Relief Assistance for Tohoku Earthquake Affected

52 Months on; Continued Efforts to Find Missing Persons

Four years and four months passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and efforts to restore crumbled infrastructure including roads and dikes continue in disaster-hit areas. Landscapes have changed accordingly with signs of the damage caused by the earthquake and the tsunami disappeared, leaving less and less traces that reveal the ravage of the disaster.

In the city of Ishinomaki, the worst hit area, as many as 3,453 people lost their lives either directly or indirectly by the disaster and 428 are still missing. Even now the search activities for the missing people are carried out on the 11th of each month.

Combing a vast area for missing persons began this month in Nagatsura district, Ishinomki. The areas situated at the mouth of the Kitakami River, Nagatsura district was inundated due to land sinking subsequent to the earthquake. While the Self-Defense Forces searched the district from boats right after the earthquake, no search activities have been conducted since then. The completion of dike restoration work accelerated the pace of draining the district, and made it possible to conduct full-scale search activities.

The tsunami destroyed dikes and submerged the right section of the Kitakami River’s downstream areas including not only Nagatsura district but Okawa district where a total of 2,489 people of 712 households used to live, killing 382 people including 84 pupils and teachers of Okawa elementary school and leaving 36 people including four pupils missing.

Disaster restoration housing is now ready to receive victims living in temporary quarters, signaling post-quake restoration is rolling forward. In this situation JEN continues helping disaster victims find their way back to normal as soon as they can.

Volunteer Work Turns into a New Style: 16th “Let’s go to the sea!”

“Let’s go to the sea!” a project launched in March 2014 as a new style of volunteer work so that you might support disaster stricken areas while enjoying hands-on opportunities in tour around fishing communities, has been hosted by “the executive committee of ‘Let’s go to the sea!’“ composed of locals in the Oshika Peninsula, Miyagi Prefecture with JEN’s support.

Supporting  the committee become more self-reliant, JEN opted to take only background role in 2015. Pleia Tourism, a non-profit organization established by the students of Ishinomaki Sensyu University, Ishinomaki’s only university, began to take part in hosting the project, young people uniting together with locals to promote the communities in the Oshika Peninsula.

The 16th “Let’s go to the sea!” was held on Saturday 23rd of May and following Sunday. Day 1: Ochakokai, a tea party with the staff members of “Why not stop by Oshika,” a mutual aid organization, at Kyubunhama on the Oshika Peninsula; a visit to eleven headed deity, a national important property. Day 2: fishing experience guided by local fishermen at Sasunohama, participation in the San Juan festival. A lot of plans were worked out at the tour. Participants came from many countries and regions, including, Taiwan, China, Tokyo, Sendai and so on.

The participants were heard to make such comments as “I visited many places, met and talked to various people. I’m really glad to have this opportunity. This tour offered experiences that I can’t have in Tokyo. I had productive two days.”

Just wait for the next framework of “Let’s go to the sea!” is finalized by the committee. The committee will take the initiative in planning and running.