The first delivery of relief supplies

12^th April 2011

8:00 am Setting off from Tokyo

Having carefully filling up the storage tank of the car at several petrol stations due to the shortage of petrol in the stricken areas, Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Kawae headed for Rikuzentakata. Until they reached the three serial road tunnels just before Kesennuma, they noticed nothing unusual except that they found that bottled products had disappeared from some of the shops owing to stockpiling because of the earthquakes.  

16:00 Arrival at the headquarter for emergency disaster control at Rikuzentakata primary school

There, they met Mr. Konno and Ms. Nozomi Suzuki. After unloading the goods from the car, they went looking around the city where they found that most of the buildings had been destroyed. 

19:00 The supermarket in Ohfunato city

From Rikuzentakata, they then went to Ohfunato city, a twenty minute drive away, for shopping at the large supermarket there, which was undamaged.

20:00 Gessan Shrine shelter

After gaining the approval of the representatives of the shelter they pitched their tent in order to sleep. The shelter was comparatively abundant in food supplies, but some shelters could only provide two meals per person per day due to limited transportation.  

13^th April

4:00 am A large earthquake woke them up

After breakfast, they arranged and handed out the supplies to the people in the shelter. The supplies were limited, so they asked for advice from Mr. Konno on how to distribute the items fairly to the people. Finally, each person took one necessity one after the other. In this shelter, most of the people there know and usually help each other so there was no problem doing it this way. Some women requested pairs of rubber boots, nail clippers, and sewing kits. 

On the way to the headquarters of the emergency disaster control, they passed through Mr. Konno’s neighbourhood to feed the cats. Somehow they had miraculously survived this disaster.

They then went to the Osabe primary school, where many families had taken refuge, to give them books for the children which had been kindly contributed by Kaiheisha, a publishing company. Five to seven families were staying in each classroom. One mother told them, “We have to say that we have been provided for very well here. Many people’s lives though, have completely changed.” The children too were getting along well there. “We are very proud of them.”

Afternoon:

They went to the lookout point at Mount Hakone where Mr. Badr, the Ambassador of Egypt, visited in 2005. There seemed to be no damage in Goishihama, Goishi beach and Anatooshiiso. Nozomi said that it was a bit shocking to see normal daily life there in the neighbouring towns.

16:00 Lunch was bought from the Sanrio supermarket. The prices had been artificially held down.

They looked around Rikuzentakata city, the city center, the city gymnasium, the city library, and the Capital Hotel, where Dr. Mark Lehner, Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, and Dr. Rainer Stadelmann had stayed during the lecture tour in 2003. In the city gymnasium, which was designated as an evacuation shelter, more than 300 people were killed. The city library was also hit by the tsunami but thick concrete walls had protected its rare books collection.

20:00 Dinner at Gessan Shrine with Mr. Konno and Nozomi

14^th April

Mr. Konno’s video message was recorded in front of the place where his house once stood. His message is as follows:

Departure from Rikuzentakata.

4月15日投稿「第1回支援物資運搬」の英語版です。

（翻訳：上村恵理子、リチャード・バイフォード、石原由加利）