Gems in the Rubble
The photographs are the records of Onagawa of one year since the disaster. My hometown lost one out of ten people and seventy-percent of the town was destroyed by the catastrophic tsunami.
I visited the town for the first time after two weeks from the disaster. Everything was lost and the town looked gray but I could see colors. The sea that brought the tsunami now looked lively and beautiful, and the rubbles shone by the sunlight like glittering gems. The wreckage that people called “rubbles” was once our house or a pillar that we treasured. I felt deep fondness in them.
There’s a photograph taken by my father in 2006. It is a picture of a grandchild with the town in the background taken from a shrine standing on a foothill. For me, the hometown stays there only in the picture. The day we can no longer return and the days beyond. I decided to start recording the disaster stricken town with my camera.