Final event to return photos lost in 3.11 tsunami held in northeast Japan

YAMAMOTO, Miyagi -- A gathering to return lost photos washed away by the tsunami following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake was held on March 27 in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Miyagi, one of the areas most severely affected by the disaster.

The session took place at "Furusato Omodaka-kan," a community center in the town of Yamamoto, and marked the last such gathering the town will hold. People visiting the facility could be seen gazing at photos full of memories while saying things like, "I found another one."

Volunteer group Memory Salvage organized the event. After the 2011 disasters, the group cleaned and digitized some 800,000 photos collected by the Self-Defense Forces and local fire brigades to preserve them for the town's residents. It began returning the photos in June 2011, and put unclaimed ones on display in a town facility until 2019. About 470,000 photos have returned to their rightful owners.

At the March 27 gathering, over 300,000 photos were organized in binders based on where they were found. Elementary and junior high school graduation yearbooks, as well as graduation certificates, were also displayed.

Reina Mori, a 20-year-old preschool teacher living in the prefectural city of Kakuda, participated in the event for the first time and found a wedding photo of her aunt. Her grandfather Toru Monma, who died in the tsunami, was also apparently in the photo. She said, "He was a hard-working, kind grandpa. There are barely any photos left after the tsunami washed the house away, so this makes me happy."

Akiko Yoshino, 76, a resident of the town of Yamamoto, lost her home to the tsunami. She said she has visited the facility many times to find photos containing memories of her children. "Though I'm sad (the gatherings are ending), I'm sincerely grateful they have addressed such a difficult task for as long as 11 years," she said.

Yuji Mizoguchi, 38, associate professor at Kansai University and head of Memory Salvage, said, "I'd like to think of how to utilize the (unclaimed) photos in a way everyone finds acceptable."

(Japanese original by Yudai Hiraka, Sendai Bureau)