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Great East Japan Earthquake ActivityReport 10thAnniversary

Looking into the Past, Present, and Future: Vol 1. Message from Mr. Jin Sato

Disaster-affected areas have made a drastic transformation since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. The affected people, however, still carry the memories and pain with them.

A special series on looking into the past, present and future features people Civic Force has met while providing relief assistance. The first message was sent from Mr. Jin Sato, the mayor of Minami-Sanriku.

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More than a half ot the town residents lost their homes

In December 2020, a memorial park was opened in Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture where the city's disaster management unit was located. The city building was swallowed up in 15-meter high tsunami waves and many staff members lost their lives as they tried to send evacuation orders through the warning system. The waves reached the city center and swept away the city hall, police and fire stations, hospital, and 60% of houses were completely destroyed. The town of 17,000 lost 620 lives and 211 people are still missing (as of December 2020).

One of the survivors, Mr. Jin Sato, the town's mayor, vividly remembers that day. The earthquake struck right before the city council meeting ended and Mr. Sato immediately moved to the disaster management unit building. The waves struck the city building when he was making evacuation orders from the rooftop. Mr. Sato instinctively held tightly onto the handrails in front of him and barely survived the moment. He started a fire using driftwood and spent that night on the roof.

The next morning, he used ropes to climb down the building and landed on flooded soil. He went around the town's evacuation centers to confirm the safety of the survivors and established a disaster management post at a gymnasium.

"He was wearing a uniform but I think he worked for over 10 days straight without taking a bath or getting enough sleep on a bed," recalled Ms. Kaori Neki, Civic Force's Executive Director. Throughout the emergency response, Mr. Sato remained calm and actively worked with aid workers. Ms. Neki coordinated with Mr. Sato and the town residents to provide relief assistance as they waited for electricity, gas, and water services to return.

Building Disaster Resilient Town

"Minami-Sanriku experience many tsunami disastesr including the Chille earthquake in 1960. But the 2011 tsunami was different. The town was completely destroyed and looked just miserable." In the past ten years, Mr. Sato has been working toward building a disaster resilient town and rebuilding the livelihoods of the town residents.

Since 2011, Mr. Sato was reelected twice in 2013 and 2017 and is now serving his fourth term as a mayor. Building on lessons learned from the disaster, the mayor is envisioning the town where residents can live and feel safe next to the ocean. For example, houses and public facilities are now built on a higher land.

"We are very thankful for the support we received from people inside and outside of Japan. Please come visit the transformed Minami-Sanriku soon."

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<Civic Force's trailer house was used by the town>

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