two station wagons and brought them here.
Plates, bowls, other necessities like shampoo, blankets and so on.
We brought relief supplies collected by my friends all over Japan, although my friends are not so many in number.
In the end, they kindly sent supplies on a regular basis.
So I could continuously deliver those supplies once or twice a week.
Doing this, you got involved in the lion dance festival?
Yes, I met Mr. Goto here.
I delivered goods here first and Mr. Goto happened to be here.
He said, "I'll take you to a place where they have no supplies...
...It's fine here. So please go there." We were taken further back over there.
You saw many prefab houses, didn't you? I was asked to deliver supplies there.
I started delivering to such places and found no supplies had arrived yet.
Only food provided by the government was available.
How many people were living in that prefab house?
One family in each prefab house.
If they have to stay at someone's house, they can't feel relaxed unlike when they're at home.
So those energetic people do this kind of thing.
Built a prefab house by themselves? Exactly.
I made friends with Mr. Goto. I was attracted by Mr. Goto's personality.
He neither receives nor hoards goods. Rather, he asks us to deliver goods to others.
I helped Mr. Goto clean his house and did other things. He said a lion head used in a festival was washed away.
I thought there might be a grant available for such a thing.
I said I would apply for grant-aid. Then we got some money. So we decided to hold the festival.
If I had merely delivered supplies, I could have never figured it out.
But through a conversation with Mr. Goto, I gradually understood what's happening.
And I could identify the problems. And then I came to think what I could do.
That's how I got involved with this community.
Fishermen are left in limbo. Because nothing has been determined about the special fishing zone.
Oyster farming has restarted recently.
Mr. Goto 's three boats were washed away.
Things haven't made much progress.
They couldn 't see what would happen next.
In such a situation, I believe it's essential to have a goal, even if it's a short-term one.
The lion dance festival is just the thing. So I proposed to hold it.
And they agreed.
We got money and I think we can start it around next week.
Like in Ishinomaki where we went the other day, we can start.
Kobuchihama Tsushin has written stories in great detail so it is interesting as a record.
Rather than being a record of community...
...it traces how people established their own way of reaching out to people in need through trial and error.
I think people who came to the affected area are like this.
They came to help but found they weren 't helping in the best way.
I think holding this festival and visiting a shrine to pray reflects that religious faith has been preserved here.
Fishermen have lived by a custom that they have embraced.
In the custom, there is something we Japanese have to respect.
Therefore I want them to pay respect for such a thing in restoring their communities.
We must modernize systems not restore old ones as they were.
But old ones have something we should continue to value.
Later I found there were other lion dances held on lots of small beaches.
Many communities lost items of festivals in the tsunami, leaving nothing done yet. Their drums were washed away.
They will need to do something about the festivals.