We arrived in Ofunato, and drove through Tsunami affected areas (as you can see in the video clip). As you can see from the video, the devastation caused by the Tsunami was so severe and wide spread, and I could not comprehend what I was looking at from the car window. All the open space in the video was high-density area with multi-story buildings, and 70,000 mature/large pine trees were there at the beach side before the Tsunami. All the pine trees exept for one were vanished instantly…
Although the magnitude of this Tsunami was so devastating and many lives were lost, local residents were amazingly resillient and inspiring. They shared their experience during the horrific escape, and challenging time in evacuation site, loss of their loved ones, and etc… What I saw in their eyes was not the sadness but the sense of determination to re-create their community and better future for the next generation.
I will post their stories from our meetings in the future posts.
