Publicity

They were people we came to know as well as you can in the space of a busy Foreign Correspondent assignment. A mischievous kid, a thoughtful architect, a weather-beaten fisherman and an aspiring politician.

Reporter Mark Willacy had travelled to Rikuzentakata as part of our investigation into Japan's whaling Industry. This was a proud fishing village with a strong whaling heritage. It was where we'd meet up with one of Japan's most outspoken pro-whaling identities on a fleeting visit to his old home town.

We arranged for whaling provocateur Masayuki Komatsu to catch up with old friends and it was during that raucous gathering we got to know the characters who loved their little town, had raised their families here and who wouldn't contemplate living anywhere else.

Yoshiharu Yoshida was a crusty oyster farmer and deep sea fisherman who'd seen a great deal of what nature could dish up. Architect Koichi Sunada also knew the power of natural forces and specialised in designing earthquake-proof homes.

Aspiring politician Toshiki Fukada volunteered as a fireman, had seen plenty of action and was responsible for some of the functional aspects of Rikuzentakata's imposing, six metre sea wall - built to see off the ocean's most violent surges.

Pro-whaler Komatsu returned to his city home. Willacy and his crew returned to Tokyo to make the award-winning Foreign Correspondent investigation The Catch and the three locals got on with their lives in little Rikuzentakata.

Then a few months ago their town rocked and rumbled with Japan's worst earthquake and then was swallowed whole by an enormous and relentless Tsunami.

What happened to the architect, the fisherman, the politician and their families?

And what happened to the persistent little boy who rang his bell and pedalled past our cameras as we tried to film in the picturesque and historic streets of Rikuzentakata?

Mark Willacy returns to what's now an eerie wasteland to find out.

Rikuzentakata devastation after tsunami

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00:00

WILLACY: It’s almost impossible to believe that a prosperous fishing town of 20,000 people stood here.

00:10

Bulldozers cleaning up town

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00:17

WILLACY:  Today, the site of what was once Rikuzentakata is a hellish place choked with dirt and debris, empty except for the swarm of bulldozers gnawing at its remains. And it’s almost certain that many of the one thousand still missing will never be found.

00:25

Willacy to camera. Super:
Mark Willacy

I’ve come to Rikuzentakata not just because it’s one of the worst hit communities along this entire coastline, but because I have a connection here. Today Rikuzentakata is a haunted, obliterated place. It’s a shocking transformation, because when I was here last year filming for Foreign Correspondent, it was a vibrant fishing port, a place of people, temples and traditional houses.

01:00

Rikuzentakata before tsunami

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01:26

WILLACY:  Before March 11 Rikuzentakata was listed as one of Japan’s most scenic places. Its historic timber homes and shrines were something to treasure. Much of the town has stood for more than a century and locals had every reason to believe it would stand well into the future.

01:33

Pre-tsunami FC footage. Rikuzentakata sea wall

And just to be sure, they’d built a six and a half metre high wall to protect it from a surging sea.

01:55

Pre-tsunami FC footage.  Willacy walks along sea wall with Masayuki Komatsu

It was a whaling controversy that brought me here a year ago. Defiant pro-whaling provocateur Masayuki Komatsu hailed from here.

02:04

Pre-tsunami FC footage. Komatsu and friends

We filmed him at a raucous gathering with friends, a night of drinking, laughter and whale meat.

But it would be the last time all these old friends would enjoy each other’s company. Masayuki Komatsu would return home to Tokyo but his friends would stay in their town.

02:17

Overlay of stills of Yoshida, Fukada and Sunada

This is the survival story of fisherman Yoshiharu Yoshida, aspiring politician Toshiki Fukada and architect Koichi Sunada. A year after this dinner, their lives would be changed forever, each in a different way.

02:43

Return to friends gathering

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03:03

Rikuzentakata port/ Fishermen mending nets

WILLACY:  It’s a freezing afternoon on the 11th of March and after returning to port these fishermen mend their nets on the dock, but very soon the fourth most violent earthquake in recorded history would shake and rock this place, with 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.

03:15

Rikuzentakata water/waves

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03:36

WILLACY: The rupture would trigger an even more destructive force, a tsunami that would race towards the coast with extraordinary speed.

03:40

YOSHIHARU YOSHIDA: “It was a quake like I’d never experienced before.

03:54

Yoshida intercut with re-enactment

And because I could see cracks in the ground I thought a tsunami would definitely come – a big tsunami.

