We travelled a little further north and turned off at a sign that said "Rokkakudo". The name rang a bell, but I couldn't place whether I had actually read about it or whether it was just the kind of place name that sounds familiar.
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| Rokkakudo |
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| Rokkakudo - it had just opened. The original one had been washed away by the tsunami. There are pictures of the old Rokkakudo at wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rokkakud%C5%8D_(Kitaibaraki) |
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| I am not quite sure what this was. |
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| A commemoration of Langdon Warner, an American credited with intervening to protect historical sites in Japan during WWII. Apparently it actually wasn't him, but also it seems the information is a bit blurry. I understood, from what source I don't remember, that there was a list of cities including Kamakura, Hirosaki, Kyoto, and Nara that were off limits for war time bombing - which Warner may have been responsible for. But credit for saving Kyoto from the atomic bomb apparently belongs to the US Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, who had honeymooned in Kyoto. |
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| Map of the area with minshuku |
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| Izura Misaki Park is just around the corner |
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| Sakura and the sea |
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| Even without the sakura it's pretty |
2 comments:
I can't make up my mind about rebuilding on the exact same spots where the tsunami wreaked such havoc. Is it admirable or obstinate?
You can't tell fisherfolk to move into the mountains, but I hope they at least build schools, hospitals and such on the hills ...
PS: It's a beautiful area.
I think in the case of Rokkakudo, no one lives there anyway, it's more symbolic.
But the houses... yes... but the complicating factor especially in Iwate (which I am more familiar with) is that there is so little land that is available. It's tiny pieces of flat land with big hills, and the hills don't suit building. Old people can't climb the hills - and they are mostly old people.
The river valleys are flat, but the tsunami travelled kilometres up the rivers.
For the people in Fukushima, the extra issue of radiation makes decisions so much more difficult.
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