For the past year, the Wall Street Journal has continued to report on the lives of the survivors of the earthquake/tsunami that struck the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011.
While the number of articles is too large to provide links--and many are, as one would expect of a financial publication, devoted to the impact on businesses large and small--it is the reporting on the human dimensions of the disaster--the courage and stoicism displayed, the frustrations and discouragements experienced and, sometimes, the depression felt by, the survivors--that has distinguished the paper's extraordinary dedication to the story.
This link will take you to a series of articles "Faces of the Disaster: One Year On" that have appeared during the last twelve months and includes updates to each that were filed last week:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...%3Dinteractive
From the young farmer who lost his wife and three children and "...could only think about how to commit suicide," but decided instead "I didn't want my kids and wife in heaven to see me in such a miserable condition, so I decided to live each day to the fullest,"…
to the sweet-shop owner who re-opened his store in a
shipping container because "his business, which he thought was inconsequential, mattered to a lot of people. Neighbors, even strangers, kept asking: When would he bake his sweets again? He realized maybe his life's work had meant something to the town after all—and it was part of what made it worth saving,"…
and finally to the mayor of devastated Rikuzentakata whose wife was swept away just six minutes after they had spoken on the phone to make dinner plans and whose dedication to his duties as mayor had initially kept him from going to the makeshift morgue where his wife’s body lay, leading him say to a reporter "When I think about that it really makes me question what kind of human being I am,”…
these are stories of lives shattered by destruction and loss but ultimately defined by that best of all human traits: a determination to be at one’s best when things are at their worst, to move forward even when the reason or means to do so may not be apparent.
Here are pictures of Kumi Toba, wife of the mayor and mother of Taiga and Kanato, that were found in the wreckage of their home and pictures of shop-owner Masayuki Kimura and farmer Satoshi Abe.
May all strength and blessings flow to these men and women and those they have lost.
.....OR.....we could talk some more..."
