- Title: JAPAN: Tsunami survivors struggle to rebuild lives
- Date: 29th March 2011
- Summary: YAMADA, JAPAN (MARCH 28, 2011) (REUTERS) PAN FROM BULLDOZER TO TSUNAMI SURVIVOR WASHING LAUNDRY BY HAND MORE OF LAUNDRY SURVIVOR WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) KEIKO HIROTA, 63-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR, SAYING: "If I don't so something with my time I get overwhelmed. My house burned down and there was the tsunami. If I don't stay active I keep thinking about what happened." MOTHER CARRYING SICK CRYING CHILD INTO EVACUATION CENTRE WIDE OF EVACUATION CENTRE SURVIVORS PICKING THROUGH DONATE CLOTHING (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TORU HOSADA, VOLUNTEER DOCTOR FROM TOKYO, SAYING: "For a lot of people who up until this point have been able to ignore reality and what actually happened, as they get back on their feet they realise that, for instance, their house is gone, or their children are dead, and they're being forced to confront these facts. A lot of them are extremely uncertain as to what they can do."
- Embargoed: 13th April 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan, Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVACEMSQ21GRT96EKSM4K0591O42
- Story Text: 63-year-old Keiko Hirota from the Japanese coastal town of Yamada on Monday (March 28) washed her laundry near the remains of her home. Her village was obliterated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, anything left standing was burned to the ground by a massive fire that followed the wall of water.
Washing laundry is her only link to the life she had before the tsunami hit.
"If I don't so something with my time I get overwhelmed. My house burned down and there was the tsunami. If I don't stay active I keep thinking about what happened," she said.
After washing her clothes she walks more than a kilometer to the evacuation centre that she now calls home. As she arrives a mother carries her sick crying child into the centre hoping for help.
Toru Hosada, a volunteer doctor from Tokyo, says that cases of disease and infection are on the decline. But he says that survivors are suffering more than ever as they come to terms with their reality.
"For a lot of people who up until this point have been able to ignore reality and what actually happened, as they get back on their feet they realise that, for instance, their house is gone, or their children are dead, and they're being forced to confront these facts. A lot of them are extremely uncertain as to what they can do," he said.
Children run around the shelter, watching TV and playing games. Six-year-old Tamaki Sakamoto has been living in the shelter since the tsunami hit. She misses her home.
"I don't have that many toys now," she said.
Some of their toys are buried in the debris field that is now her village. The earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent fires have claimed more than 20,000 lives so far. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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