While New Year's greetings on SNS are becoming more popular, there is a man who continues to deliver each New Year's card with a special feeling to the disaster areas all over the country.

Over 50,000 postcards have been distributed over the past 27 years.

While living on my pension, I will bear the transportation expenses myself, and I plan to go to Kumamoto to deliver a message this New Year.


(Kobe Broadcasting Station Reporter Isshu Uehara)

Messages of Support Delivered to Disaster Areas

My name is Yukitaka Uritani (75) from Kobe City.



Mr. Uritani receives many postcards every year at the end of the year.



But it wasn't addressed to Uriya-san.

This is a message of support for “someone” living in a disaster-stricken area.



At the beginning of the year, they go to disaster areas and distribute them directly to people living in temporary housing.



Mr. Uritani has continued this initiative for 27 years.

Triggered by 1.17

The trigger for Mr. Uritani to start this initiative was the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.



On the morning of January 17, 1995, Ms. Uriya was trapped in a collapsed house with her mother in her home in Nagata Ward, Kobe.



Yukitaka Uritani:


“I heard a squealing noise, and immediately after that I was buried alive in the pitch-black darkness. I didn't know if it was a dream or something, so I stood in front of the flattened house with my mother."



I suffered injuries that took 45 days to heal, including three broken ribs .

It is said that he did not know what to do in the future, such as work, and was in a state of absent-mindedness.



What encouraged Uritani-san was a message sent to her office fax.



He was sent by friends he met through the activities of the volunteer group he operated, and others he supported.



"Tell us what you need. Now it's our turn to help you."



Encouraged by messages from both inside and outside Japan, Mr. Uritani himself lived in an evacuation shelter at the library while relief supplies arrived. I worked hard to distribute it to the evacuation shelter.

Bringing Smiles to Temporary Housing

A few months later, when some people moved from the evacuation center to temporary housing, Mr. Uritani noticed a problem.



Mr. Yukitaka Uritani:


“There have been cases of elderly people committing suicide in temporary housing. I went around to talk to the elderly living in the house, and they said they wanted to return to the evacuation center.” It is said that the elderly who



had just moved and had no one nearby to talk to and living in an unfamiliar place felt lonely. increase.



At that time, Mr. Uritani remembered the message that had arrived on that fax.



"Next time, I want to encourage people living in temporary housing."

Through an acquaintance living outside the prefecture, I asked about 30 elementary school students to write postcards and distributed them at evacuation centers.



Mr. Uritani says that the reaction of the recipients was more than he had imagined.



Yukitaka Uritani:


"At first, I didn't think it would last. But the next day, I got a phone call. The person who handed out the postcards said, 'I read it over and over again dozens of times a day. I'm feeling better.' And even those who weren't handing them out said, ``I want you to send me those encouraging letters.'' Each time I collected the postcards, I ended up sending them to all the temporary housing units in Kobe. I gave it away."

“Genki Mail” to disaster areas nationwide

This initiative was named "Genki Mail", and when it was reported in the media, postcards began to arrive not only from Japan but also from overseas such as the United States and Taiwan.



Every time a disaster occurred, Mr. Uritani continued to deliver postcards to various disaster areas such as Tohoku and Hiroshima.



That number is over 50,000.

Bonds that connect disaster areas

There is a woman who sympathizes with the activities and has been writing New Year's cards for the disaster areas for 11 years.



Kumiko Nohara is a calligrapher from Kobe.



She lost her parents and her brother-in-law in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.



She said that when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, she couldn't take it for granted.



At that time, Ms. Nohara was not feeling well, but when she was thinking that she could do something, she learned of the existence of "Her Genki Mail", and she was hospitalized. I wrote a few New Year's cards.



Ms. Kumiko Nohara


: “I know how you feel. I know how sad and difficult it is because I have experienced it myself. That's why I want to give something back.”



So far, Nohara has written more than 100 postcards every year, 280 in many years.



Some of the postcards she sent got a reply, and she says she still keeps in touch with him.



I am writing a New Year's card this year in the hope that the people affected by the disaster will get better.

Ms. Kumiko Nohara:


“I was the same way, but no matter what words I say, it will not give me comfort, so I think it is important to keep writing postcards. It is important to connect and connect with people. I want to reach as many people as possible, so I will do my best this year as well.”

want to continue as long as possible

Mr. Uritani, who has continued to work alone.



After her retirement, I worked part-time to cover transportation and accommodation expenses to the disaster area.



At the age of 75, she is now living on a pension, which is becoming more difficult, but she wants to keep working as long as she can.



In the past two years, I have not been able to visit the affected areas due to the coronavirus, but at the beginning of the year, I will go to Kuma Village and Tsunagi Town in Kumamoto Prefecture, which were hit by heavy rain in July 2020, and distribute New Year's cards. I have an appointment.

Mr. Yukitaka Uritani:


"It's just a single postcard, but it's important that you put your heart into it. I know how you feel because you've experienced the disaster, but as time passes after a disaster, people gradually forget about it. However, it is very difficult for the victims to feel various hardships.It is important that they support us at such times, saying, "We have not forgotten. We are worried." I want to directly convey the feelings of the people who wrote them



. Mr. Uraya who was able to do it.



It was impressive to hear that he continued his activities because he wanted to see the smiles of those who received New Year's cards.



Mr. Uritani also said that the number of New Year's cards he collects is gradually decreasing, and I hope that this activity will be widely known and that the baton will be passed on.



The New Year's card distributed at the beginning of the year means that we are recruiting a lot this year.