04:00

So I asked my wife to look after the house and I went to the port. I parked my car on a high spot, then dashed onto my boat”.

04:11

WILLACY: While others head for the hills, fisherman and oyster farmer Yoshiharu Yoshida is putting to sea to try to save his boat. The closer the tsunami gets to the coast, the bigger it will grow and the harder it will be for his boat to make it over the wave. He isn’t the only one trying to beat the tsunami.

04:21

Fire truck with siren blaring

04:47

Fukuda re-enactment in fire truck

Politician and volunteer fire fighter Toshiki Fukuda is heading into the face of danger, speeding to close a gate at a seawall near his home.

04:50

TOSHIKI FUKUDA: “I’m a leader, and in charge of this community’s fire fighters.

05:01

Fukuda

I needed to check the situation and the safety of my members. So I rushed to a vehicle and drove for fifteen minutes to get to this gate”.

05:06

Coastguard video

WILLACY: Just a few kilometres out in the Pacific, the tsunami is slowing and growing.

JAPANESE COAST GUARD: [at sea] “It’s ten metres”.

WILLACY: This Japanese coast guard ship is about to meet the unstoppable force head on.

JAPANESE COAST GUARD: “A second wave is coming!”

05:22

Yoshida re-enactment

WILLACY: Yoshiharu Yoshida too manages to ride over the wave. He catches his breath, counts his blessings and then turns helplessly to shore to watch the tsunami thunder on toward Rikuzentakata.

05:50

YOSHIHARU YOSHIDA: “About ten minutes after I left port I saw big waves along both sides of the coastline.

06:05

Yoshida

Then five minutes later, I saw the sea crash into Takata town. I don’t know how high it was – probably more than 20 metres. There was terrible sea spray and splashing. At first I thought it was fire with white and grey coloured smoke”.

06:14

Fukuda re-enactment

WILLACY: Standing on top of the sea gate in port, Toshiki Fukuda is stunned as the sea starts to rise and doesn’t stop.

06:36

Fukuda

TOSHIKI FUKUDA: “The water was surging up to around here. I thought I might die. I dropped down from the breakwater and rushed to the hill where the fire engines were parked”.

06:45

Phone video of tsunami

WILLACY: At first a small wave washes in and you can hear volunteer fire fighters – who might well have expected something much larger – chuckle with relief.

07:00

But little do they know, not far behind, there’s another wave that will soon hit the coast at 60 kilometres an hour and at a height of 13 metres.

07:14

FIRE FIGHTERS: [yelling] “The tsunami is crossing the bank! Please evacuate to higher ground!”

WILLACY: Now the sirens are sounding throughout Rikuzentakata and the laughter turns to panic.

07:26

Re-enactment.

FIRE FIGHTERS: [yelling] “Run away! Run away! Hurry up! Hurry up! The tsunami is coming over the bank! Run away! No, no, no. The tsunami is coming over the bank!

07:40

Fukada in fire truck

WILLACY: Toshiki Fukada is also fleeing but 49 other volunteer firemen will be caught by the wave and washed to their deaths.

08:05

Tsunami phone footage

FIRE FIGHTERS: “Hurry up! Hurry up!”

WILLACY: In the freezing gloom, Rikuzentakata is being engulfed by a churning black mass of water. Almost everything in its path is either crushed or carried away. Panic is now turning to terror as people try to scramble to higher ground.

08:15

This person realises too late the speed and killing power of this mountain of water and debris.

08:49

The force of the water is now obliterating entire buildings in explosions of spray.

08:59

The fate of these people floating on this twisted debris is unknown. The picturesque fishing hamlet of Rikuzentakata is no more, just about every building and structure destroyed and two thousand townsfolk are dead or missing.

09:08

Rikuzentakata. Post tsunami debris

09:29

Yoshida on shore

Fisherman Yoshiharu Yoshida watched the waves wipe out his town. He would spend the night out on the water before plucking up the courage to return.

09:44

YOSHIHARU YOSHIDA: “Everything was destroyed and turned into debris. It was not the same world that I knew. I found a totally different world”.

10:03

Yoshida at home

WILLACY: But he was fortunate, his wife and home survived – but Yoshiharu Yoshida’s livelihood has been destroyed. His boat is trapped in port by islands of floating debris. Fishing is impossible.

10:14

Debris in port

YOSHIHARU YOSHIDA: “There are no boats that can operate. There’s still debris from fish farms in the sea.

