Japan visit
October 26, 2011
Not much remains of the small Pacific coastal town of Toyama, one stop on German President Christian Wulff's visit to Japan.
To the left and to the right, only foundations remain of what had been a popular fishing town and summer holiday resort. In the distance, the skeletons of houses hit by the March 11 tsunami are visible.
Up to 90 people are known lost their lives here, many of their bodies were never recovered.
The president expressed his shock at the scene of the disaster, the scope of which he had previously been unable to envisage. "It is much worse than I had imagined from the photographs," said Wulff.
On the roadside there are some, not wishing to give up the place where they used to live, who have returned here.
They wave to the president, marvelling at the fact that Germany's head of state is paying them a visit. A little higher up are the first houses to be built as part of the reconstruction of the town. It is something for which the president, who had undertaken an arduous journey to get here, expresses his admiration.
"I have great respect for the reconstruction that I can already see here," said Wulff.
Despite this, almost half a million people still live in makeshift housing more than seven months after the tsunami. Among them are the people of Iwaki, some 50 kilometers away from the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor, which is also a destination for the president.
A reassuring thought
"Iwaki New Town" is a settlement of containers. The open space at its center is overlooked by a solar-powered digital display which shows a radiation level of 0.07 microsieverts per hour - a figure regarded as completely safe.
For some 300 people from the towns of Hirono and Nahara, which lie even closer to the reactor complex, it is a reassuring thought.
The worst thing about radioactivity, said pensioner Hanabusa Shigehiro, is that it cannot be seen, smelt or tasted. Nevertheless, he cannot envisage the same type of phase-out of nuclear power that is planned in Germany taking place in Japan. The former professional soldier is not yet able to return to his home and both he and his wife Michiko find the uncertainty unbearable.
Although their present accommodation is relatively luxurious, with a new television and air-conditioning, they would far prefer to be allowed to return to their house and the place where they come from.
The couple could live in this emergency accommodation for as much as two years.
Words of thanks, words of wisdom
At the end of a conversation with the visiting party, one resident expresses appreciation. "As a Japanese person I would live to thank you all for giving us so much support and the fact that you and the president have visited us here," Hanabusa said.
The president praised the spirit of the Japanese people; their tight community cohesion and their refusal to give up in the face of adversity. At the end of the visit he handed a fairy tale cookbook, with the recipes written in German and Japanese, to 8-year-old Keita - along with a nugget of ancient wisdom.
"From the stones that lie in your path, great things can be built," Wulff said.
Author: Volker Witting / rc
Editor: Mark Hallam