Victims talked about 311: Part 3

When the earthquake occurred, Mr. Daisuke Tanaka was working on a highway as a construction supervisor. He realized right away that the scale of the earthquake was unusual. He sent workers back to their homes and headed for his own home as well. Daisuke, his wife and two month old daughter were not originally from Tohoku. They were living in Rikuzentakada city, one of the severe tsunami stricken towns, for his work. He worried about his wife who didn’t have a driver’s license, didn’t have close friends in a new place, and with a baby. However, heavy traffic made his way home so much longer than usual.

For a week, Daisuke looked for his wife and daughter without any information. Their town was washed away by the tsunami and their home was gone. Victim’s bodies and parts of body were hanging or laying all over the places. He checked bodies. "I was glad when a body wasn’t my wife, and the next moment, I hated myself being happy when somebody died".

One day, he received a call to tell him that his wife was in ICU in Iwate prefecture. He rushed to meet her and found her with a respirator, being unable to speak. She shed tears when he arrived, apologized for having separated from their daughter by writing letters by a finger on his palm.

A nurse brought pens and paper to help their communication. His wife wrote "I remember everything until the moment when I’d lost conscious", "I hate here, I want to go home". Daisuke promised her to find their daughter and she described their daughter’s clothing on March 11th. She passed away from lung damage due to too much seawater and oil that she swallowed in the tsunami.

In the beginning of May, his daughter’s body was found. Daisuke said "Sorry" to the daughter for having left her in the cold water alone. Police called him soon after they found the body because of the wife’s description about clothing. "However, they’ve been taking time for DNA confirmation. My daughter still can not come back to me after more than two months (as of July 23rd when this event was held). I don’t know why they need this long"...... It was a week after he shared this story that he received the confirmation and flew back to Japan to see her.

"We have come apart due to the disaster. We were going to move out from Rikuzentakada after my job there. Actually we were planning to visit Tokyo on the day after the disaster to look for a place. We had a reservation with a hotel in Tokyo...... I can’t help thinking if the earthquake happened one day later".

My wife and I love Hawaii and had a dream to start a business. We have been saving to make it happen. I want to accomplish our dream for my wife. This dream keeps me going".

However I was diagnosed as PSTD (post-traumatic stress disorder). I don’t know why the doctor says so, but my sleep is not deep and I have flashback, so I may have PSTD".

"I’d like to clean beaches and roads while I’m in Hawaii as my appreciation for letting me home-stay. But I can’t even do it until I become mentally stable".

"My wife and I was a really close couple so we used to talk about our death. She has asked me to scatter her ash into Hawaiian ocean. So I brought some of her ash. I intended to scatter it on Oahu before I came to Maui, but I couldn’t..... I was afraid of real separation from her. But I will make it while I’m in Hawaii".

Daisuke talked about all these in calm, stable voice among sobbing audience. But only once, he couldn’t finish his words from tears. It was while discussion time after three speakers shared their experiences. We were talking about how much the survivors needed help.

"Please help us. We need your support. We have become weak by the disaster, but... we are not losers. So, someday again, we will ... by our own ability..."

I didn’t know a word to return.