10:30

Yoshida

We don’t know the situation of the sea bottom and the debris in the ports has not been cleared yet”.

10:37

Fukuda at destroyed pine forest

WILLACY: For three centuries a legendary forest of 70 thousand pines stood here, this is the sole survivor of the tsunami.

10:55

For fire volunteer and politician Toshiki Fukuda this tree symbolises Rikuzentakata’s resilience and hopes for resurrection. It’s a place of reflection and comfort as he reconciles himself to a profound personal loss.

11:08

The tsunami that took the trees and swept away his town, also took away his wife.

11:27

City hall video

[City Hall siren] “The tsunami has crossed the water gate in Matsubara! Please evacuate urgently!”

WILLACY: Koko Fukuda was at work at city hall when the sirens sounded. With her colleagues she milled about in front of the building as the tsunami loomed on the horizon.

11:34

Overlay of mobile phone email

TOSHIKI FUKUDA: “Here is an email from her I received that day. She sent it to me before the tsunami hit.

11:56

Fukuda with mobile phone

She said she is okay… she is evacuating to Tatenoki Park. This was the last mail from her”.

12:08

Music

12:22

Destroyed city hall/ Rescue teams

WILLACY: This is city hall today. Rescue teams are only now working their way into the building. Inside, smashed cars - possibly containing bodies. It’s slow and gruesome work.

12:29

Fukuda lights candle and prays at altar

12:44

Toshiki Fukuda and his son and daughters are at least grateful that his wife’s body was found, allowing him to give her a traditional cremation.

12:51

Fukuda

TOSHIKI FUKUDA: My wife had a cancer operation last summer.

13:02

Daughter and son at altar

She then restarted her life and said she would work hard until our children had families of their own. I feel sad she could not realise this dream”.

13:17

People search through found photos

13:36

WILLACY: For many in Rikuzentakata the tsunami obliterated everything, leaving behind only memories. In a car park high above the town, the sodden remains of happier times are laid out. These photo albums and portraits were carefully dug from the debris by recovery crews.

13:42

Shida with photos

But only a few survivors, like 80 year old Kiyoshi Shida, are fortunate enough to find a trace of their photo collections.

14:03

KIYOSHI SHIDA: “I feel very happy because I found the photos. I have nothing else. I have only photos. I’m really pleased”.

14:14

Found school bags

WILLACY: To one side of this muddied pile of memories, another sobering reminder, school bags found in the wreckage of Rikuzentakata – black for boys, red for girls.

14:30

Boy on bicycle from pre-tsunami story

When we were here filming last year we were trying to capture a bit of the

14:45

Willacy to camera

streetscape of Rikuzentakata so we were walking around one of the older parts of town and there was this little boy on a bike and he would just not leave us alone.

14:53

Boy on bicycle from pre-tsunami story

He would zoom through shot after shot. He was insistent that he wanted to be part of the show and in the end, I think we put him in the program

15:01

Willacy to camera

and I suppose a year on it’s very poignant that we’ve come back to try and find him.

15:11

Visit to primary school, greeting principal

With the ABC’s Tokyo producer Yayoi Eguchi I’ve come to the closest primary school to where we filmed him, where we seek out the deputy principal to try to find a lead.

[Greeting the Deputy Principal] “Do you know this boy?”

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL: “Yes, I know him.

15:15

Photo of boy on mobile phone

His name is Kanan Shida. He’s in the 5th grade”.

15:36

Willacy with principal

WILLACY: “Can we go and meet him?”

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL: “Yes”.

15:40

Willacy enters classroom

WILLACY: [Greets classroom full of children] “Oh there he is! Are you okay?

15:45

Shows Kanan photo

That’s you on the bike”… He’s all shy”.

15:57

Kanan in class, eating

WILLACY: Eventually, 12 year old Kanan Shida’s embarrassment

16:08

Willacy surrounded by kids

fades and he tells us about the fate of his family.

[To Interpreter] Ask him how he is and his family.

KANAN SHIDA: “They’re okay. The wave didn’t come to my house. It stopped short”.

16:11

Kanan on bike cycles past destroyed homes

WILLACY: Now after school, Kanan Shida cycles through a neighbourhood of gored and gutted houses. He’s lucky - his was spared by a matter of metres. More than 8,000 homes in Rikuzentakata were destroyed, leaving half the town’s residents homeless.

