今回は東北地方に来ているのですが、東北には本当に温かい方が多いですね。人から人への紹介で、震災の時のえ難い話をいろいろとお伺いしています。
震災の時のことは、東京にいたわたしでも何年間かは語ることがつらかったです。３ヶ月の長女を抱え、揺れる部屋で動けずにいたこと。その夜、原発から煙が上がるのをTVで見た時信じられない思いだったこと。すぐに京都の実家へしばらく戻りたいと電話をしたこと。いまでも、鮮明に覚えています。夜も、揺れが続きいていました。
東北地方の皆さんは、避難をする必要があった人が多いので、比較にならない経験をされています。命からがら逃げた方も多いし、自分は助かっても目の前で人が津波に流されていくのをなすすべもなく見ていた方もいます。７年たっても心の傷になり、そのことを思い出すのがつらいですとおっしゃいます。
それでも、お話いただける方たちは総じて、自分たちの経験を後世に伝えることこそが「生かされた使命」だとおっしゃいます。なぜ自分があの状況で助かったのかはわからないが、何かの存在に助けられたからには次の世代に繋げていかなければならない、という気持ちでいるとのこと。
わたしも、せっかくお話をしていただいているので、その思いを広げるお手伝いができるようにと願うばかりです。
I am in the Tohoku region, north of Japan, this time. There are so many warm people here in Tohoku. People keep connecting us with others and we have had priceless stories.
It was hard even for me for a few years to talk about the earthquake in 2011 even though I was in Tokyo where we weren't directly affected. I had a hard time absorbing my emotions that I couldn't get up in the room when the quake hit since I had my three-month old daughter in my arm, that I couldn't believe what I was seeing on TV about the smokes coming out from the nuclear plant, that I made a phone call to my parents in Kyoto telling we would want to stay there for a while. I still remember those moments well. We had many aftershocks that night.
There were many people in Tohoku who needed to evacuate. A quite big number of people could've almost died. There are people who survived themselves but saw others being swiped by tsunami and they had no means to help them. It's been seven years but they are still suffering and saying it's so hard to think about still.
But generally they, those who agreed to meet us, say their mission is to pass on their stories to the next generations because they "were saved." They don't know why they survived from the situation like that, but some big existence saved them so they need to tell their experiences to the future.
I hope to help spread that feeling because they shared their stories with us.
