Fixed point, 10 years from that day Each story of the disaster area March 8 19:12

"Fixed point video".

Immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, NHK regularly visited the coasts of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, and photographers recorded the situation in the disaster area at the same place and at the same angle of view.

The video shows the changes towards reconstruction.

And each of the images had various thoughts of many people.

It is 10 years of the disaster area as seen from the "fixed point video".

(Sendai station, Masato Ito / Kaho Nasugawa, Morioka station, Yuta Nakamoto, Fukushima station, Yusuke Nomura)

Preparedness put in the "signboard": Sendai Bureau, Masato Ito Photographer

Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, had the highest number of victims due to the earthquake.

The coastal Kadowaki area was particularly damaged by the tsunami.

"Fixed-point video" continues at seven locations, including a hill overlooking the Kadowaki area.

In the "fixed point video", there was a signboard in the video one month after the earthquake.

"Let's do our best! Ishinomaki".

At the time of the earthquake, I was working at the Akita station, and I was in the Kadowaki area many times to support interviews, and I met a man who was trying to raise a sign in the rubble.

This is Kenichi Kurosawa.

Mr. Kurosawa built a signboard at the place where he said, "I want to encourage the people in the area," even though I lost my home and the water supply company that was run by the tsunami.

Fixed-point photography in the Kadowaki area began in April 2011.

In the video of the residential area taken from a small high place, there is no building that should have been in the foreground, and debris is piled up on one side.

Looking closely, there were carp streamers in May and Tanabata decorations in July around the signboard where debris remained.

I asked Mr. Kurosawa about that time.

Mr. Kurosawa

"The people in the area said,'I'll do my best,' and that was encouraging and continued."

In the 2013 video, many people are gathering in front of the signboard.

The signboard became a place to pray to the victims not only for the people in the area but also for the visitors to Ishinomaki City.

However, in the 2015 video, land raising work began around the signboard, and the signboard was also forced to evict.

And in 2016, the signboard disappeared from the fixed point video.

Mr. Kurosawa says about the situation at that time, "I felt that it was time for the signboard to finish its role."

However, after that, that signboard appeared in a fixed-point video from another place.

As a symbol to convey the memory of the earthquake, it was relocated to a corner of the reconstruction prayer park under construction and will remain.

Mr. Kurosawa strongly said, "I have to continue to convey the sad events that happened here."

The "fixed-point video" signboard reflected Mr. Kurosawa's determination to remain in the disaster area while changing his role over the past 10 years.

Fixed-point video that continued to be recorded in the disaster area

Discs with "fixed-point video" recorded are lined up on the shelves in the corner of the news floor of NHK Sendai Broadcasting Station.

The images taken by more than 250 photographers nationwide have so far reached about 100 locations and 6000 cuts.

"Hope" from the nuclear accident: Iwaki branch office, Yusuke Nomura photographer

The fixed-point video continues in Fukushima Prefecture, which was affected by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Company, as well as the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

However, due to the effects of the nuclear accident, it was only three years after the earthquake that local governments near the nuclear power plant, such as Okuma Town and Tomioka Town, began shooting fixed-point images in earnest.

In difficult-to-return areas where access is severely restricted, we obtained special permission from the local government and took pictures in protective clothing.

Blank time as if time had stopped.

Even so, there was a small hope in the fixed-point video.

Tomioka fishing port in Tomioka town within 10 km from the nuclear power plant.

Fixed-point footage has been preserved since 2014, when evacuation orders were still issued to all towns.

Steel frame of a fishing port facility that has been destroyed by the tsunami.

I couldn't get in easily, so the steel frame remained unchanged in the subsequent footage.

And in the fixed-point video of 2017, when the evacuation order was partially lifted, it was left that the maintenance was progressing at a rapid pace.

I started to cover what the townspeople think about the video.

I want to revive my own home

I met Mr. Kunihiro Sasaki, a staff member of Tomioka Town Hall who was in charge of the reconstruction of the fishing port.

According to the story on the bridge overlooking the fishing port where the "fixed point video" was being shot, Mr. Sasaki said that he was looking at the town at this place the morning after the earthquake.

"It's a hell painting, isn't it? I couldn't imagine how it would recover at that time."

Mr. Sasaki himself was affected by the disaster and is still unable to return to his home in the difficult-to-return area.

It is said that the appearance of the fishing port left behind from the reconstruction overlapped with its own circumstances.

Mr. Sasaki

"This (fishing port) is my home for fishermen. I come back to work from my home. I had to revive it for those people."

Mr. Sasaki left his family at the evacuation site and struggled to regenerate the fishing port.

When I was asked to watch a fixed-point video, I pointed to a certain video and had tears in my eyes.

The video taken in 2017 showed a small yellow heavy machine.

"The excavator car is so happy that it makes me cry."

He recalled the reality of the time when it was difficult for heavy machinery to even move in difficult-to-return areas.

"The fact that heavy machinery enters here is a message that the fishing port is definitely heading for regeneration," says Sasaki.

I felt that the movement of heavy machinery was a step toward the reconstruction of Fukushima.

Tomioka fishing port has achieved the last "return" of fishing ports in Fukushima prefecture.

However, only 12.8% of the respondents returned to Tomioka Town, where difficult-to-return areas remain.

Still, Mr. Sasaki is looking forward.

"It's still a long way to go. I want to create a town that I can be proud of."

Fixed-point video of young photographers facing each other

At NHK, photographers from all over the country have entered the disaster area and have been involved in "fixed-point video".

Ten years after the earthquake, young photographers who were still junior high school students and high school students at that time have joined.

I felt it was a distant disaster: Morioka station, Yuta Nakamoto photographer

In my second year at the station, I took a closer look at the fixed-point video in November last year, when I was assigned to the Morioka station and about a year and a half had passed.

