It has been 11 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
In Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, a man who lost his wife in the tsunami visited the beach where his body was found with a stone slab carved with his thoughts on his wife and prayed.
Seietsu Sato (69) from Motoyoshi-cho, Kesennuma lost his wife Atsuko (58 years old at the time) in the tsunami 11 years ago.
At the time of the earthquake, Mr. Sato was the commander of the Kesennuma Fire Department, and because he was busy with rescue activities, he could not go to find Mr. Atsuko, and her wife who did not return six days after the earthquake. I met him.
On the 11th, after holding hands on the altar at her home, we headed to the Koizumi coast near where Atsuko was found.
Until three years ago, I used to pray as my wife's last place, using the stone on the coast as a landmark, but I had to remove it due to the construction of the seawall, and it has been 11 years since the earthquake. I made a stone slab with the message, "Always with your beloved wife, Atsuko's memories."
Mr. Sato prayed by placing lithographs, iei, bouquets, etc. at the place where Mr. Atsuko was found, which is now a parking lot.
Mr. Sato said, "This is a place for a precious dialogue of life. By putting letters on the stones that I have been worshiping for a long time and pointing flowers here, I was able to express my thoughts for 11 years as a form. Even after that, the sadness of losing a loved one does not change. "
The lithograph will be installed in her grave where Atsuko sleeps in the future.