ISHINOMAKI, Japan – Approximately 350 people from the Funakoshi harbor were washed out to sea during the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March of last year and were never found.
An area once covered with houses and boats stood silent and desolate, a fraction of its inhabitants remaining among the scant few buildings.
But in this harbor, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni volunteers helped a local boat mechanic bring new life to his business and the ravaged town.
”The focus of our work was to help this man try to start re-establishing his business by reclaiming some of his machinery which had gotten trapped in his old workshop,” said Robert G. Sheu, station volunteer. “The first two days we worked there, it was pouring rain and everyone was soaked down to the core, yet we all still kept working. I think the Japanese were really impressed by the work ethic we all had.”
Volunteers worked at tearing through the old workshop, pulling
out metal to be recycled or re-used. While most pieces could be lifted out by hand, locals supplied a forklift and a truck with a crane
for the removal of larger pieces of equipment, most notably, a
machine which, while rusted from the tsunami water and time, was
still salvageable and worth a great amount.
After helping reclaim anything of value, volunteers piled all recyclable
items next to the mechanic’s new workshop and then worked on
cleaning out trash and debris around the docking area of the harbor.
This was to be all the work the volunteers planned to do that day,
until they found two large stone slabs of a torii gate by a dock.
Volunteers loaded up two stone pillars using a truck and drove them
more than 500 meters to the rest of the torii gate, which locals had
already located and placed by the shrine.
“The people we were there to help were so appreciative of everything we did, whether it was offering us something to drink or eat, it let us know the work we were doing had an impact in their lives,” said Sheu.
“From the minute we arrived at the worksite to the minute we left, we were always busy, helping out. It made me feel like every minute we were there was a minute well spent in helping these people get back on their feet and carry on with their lives.”
Date Taken: | 03.30.2012 |
Date Posted: | 07.01.2012 15:41 |
Story ID: | 90962 |
Location: | IWAKUNI, YAMAGUCHI, JP |
Web Views: | 12 |
Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Changing with the tides: fishing community pushes through tragedy, by Sgt Benjamin Pryer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.