16:31

Evacuation centre, clothing hand-outs

17:06

Sunada searches through clothes

For a proud man, it’s come down to this – trawling through boxes of donated clothes for something to wear. Koichi Sunada has never needed handouts before, but he now relies on others for food and shelter too.

17:16

KOICHI SUNADA: “I lost my job and my work place – and I lost my house”.

17:36

Return to pre-tsunami story. Drinking party

WILLACY: Last year the architect kicked up his heels at the gathering we filmed.

17:47

Sunada at evacuation centre with son

Today he sleeps at a school turned evacuation centre in a room with other homeless men. Among them, his son Tomoya who has returned from university.

17:54

KOICHI SUNADA: [to his son] “I cannot support you now”.

TOMOYA SUNADA: “When I am grown up I will do what I can for you”.

KOICHI SUNADA: “Thank you”.

18:07

Still. Sunada’s home pre-tsunami

WILLACY: The family’s modern home was just a few metres from the breakwater, giving them precious seconds to flee the wave.

18:24

Re-enactment. Sunada and Tomoya climb hill

KOICHI SUNADA: “After we moved our car I climbed a hill at the back of my house to see how big the tsunami would be.

18:39

Then it came over the breakwater like Niagara Falls. When I saw entire houses easily swept away so easily I was very scared”.

18:56

Sunada and Tomoya take photos

WILLACY: From this vantage point, Koichi Sunada watched helpless and in horror as his community was washed away. He and his son even took photos of the tsunami crashing in.

19:21

Overlay. Photos of tsunami

Music

19:33

Walking through Sunada’s house

WILLACY:  Koichi Sunada admits there’s a grim irony in the fact he’s an architectural designer specialising in earthquake proof buildings.

19:49

Photo. Sunada house before tsunami. Dissolve to house after tsunami

His home easily withstood the biggest recorded quake in Japanese history without a single crack, only to be inundated by the tsunami it created.

20:03

Debris after tsunami

Rikuzentakata is just one of dozens of villages, towns and cities devastated by these extraordinary waves which washed through the top floors of four storey buildings.

20:23

Army, police search teams

In another town to the north, a tsunami estimated at a staggering height of 38 metres wiped out the community entirely. In the dust and debris here, police and soldiers continue their search for the missing, knowing that in this wasteland no one will be found alive.

20:38

Willacy looks at phone footage of tsunami

As a reporter I’ve covered wars, terrorism and revolutions but I’ve never gazed upon utter devastation and death on a scale like this.

21:03

Making it even harder to comprehend is that I’ve strolled among the shrines, temples and homes of this seaside town before the cataclysm.

21:16

Music

21:27

Willacy walks through debris

WILLACY:  But that’s nothing compared to the experiences of those who’ve lived through it.

21:32

Sunada surveys wreckage

For the architect Koichi Sunada, the tsunami has ripped a scar through both his town and his spirit.

21:39

KOICHI SUNADA: “My biggest concern is that I lost my community.

21:51

Sunada at port

Everything was swept away. Only some houses on the hillside remain. I cannot imagine what our towns will become”.

22:02

Yoshida at port

WILLACY: For the fisherman Yoshiharu Yoshida, the sea may be the reason for this community’s destruction but it will also be the reason for its resurrection.

YOSHIHARU YOSHIDA: “There are people who lost houses and lost relatives. I lost relatives as well.

22:29

Yoshida

If we keep crying and don’t do anything nothing will change. Step by step we should go forward, trying to find a new job”.

22:50

Fukuda in meeting

WILLACY: And for the politician Toshiki Fukuda, it’s not about rebuilding the town, it’s about building a new Rikuzentakata.

23:08

TOSHIKI FUKUDA: I like this town. I want as many people as possible to live in this town.

23:19

Fukuda

And I think I am responsible for handing over this town to the next generation”.

23:28

Monk praying in rubble

Music

23:35

WILLACY: Japan is grappling with its biggest disaster since the Second World War, whole cities disappeared then too. But this natural calamity is the most expensive in world history.

23:45

Search teams/ Kanan on bike

Stoicism is a word often used to describe the Japanese. They’ve risen from the rubble before – now they must do it again.

24:03

Credits:

Reporter:     Mark Willacy

Camera:       Jun Matsuzono

Editor:         Nick Brenner

Producer:     Trevor Bormann

Research:     Yayoi Eguchi

24:27