Inside of the area stricken by disaster--Vol.1 This is Otsuchi Town

Two weeks have already passed since I was sent to Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture, which was seriously destroyed by the earthquake and the following Tsunami on March 11, 2011. Now I work for the registrar staff in the town office. Though I was embarrassed by the situation of the area stricken by disaster and the difference from the way of the works in Osaka.

I’ll stay here till the end of July. I’ll send you reports from the area stricken by disaster as many as possible.

I’ll introduce you the short profile of Otsuchi Town. Otsuchi Town is located in the Tohoku area, the northern part of Japan. Pre-disaster population is about 15,000 people, main local industry was fishery.

The most serious earthquake in our history which happened at 0546z on March 11, 2011 changed the calm small town drastically. After the vibration of the magnitude 9, the terrible Tsunami attacked the town.
Almost the whole downtown near the Pacific coast was destroyed mercilessly and the wreckage of buildings piled up anywhere. Only in Otsuchi Town about 750 people victimed and about 950 are still missing. In the town office mayor and about 30% of all personnel died or are missing.

When I arrived at the downtown for the first time, I was very surprised at the wreckage lands without any buildings. There used to be the former main street before my working venue where shops, hotel, hospital and many kinds of buildings opened for business. But this beautiful streets were bulldozed mercilessly by Tsunami.



In the present circumstances the reconstruction plan hasn’t been decided yet. At least the government doesn’t allow us to build houses and commercial buildings at the site stricken by disaster. In addition, there are no shops in neighborhood. We need to bring lunch.

Although daily life is very inconvenient, Lawson is already open around the clock at the gateway to the areas stricken by earthquake. It sells a variety of commodities and daily goods and many neighborhoods and reconstruction workers pay a visit there.

I’m looking forward to the good changes during my three-month stay in Otsuchi Town.