Monuments stand in areas that were the scenes of unfathomable destruction and misery 11 years ago.

The wreckage has been cleared and a sense of normalcy has returned, but tears are still being shed at the sites in the three prefectures hardest hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Rikuzentakata had the most fatalities of any municipality in Iwate Prefecture in the 2011 disaster.

Made of black granite, two tablets, each measuring 1.2 meters high and 20 meters long, were installed at the city’s memorial facility. The names of 1,709 disaster victims have been inscribed in the tablets.

For some local residents, visiting the memorial will not be easy.

Masako Sugawara, 79, lost seven family members 11 years ago, including her husband, younger brother and grandchildren. Some of her childhood classmates and neighbors were also among those who died.

Although Sugawara hopes to one day pray in front of the memorial, she said that seeing the names of her husband, Yoshikazu, and two 5-year-old grandchildren, Kazuki and Yuhi, will be hard to bear.

But she said the memorial will be solid proof that they all once lived in Rikuzentakata.

“I will be able to remember those who died because of the monument,” Sugawara said. “I hope it serves as a lesson for the future.”

Shuichiro Kanno, 46, operates a sweets shop in the city. His younger brother, Kohei, a 33-year-old city government employee, died in the disaster.

When Shuichiro went to the monument to look for his brother’s name, he also found the names of his store’s customers as well as members of the local fire brigade.

“With the memorial now in place, we can visit it whenever we want to remember those who died,” Kanno said. “I hope visitors will realize that the reconstruction of the city was made possible on the foundation of the huge sacrifice made by the many who died.”

The memorial facility is located in what was once the city center. The area was destroyed by the tsunami.

A total of 1,761 residents either died or went missing when the towering waves pummeled Rikuzentakata.

City government officials obtained the consent of bereaved families before carving the names of 1,655 residents into the tablets.

The names of 54 other people who died in the city but were from somewhere else were included on the monument on the request of their families.

COULDN’T SAVE WIFE

On the morning of March 11, Seietsu Sato, 69, placed flowers and prayed at the location in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, where the body of his wife, Atsuko, 58, was found on March 16, 2011.

Before the tsunami, the Koizumi coast was known for its beautiful pine trees and sandy beach, but that was all swept away.

In the place of such beauty now lies a coastal embankment 14.7 meters tall, the highest of any in Miyagi Prefecture.

“For the past 11 years, the only thing I have been thinking of is the regret of not being able to save my wife,” Sato said.

Sato was a high-ranking official with the city fire department. So after the disaster struck, he was busy fighting fires and rescuing those carried out to sea by the tsunami.

He only learned that his wife was missing on March 12, when a colleague informed him.
Sato felt remorse at not being able to save the person he loved the most.

After retiring from the fire department, Sato gave lectures both in Japan and abroad about how to prepare mentally for disasters.

In March 2021, he compiled records of his speeches into a memoir. An English e-book of his words will be made available from March 11.

“Natural disasters are occurring around the world,” Sato said. “I hope people will take away lessons from the book so they do not have to experience the bitterness and sadness we felt.”

MEMORIAL BUILT OVER RUINED CEMETARY

A ceremony was held on the morning of March 11 in the Ukedo district of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, to not only remember those who died but also to commemorate the completion of Senjin no Oka (Forerunners’ hill).

The hill was constructed over what was once a community cemetery, located about 600 meters from the coast.

The tsunami swept in, destroyed the graves and scattered the remains.

The Namie town government decided to build the monument to pay respects to the town’s forerunners and help local residents remember their community.

A 5-meter-high mound with a diameter of 40 meter was created by covering the collected gravestones and remains with dirt. Tablets for each district swept away by the tsunami were also reconstructed.

About 20 residents took part in the completion ceremony. They prayed for their ancestors while a Buddhist priest intoned a sutra.

“This will be a place to respect our forerunners and serve as a requiem,” Namie Mayor Kazuhiro Yoshida said. “I hope it will help those who have evacuated to keep in touch with their hometown.”

Parts of Namie still remain a “difficult-to-return zone” because of high radiation levels from the tsunami-triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

One former resident who visited the monument on March 11 was Shigeko Sasaki, 71, who now resides in Iwaki, also in Fukushima Prefecture.

She had set up a grave for her husband who died about 18 months before the quake hit. The grave was swept away by the tsunami.

“The Ukedo district remains in its damaged state, but I feel my husband can now rest in peace with the Senjin no Oka being built,” Sasaki said. “I also feel that I must live with a stronger purpose.”

Many of the graves that had been at the community cemetery were moved to higher ground in 2015 after the town government constructed a municipal cemetery.

(This article was compiled from reports by Ryohei Miyawaki, Yusuke Hoshino and Tatsuya Sasaki.)