We prepared the second set of supplies for the people at the Gessan Shrine shelter, having contacted Mr Konno and Ms Suzuki to ascertain the daily needs of the shelter. The list is as follows:
Goggles
Masks
Sewing kits
Reading glasses for the aged
Ear picks
Soap
Gummed tape
Sellotape
Ballpoint pens
Memo papers
Hairbrushes
Elastic hair bands
Nail clippers
Scissors
Correctors
Plastic cups
Thimbles
Penlights
Small alarm clocks
Adhesive roll cleaners
These were sent off to the Gessan Shrine shelter through the home delivery company this very evening.
Mr Tanaka tried to recapture what Mr. Konno had experienced on 11th March based on his story and his photos.
At 2:27 pm on 11th March, Mr. Konno was at his uncle’s house next to the river when the shocks of the enormous earthquake were felt and the vibrations lasted for a long time. The disaster prevention radio communications didn’t work due to the power outage because of the earthquake.
After the violent shocks, Mr. Konno had an intuition that a “Tsunami might come!”. He put his uncle on the wheel chair and brought him to an evacuation place about one kilometer away from his home. It was located on the north side of a small hill where is situated the Suwa Shinto Shrine on its summit. Mr. Konno’s home was on the east side of the stone steps which approached the front of the shrine, and he had always kept it in mind that this would be a good place to seek sanctuary if ever a tsunami came.
He then went down to the town where another of his uncles lived, but found his uncle had already evacuated to another shelter. Then he went back to his home, where he heard that a tsunami of 6m in height was approaching. He grabbed his wallet, some bottle of water; glanced at his computer but had second thoughts: “If the tsunami is only 6m high then it shouldn’t reach here”, and with that he left the computer.
Mr Konno’s house was located 1.5 kilometers inland from Hirota Bay and 200m away from the river embankments. Nobody thought that the tsunami would reach this area; so many people didn’t evacuate and stayed at home after the earthquake but were tragically killed by Tsunami.
Mr Konno moved his car at the foot of the hill and started to climb the gentle path on the southern side of the hill. Thinking that there would still be some time until tsunami came, he went down to check the situation, but at that moment, he saw the water overflowing the river embankments. One aged woman caught his eye, who was coming toward him slowly carrying a blanket. The water was approaching just behind her. He ran up to her, took her blanket and hurried her up the stone steps to the shrine. The water of the enormous wave was now bearing down behind them very quickly. The people who had already evacuated to the hill were shouting at them, “ Hurry, hurry! The water is there!!”.
The water washed away his car, coming up the hill swallowing the stairs. Mr Konno and the old lady though, finally reached the shrine at the top of the hill. From there they had a bird’s-eye view of the scene of devastation below them. All the houses and buildings were already under the swirling waters, and it looked like the city was sunk under the raging ocean. Eventually, as the water started to ebb away, they saw that the wooden houses had been washed away offshore, and they saw some people on the roofs of those floating houses. “Hang in there!!! Hold on!!!” Everybody on the hill could only shout to the people and pray.
When evening came, the water gradually started to subside. All the buildings had disappeared. Mr Konno’s house, two storehouses in front of it, terraced houses… everything was gone. Later, they heard some explosions from the junior high school which stood on their right side, and a fire broke out. We came to learn later that gasoline from the cars in the school’s car park had caught fire; and the cars had gone up in flames, one after the other.
(c) Fumiaki Konno
In the evening, Mr Konno went down to a spring at the back of the hill with some young fellows to secure drinking water. The cultivated fields on its slope had become all muddy. On the way, a man asked them for help. He told them that there must be an aged woman who has difficulty walking, and the wife of her son trapped in the collapsed wooden house in front of them. Mr Konno climbed up to the roof and went inside the house from there with his companions. They found the two ladies inside the house and pulled them out, but they were already dead. The man said the young wife must have tried to save her mother in law and couldn't escape.
Even as night fell, the explosions still continued. The fire spread to the school’s gymnasium, and the glare of the large fire was seen against the dark, licking its way through the mud-covered ruins of the stricken town. The sky though was incredibly clear and filled with the stars, but soon snow began to scatter across the disaster area.
(c) Fumiaki Konno
The survivors made a fire which they kept alive all night from the firewood they had collected from the hill. They also dismantled some of the old wooden facilities of the shrine to warm themselves. About 80 people were there, including old people and young mothers holding their babies. Everybody was sitting around the fire and passed a sleepless night. The fire of the school gymnasium bathed the vast muddy town in an odd yellow light.
(c) Fumiaki Konno
The day dawned. The fire of the school gymnasium which was burning the whole night had finally gone out. A new vista, which nobody had ever seen before, was spreading out below them. Around about 8:00 am, they began to move together to walk along the mountain heading for the other evacuation shelters.
(c) Fumiaki Konno
Written by Machi Tanaka (translated by Eriko Kamimura & Richard Byford)
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.
13th 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
14th April
Mr. Konno’s video message was recorded in front of the place where his house once stood. His message is as follows:
On the evening of 8th April, Mr. Tanaka was finally able to talk to Mr. Konno on the phone with the help of his friend, a journalist who was at the scene to cover the situation of Rikuzentakata. He found Mr Konno very well at the Gessan Shrine shelter. According to him, basic supplies have been coming in and they could even take a bath once a week.
Mr. Konno also said that when the enormous earthquake struck, he put his uncle on a wheelchair and ran up the hill behind his house to the Gessan Shinto Shrine which was on the top of the hill. Then right behind them, the tsunami hit his village and they were watching from the hill how their houses were washed away. They stayed overnight there building a fire together with the people who survived. Most of their houses had been washed away, but he was able collect some household goods from Mr. Konno’s late father’s house. He said they would stay in the Gessan Shrine shelter for a while until temporary housing would be ready.
Since the devastating disaster of 11th March 2011, Japan has been floundering in anxiety and social unrest; however the people who have suffered a great deal of loss, and damage to their propertyare now showing great resolve and determination in reconstructing and rejuvenating their shattered lives and communities; and this positive spirit has spread throughout all of Japan way beyond the confines of those directly hit by this catastrophe.
Mr. Fumiaki Konno, a researcher and interpreter, suffered from thiscatastrophictragedy in Rikuzentakata city, his hometown, after ironically having experienced the recent historical events happening in Egypt’s Tahrir square.
After the earthquakes and tsunami hit Northern Japan, including Rikuzentakata city, we coudn’t contact Mr. Konnoand weren’t receiving any news about him. Finally, Bahi Tokyo office thankfully received a telephone call from him. He along with his relatives, had taken refuge on the hilltop of the Gessan Shinto Shrine near to his house.
Many of our friends and colleagues were willing to support him and his relatives sooner, but access to him and the city was heavily restricted due to the destruction of the roads and telephone communications which have remained out of commission until recently.
But now, the major roads are cleared and opened. The official web page of Iwate prefecture shows the routes to each evacuation area.
Yukinori Kawae and Machi Tanaka planned to drive to Rikuzentakata city to give support to Mr. Konno and the people around him. The major aim at this time is to provide him with a mobile phone and establish direct communications with him in order to be informed by him about his and his community’s needs, and to provide them with all possible support.
To prepare what is possible in terms of relief supplies, Kawae and Tanaka have apprealed to Mr. Konno’s friends and colleagues for donations. Support and goodwill has flowed in from some of Mr. Konno’s long time acquaintances including in particular, Mr. Masamichi Nakano, General Manager of Bahi Travel Agency; and the renowned Egyptologists: Dr. Mark Lehner, Dr. Hourig Sourouzian and Dr. Rainer Stadelmann.
