Arahama

The fifth-year anniversary of that tragic event is fast approaching. So, Arahama, like other areas along the entire Tohoku Pacific region, is planning to hold a memorial service, making the occasion sacred and long remembered. I hope to attend that afternoon of speeches and prayers, followed by a releasing of hundreds of balloons. It will be our way of symbolically linking our hearts with all those lost and with those still struggling today.

People in Sendai proper are mostly pulling together their lives. Their daily focus has shifted from survival mode to arranging new homes or getting kids to play fewer computer games and do their homework. But at one extreme edge of Sendai, Arahama, things are very different. Wanting to know how things were faring, I decided to go to Arahama before March 11 to visit the area at my own pace. 

Arahama is divided by a highway. On the side toward the mountains, farmhouses are surrounded by greenhouses and fields hungry for planting. Life is thriving, with a sense of continuity and of tradition. 

But on the side facing the ocean, things are still shattered and struggling to heal. House foundations sit like ruins of an ancient civilization with grass growing where living rooms and kitchens used to be. Rubbish can occasionally be found, with a sofa lost by the side of the road, and with guardrails twisted and thrown out of use. The desolation is punctured by the ceaseless rumble of huge trucks, carrying soil in an attempt to raise the entire coastal belt.

Surprisingly, a demolished temple still claims holy ground, housing itself in a temporary shelter surrounded by ruins and debris. A priest stays there with his fully adorned altar, welcoming parishioners who need to talk or to pray. 

And absolutely miraculously, behind this humble religious establishment looms a gracious Buddha statue, resembling the Goddess of Mercy and of Love. This reassuring presence remained standing despite the tremendous power of the tsunami and the extent of the devastation at Her feet. Surely She is symbolic of Divine Love and a reminder of life’s eternal continuity. A sprinkling of people go to Her, wishing to touch the depths of the earth’s tears and their own, and to find solace from Her wisdom and profound silence.

Arahama and places along the coast of Tohoku are not the only ones that will hold Japan in their thoughts and prayers on March 11 this year. In far away Los Angeles’ Tokyo Town, for example, a three-day memorial event will also take place. One part of that program’s full agenda will be a documentary film called Kyō/Today/今日, made by a young filmmaker, Austin Auger. It presents the stories of six tsunami survivors. If you wish to see a preview of this very moving film, please go to the website below. Surely you will feel the courage and determination of those building a future out of the lessons and hardships of profound loss, coupled with ongoing community solidarity and love.

www.maytomorrowbe.com