Women sit beside the lit lanterns to think of the victims of tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture on Thursday, December 5.
Tomokatsu Sowa
In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, which was seriously hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, residents and volunteers lit 3,266 lanterns, same as the number of victims in the city, on Thursday, December 5, to remember the tragedy of March 11.
Exactly 1,000 days after the disaster, those who lost loved ones or homes in the disaster gathered to mourn the victims and prayed for the restoration of the region.
Junichi Kawamura, 60, a farmer who grows tomatoes in Ishinomaki, lost five of his family members in the tsunami. “I still haven’t sort out my feelings of losing my family, but I realize that time has slipped by before I knew it,” Kawamura said.
(Dec. 6, 2013)