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1 | How One Fukushima Family Is Moving on Four Years After the Great East Japan Earthquake “After Tsunami at Haramachi, Minami-soma, Fukushima, Japan.” | 日本:東日本大震災から4年、福島の家族が過ごした日々 |
2 | Photo courtesy Flickr user Jun Teramoto. March 11 marked the fourth anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. | 東日本大震災から4年の歳月が流れた。 |
3 | Nearly 20,000 people died as a result of the massive temblor and resulting tidal wave, and nearly 230,000 people were forced to relocate. A Japanese blogger, Takayoshi Saito, has described in detail how the disaster affected the life of his youngest sister and her family. | 震災で事故を起こした福島県第一原子力発電所の近くに当時住んでいた妹一家が過ごした日々を、ブロガーの齊藤貴義が細やかに描写している(著者の許可のもとで転載)。 |
4 | They used to live near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that itself became the scene of yet another large scale disaster following the earthquake and tsunami. | 私の実家は相馬市だけど、下の妹夫婦は義弟が第一原発に勤めていた。 |
5 | The following post was translated and republished on Global Voices with permission from the author. | 東電の子会社で第一原発の施設管理を行う警備会社の仕事だ。 |
6 | ‘My Sister Built a New House With the TEPCO Settlement, Soma City is Building a New Municipal Hall' | その関係で大熊町の第一原発のすぐそばに住んでいた。 |
7 | Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture is my home town. My youngest sister and her family used to live very close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the township of Okuma. | 4年前の3月11日、第一原発が施設警備どころの話ではなくなったので、妹夫婦と1歳の姪の3人は大熊町から避難することになった。 |
8 | Her husband used to work at Fukushima Daiichi as an employee at a security company, a TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.) subsidiary in charge of facility management. Four years ago, on March 11, 2011, the situation at Fukushima Daiichi got so frantic that no one cared about the security of the facilities anymore. | 相馬の実家や妹への電話は全く繋がらず、東京の私は不安だったけれど、ネットしかやることがなかったので、Twitterで「原子力空母ロナルド・レーガンがキタ━(・∀・)━!!!!」 |
9 | So my youngest sister and her husband decided to evacuate from Okuma town with their 1-year-old daughter. | とかつぶやいていた。 |
10 | I was in Tokyo, and had no luck when I tried to call my sister and my parents in Soma City. I worried about them so much, but there was nothing I could do so I killed time by tweeting stuff like “Ohhhhhhhh, the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is comiiiiiiiing!!!!“ | 相馬の実家と1回だけ電話がつながって「実家は無事。 |
11 | Only once I was able to talk with my parents in Soma over the phone. They gave me an update saying, “Our house is fine. | 妹一家は福島県田村市に避難している。 |
12 | Your youngest sister and her family have evacuated to Tamura City in Fukushima prefecture. Your sister's father-in-law is staying in Okuma because he is a volunteer firefighter.” | 義父は消防団なのでまだ大熊町に残っている」という情報を聞いた。 |
13 | After this conversation, I watched TV and learned the evacuation zone had been expanded and Tamura was now included in it. Then I lost the whereabouts of my sister and her family. | その後、テレビをみていたら避難区域が拡大されて田村市も避難区域になった。 |
14 | I worried if they could evacuate from Tamura, but I couldn't get hold of her. | そのあとの妹一家の行方が分からなかった。 |
15 | The only thing I could do was browse the Internet. I read polarized discussion between two groups - one which was overly stressing the safety of the situation at Fukushima Daiichi and the other which was highly alarmed by the danger of the situation. | 私は田村市から避難できたのか心配だったけど、連絡がつながらないし、ネットしかやることがなかったので、安全厨と危険厨の論争を読んだりしていた。 |
16 | When I was browsing online, I discovered that the first relief supplies to arrive in Soma were coffins. Soma Girls' High School, which I had been so keen to attend when I was a high school student, had become a temporary morgue. | ネットを見ていたら、相馬市に支援物資が届いたけど、相馬市に届いた最初の支援物資は棺桶だった。 |
17 | Many unidentified bodies were brought there from the coast, which had been hit hard by the giant tsunami. | 高校時代に行きたくてたまらなかった旧相馬女子高の校舎が臨時の死体安置所になって、海岸部から続々と運ばれてくる身元不明の死体を置く場所になった。 |
18 | The Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) had also arrived in Soma and had started rescue operations. | 自衛隊が相馬に救援に来て救助活動を開始した。 |
19 | Around the same time, my middle sister who lived in Urawa city in Saitama Prefecture (just to the north of Tokyo) asked her police officer boyfriend to drive up north to look for our youngest sister. They found our sister and her family among other evacuees in Kita Ibaraki city (just down the coast from Soma and Okuma). | その頃、浦和に住んでいた上の妹が、警察官の彼氏に車を出してもらって、妹を探しに出発した。 |
20 | They put them in the car and drove back to Urawa city. Meanwhile, I was just surfing the internet. | そして北茨城市で避難民の中から下の妹一家を発見して、車に乗せて浦和まで連れて帰った。 |
21 | I was such a useless brother in that time of emergency. | 私はただネットをしていただけだった。 |
