Love will find a way

Isolated evacuees muster up strength to live in self-sustaining way

By NORIYUKI SUZUKI
HIGASHIMATSUSHIMA, Japan, March 18, Kyodo

Evacuees on an island in the quake-hit northeastern part of Japan, cut off from the mainland after a bridge collapse, have been sustaining themselves despite their isolation, having long known such a day may come.

Residents staying at a school in a less-damaged area on Miyatojima Island in Miyagi Prefecture are taking turns to cook rice that they brought, make rice balls with seaweeds that are famous in the area, with determination that they will survive, even though they are cut off from the mainland.

''People on this island are very strong,'' said Sanae Katahira, a nursing teacher at the elementary school who lives on the nation's mainland of Honshu.

The 48-year-old teacher spent five days on the island from Friday when the killer magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit the area, followed by a tsunami that washed away everything from houses to cars.

Around 900 people are estimated to be staying at the school on a hill, and they brought rice and blankets from houses, and kerosene from a gas station.

As the bridge linking Miyatojima Island and the mainland was destroyed, residents have mustered up their strength to live, helping each other out, and maintaining order.

Mothers decided to cook rice with four groups divided by region taking turns every week, and a meeting is held twice a day to discuss ways to improve the situation.

The schoolyard is relatively unscathed, and helicopters bring in relief supplies and transport sick people from the island. But Katahira said there are a number of elderly people who have not had access to necessary medicines.

With the death toll rising, and many people unaccounted for, relief supplies to evacuees at shelters are still in short supply, and the ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture has exacerbated their worries.

The mental fatigue that the people at the shelter feel is also increasing as time goes by.

''People are gradually feeling stress,'' Katahira said. ''But to me, it's like people are going back to the old way, to the time when they had to sustain themselves as islanders when isolated.''

==Kyodo

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