I went together with the head of one social welfare institution in Shizuoka, where I once did a social volunteer year, and with other people, who joined the Christian Social Welfare Association Conference 2012 (2 days trip + 2 days conference). This conference is held at different places once every year and in order to pay attention to and to give support to the people in the damaged Tohoku area, it was held this year in Sendai. The head of the institution in Shizuoka (a family friend) and me took a Shinkansen from Shizuoka to Tokyo and then from Tokyo to Sendai, where we met the other members (about 50 people who also joined the bus tour) on the next day. These members were professors, pastors, teachers, staff from various social welfare institutions and also a Korean group arrived, to learn about the current situation and to provide mental support. Some of the members had already been to the damaged places and did, for example, some volunteer work, but as far as it concerned me, I wasn’t quite sure what I could expect, when seeing the places.
Our first place to go was Ishinomaki (Yamashiromachi church) and on the way, our guide, whose family also became evacuees, told us about her own experience and other important facts. She told us, how hard it had been during the first weeks without electricity, water and other daily needs. Afterwards, she made us look at a red bridge and told us, that the water had reached this part. It was hard to recognize that the wave approached so deep inside the island. By the time of our arrival in Ishinomaki, I somehow had a strange feeling and didn’t know how to react, because as I saw the places where houses were torn away, it seemed surreal to me. Once, this was a place where a family shared their supper together and now everything was just gone. It was just hard for me to accept this fact.
The Yamashiromachi church was located on the hillside of the city. It was good to have a place to sit down and we stayed inside the church to pray for the victims and their families. After visiting the church, we came to the temporary houses for the evacuees. We were happy to notice, that they had done some colorful painting outside the houses:
It seemed to me like a sign of hope and strength and an encouragement that life goes on even after such a disaster. Moreover, we saw the interior of the housing and I could also talk to some inhabitants. Three women of different ages, to whom I spoke, were very curious about Germany and even welcomed me with a warm German greeting. This made me very happy as well, to see that they weren’t seeing us as some curious tourists, but very grateful about our visit.
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