Great East Japan Tsunami: Onagawa Memorial Park to be ready next spring
Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum in this park was opened for public on Sep 22, and since then 60,000 people have already visited.
NEW DELHI. Eight years after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, life has returned to normalcy in Onagawa along the Sanriku Coast known for its bountiful seafood like oysters, scallops, pacific saury, and salmon.
As major reconstruction work goes on which includes moving buildings further inland as well as raising the height of the entire town center by more than five meters, this coastal town of less-than-10,000 population now has everything – a craft-beer bar, an artisanal coffeehouse, a Spanish-tile factory, and a workshop where electric guitars are carved from local cedar.
But coming spring (from April-May), this small coastal town will also have its Onagawa memorial Park to be ready for the visitors.
As a reminder of the March 2011 disaster that swept the city to the ruins, this waterfront-turned-memorial park, is being built around a former police station building.
“This police station building was probably the only structure that could bravely stand against the powerful devastating waves of tsunami. The majority of the structures in the town had been obliterated,” Kenichiro Hiramoto, Curator, Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum, Japan told Asian Community News (ACN) Network during his visit to New Delhi recently.
Hiramoto said Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum, which is the part of the memorial park was completed and opened for the public on September 22, and since then 60,000 people including foreigners had already paid their visit to this museum.
“Onagwa is the costal town facing the sea, and the people here refused to construct sea wall as they wanted to continue their interface with the sea,” he said.
Hiramoto visited New Delhi on November 13 to participate in India-Japan Dialogue on ‘Coping with Gujarat & Fukushima Disasters: Reminiscences and The Way Forward’, co-organised by Mombusho Scholars Association of India (MOSAI) and India Japan Friendship Forum at India International Centre.
“There are many ways to live post-disaster to remain involved in the subject. And such form of dialogue could be certainly one of them,” said Tomo Kawane, a Japanese national.
She was in Ahmedabad when the massive earthquake struck Gujarat in 2001. She had gone out of the way to help the disaster victims and also coordinated with the rescue team flown in from Japan to India. Tomo Kawane has been living in India for 36 years.
Others present on the occasion were the then Ambassador to Japan Alok Prasad, Lebanyendu Mansingh, Chief Co-ordinator of Relief and Rehabilitation, Kutch, and FICCI Disaster Relief Cell, the President of MOSAI Dr. Ashok Jain, Uday Bhanu Patnayak, Architect who was involved in the hospital in the post Kutch disaster and Dr. Sushila Narsimhan who guides research scholars even her post-retirement from the University of Delhi.
Toshihide Ando, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in India offered his opening remarks on the occasion. Mizuho Hayakawa, Counsellor, Embassy of Japan and Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative, JICA New Delhi, were also present.
Commandant Alok Avasthy, NDRF and the leader of the Onagawa expedition of National Disaster Response Force sent by Government of India to Japan after March 11, 2011, made a telling presentation about his experience in Onagawa.
Yoshiki Ehara, senior representative, JICA, New Delhi who hails from Sendai, had worked at JICA Sendai between 2013 and 2017 before coming to India.