22 | My middle sister got in touch with me and said that she was going to share her studio apartment in Urawa city with our youngest sister and her family in a while - that would make four people living in a tiny apartment. | |
23 | I couldn't be of much help, but thought they would probably need cash. | 非常時に何の役にも立たないお兄ちゃんでした。 |
24 | So I withdrew money from Mizuho Bank, which had also been temporarily knocked offline by the sheer number of people trying to make donations to help people affected by the disaster. I went to Urawa with the money and handed it to my sisters. | 上の妹から連絡があって、下の妹一家3人を連れて帰って浦和のワンルームマンションでしばらく4人で生活するという話だった。 |
25 | Urawa was at that time experiencing planned, rolling blackouts in order to conserve power from the weakened electricity grid, and my sisters seemed to have experienced a few blackouts. When I gave them the money, my youngest sister said: “I'm so happy that everyone was okay”, then cried. | 私は何も出来なかったけど、これから妹が何をするにも現金が必要だろうと思って、障害からようやく回復したばかりの、みずほ銀行から預金をおろして、浦和まで行って妹達に渡した。 |
26 | My youngest sister and her family stayed in Urawa for about a month before returning to Soma, where they were able to move in to one of the temporary housing allocations. When I visited Soma about one year later I saw my sister's temporary housing. | 浦和は計画停電の対象だったので、何度か電気が止まったらしい。 |
27 | It was a wooden house that was clearly built in a hurried manner; the wood at the bottom had already started to rot. I brought an Anpanman (a popular Japanese animation character) toy for my niece, but I couldn't help feeling pity for them. | お金を渡したら、下の妹が「みんな無事で本当に良かった」と泣いていた。 |
28 | Four years have passed since then. My youngest sister's family made lots of savings thanks to the compensation money from TEPCO, and they built a new house in Soma. | その後、1ヶ月ほど下の妹一家は浦和に住んでいたけれど、相馬の仮設住宅に暮らせる目処が立って、相馬に帰った。 |
29 | A little one was born during this time, and they now have two daughters. My sister's family told me that they were receiving a good amount of monetary compensation from TEPCO because the company pays even to small children, and my sister's family was therefore receiving compensation for four people. | その1年後くらいに私が相馬に帰ったとき、妹の仮設住宅を見に行ったけれど、本当に木造で急場でつくった感じの住宅で、下の方から木の腐食が始まっていた。 |
30 | My brother-in-law seems interested in having laser eye surgery or tooth whitening. They are in good financial shape. | 姪のためにアンパンマンのおもちゃを持っていったけれど、何だか不憫だった。 |
31 | My relatives in the area do not hate TEPCO as much as TV reports. | あれから4年…。 |
32 | In Soma city, construction work has begun on a new city hall. The design for this new hall was inspired by a Japanese traditional storehouse style called “Kura-zukuri”. | 妹一家は東電からの賠償金が沢山貯まって、相馬に新築の家を建てた。 |
33 | The old city hall, however, wasn't damaged by tsunami, and I wonder if there is a surplus in the budget for recovery that they'd rather spend somehow. | もう1人の姪が産まれて、東電の賠償金は子供であれ4人分もらえるので、けっこうなお金が入っていると言っていた。 |
34 | I also went to see the coastal area, but the little town where I used to see many guesthouses had turned into a vacant lot. | 義弟はレーシック手術や歯のホワイトニングに興味があるらしい。 |
35 | Some of the buildings were left damaged. | それくらいお金に余裕が出てきていた。 |
36 | Soma used to be famous for seaweed cultivation, but it seemed too early to resume the business. | 地元の親族では、テレビが報じているほどには東電を憎んではいない。 |
37 | My mother lives in Soma. One time she was listening to a traditional Japanese popular song called Matsukawaura Ohashi Ondo (The Dance of the Matsukawaura Bridge) when she was driving. | 相馬市も、市役所を新しく建て替えて、全面蔵造りの新庁舎にする工事が始まっていた。 |
38 | My mother said that this song reminded her of Soma before the earthquake. | 相馬市の庁舎津波の影響を受けていないけど、復興予算が余っているのかな。 |
39 | The singer of this song had been killed by the tsunami during the earthquake. It has been four years since the earthquake. | 海岸部も見に行ったけれど、かつて町だった民宿街が更地になっていた。 |
40 | People from Uda village walking in a parade as a part of Soma wild horse chasing festival. | まだ一部の建物は壊れたままだった。 |
41 | I took this photo after the earthquake. Follow-up | 相馬で有名な海苔の養殖はまだとても開始できる状態ではなかった。 |
42 | Last month, I visited Soma to tell my family about my latest move to a new condominium. I wished I could have returned to my hometown as someone who had accomplished a great thing. | 相馬の母は車を運転中、「松川浦大橋音頭」という演歌を流していた。 |
43 | I told my parents: “I couldn't come here because I didn't have any good news.” They said: “It's your home. | これを聴くと「元気だった頃の相馬を思い出す」という。 |
44 | You can come back anytime.” I will try again, ever harder, I promise. | この演歌を歌っている歌手は津波で死亡している。 |
45 | About the Author Takayoshi Saito (齊藤貴義) is the president of Sanbo Honbu, a prominent Japanese web development company. | そんな4年間だった。 |
46 | Saito has worked with a number of Japan's top internet companies include Livedoor, where he led development of Livedoor Reader. Saito is generally known online by his Twitter handle @miraihack. | 震災後に私が撮影した相馬野馬追い宇多郷の行列 |