I was just shocked by the vivid reality right after the earthquake.

At that time, I was in the second year of high school in Hyogo prefecture, and I heard about the earthquake from a friend on the way back from the club activities that day.

The damage on the TV was also a memory of "a terrible event that happened in a distant place."

I became involved in the coverage of the disaster area at the Morioka station, and at first I was confused as to whether I was qualified to cover the disaster area, but gradually I was able to hear about the disaster area, and I told it because I felt the earthquake in the distance. I came to think that there was something I could do.

This time, I was in charge of the interview in Yamada Town, Iwate Prefecture.

I wanted to know how the residents felt as the appearance of the town changed many times due to the large-scale raising work.

I continued to interview while comparing the fixed-point video with the current landscape, and I met Yuji Nakamura, who runs a flower shop.

The store was damaged by the tsunami, but the store was immediately reopened in a tent in an attempt to respond to the voice of "I want a mourning flower."

It is said that he wanted to "close to the feelings of the bereaved family" in the appearance of people buying while crying.

Then, three months later, it was prefabricated, and five years later, the store was finally rebuilt.

The fixed-point video shows the store and heavy machinery.

It is said that the raising work has begun in the surrounding area, and the people involved in the work also visited to buy flowers.

"I wanted to give flowers to my family left in my hometown, and I had a birthday present for my wife."

I learned that there are various people's thoughts behind the images of heavy machinery.

And in the last few years, when shops and houses have been rebuilt, more and more locals are buying festive flowers and ornamental flowers.

As the town changes, so do the flowers we seek.

It was something I couldn't understand just by looking at the surface of the "fixed point image".

What kind of people came to the prefabricated dining room?

What kind of conversation was being exchanged on the fishing boat with the big fishing flag?

I thought that each person's life is in the changing appearance of the town.

I set up a camera on the roof of Yamada Town Hall to capture the "now of the town" in a fixed-point video.

I would like to continue to look at the small changes in this town.

Is it okay to cover the earthquake disaster: Sendai Bureau, Kaho Nasugawa Photographer

It was my second year since I joined the station, and when I started to cover the disaster area, I was wondering if it would be okay for a young man who did not know about the disaster to talk to me.

Spring break in the third year of junior high school at that time.

I live in Kanagawa prefecture, and I have no memory of the earthquake except for the big shaking, the number of deaths written in the newspaper, and the long-lasting rolling blackouts.

Half a year after I was assigned to the Sendai station, I saw the fixed-point video of my seniors for the first time.

While I was impressed by the revitalization of the city, I was shocked to see that the memories of the people there disappeared.

With that in mind, I faced fixed-point video as to what I should do now.

A woman's house in a fixed-point video in Higashimatsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture was shown.

It is the house of Yoshiko Niitsuma.

Last March, I met my new wife when I covered an effort to preserve the thousand paper cranes that were given to me at the time of the earthquake.

The bright personality was impressive, and I was able to take the plunge and hear about the earthquake.

The new wife was struck by the tsunami while she was evacuating with her lame father in a car, and her father died.

He also told me that he moved to Higashimatsushima one year before the earthquake as his father's home, and that he continues to live in this place even after his father's death.

I started interviewing to find out why I have a hard memory and why I continue to live.

"I want to apologize directly. It would have been cold, it would have been cold ...".

I've always had regrets about not being able to save my father in the car I drive.

It was engraved in the place where I had that feeling.

It is a memorial bench built on a hill in 2017.

Residents write their thoughts on the deceased on the plate.

The new wife wrote, "Are you on your side ...".

He says that this question was made because his father might have a grudge against himself or he might not be with him.

It's been three years since I spelled out my thoughts.

I heard my thoughts on the hill with a bench.

New buildings, roads, and occasionally cars were running in front of the new wife's line of sight.

Mr. Niizuma:

"I thought. I'm sure I'm here, my dad. I'm moving forward step by step. It's hard, but I'm living here. So I think I'm feeling like watching. "

After that, Mr. Niizuma said to the bench, "You'll be by your side."

It took me 10 years to finally reach it.

The new wife will continue to watch the reconstruction of Higashi Matsushima, which her father liked.

I still hesitate to hear about the earthquake.

Still, I want to leave a "fixed-point image" that connects the past and the present as a photographer to the future, and I want to continue to convey the thoughts of those who live forward.

Future "fixed point video"

Fixed-point video recording 10 years of the area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

If you look at every corner, vacant lots are conspicuous, and there are places where construction continues.

I get the impression that reconstruction is still in the middle of the road.

"It's still a long way to go."

It is the words of Mr. Sasaki who struggled to revive the fishing port in Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture.

"I'm still looking at fixed-point images from now on."

It is our determination.

Fixed point, from that day Great East Japan Earthquake Fixed point video map

Sendai Broadcasting Station Photographer

Masato Ito

Joined in 2003

Continued coverage of the Great East Japan Earthquake and worked

on shooting fixed-point video and coverage and production of "fixed point, from that day"

Fukushima Broadcasting Station (Iwaki Branch) Photographer　

Yusuke Nomura

Joined in 2014

After working at the Nagoya Station and Shizuoka Station, he was in charge of covering the areas affected by the tsunami and the nuclear accident

.

Morioka broadcasting stations cameraman

Nakamoto Yuta　　　

He joined in 2019　

and appointed to Morioka stations as a rookie, the first time the coverage of the earthquake experience

interviews, such as the multilateral responsible for the series to see the reconstruction of the affected areas from the sky

Sendai Broadcasting Station Photographer　

Kaho Nasugawa

Joined in 2019

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture.

After arrived as a rookie in Sendai station, involved in the disaster area coverage of the earthquake

bonds interview on the theme of the person and the person, such as so far to the paper cranes preservation efforts