Ten years ago today, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake sent a 45-foot high tsunami crashing into the eastern coast of Japan, devastating coastal towns. Onagawa, a port-town of 10,000, was among the hardest hit. While many of the surrounding towns have been slow to rebuild and have had difficulty getting residents to move back, Onagawa has taken a unique path through a participatory process which has been incredibly successful.
So many lives were lost, homes and livelihoods destroyed, communities impacted irreversibly. The effects of that fateful day continue to ripple out.
Two years ago Annie and I traveled to Japan to see how communities in the aftermath of disaster find their feet, recover and rebuild.
On this learning journey we were honored to meet with residents and community figures. We recorded these interviews and the story was woven into an episode of the podcast “The Response”, produced by Shareable. I was interviewed to offer a connection between the disaster in Japan to the fire in Paradise.
We share it today on the 10th anniversary of the Triple Disaster in hopes that we learn from our disasters and bond together as a community. Our hearts are with the people of Onagawa, Tohoku, and people all over the world experiencing disaster.
Episode credits:
Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
Senior producer, technical director, field production, and script writer: Robert Raymond
Additional field production: Allen Myers
Voice over: Larry Inouye
Translation: Annie Mellan