2011年3月11日。
大阪の事務所ビルで長く不気味な揺れを感じた直後、ネットで知ったのは三陸沖を震源とする巨大地震だった。
やがて帰宅後のテレビ映像で、宮城県の故郷が町ごと津波に呑み込まれていく惨状を目の当たりにする。
栗原市築館、気仙沼、名取川、そして自らが生まれ育った町。
阪神大震災を超える未曾有の catastrophe の中で、母や友人、罪なき人々の無事を祈り続けた当日の記録である。
March 11, 2011.
After a long and deeply unsettling tremor shook the office building in Osaka, the author learned online that a massive earthquake had struck off Sanriku.
Returning home, he watched horrifying television footage of tsunami waves swallowing his hometown in Miyagi Prefecture.
Kurihara, Tsukidate, Kesennuma, the Natori River, and the town where he was born and raised all became part of an unimaginable catastrophe.
This is a first-hand record of that day, written in fear for his mother, friends, and all innocent people caught in the disaster.
なんてこったい！！！
2011-03-11
弊社事務所の在るビル（当然ながら大阪市）も気持ち悪い程に長い時間揺れた。
おさまったのでネットを叩いたら、三陸沖でマグニチュード７．９！だと。

私の故郷、宮城県の北部、栗原市、築館では震度７！だと。
…此処は、私が高校時代の無二の親友の実家が在る所…。
大丈夫だろうか？…。
私は携帯ワンセグ設定していないからテレビも観れない。

揺れている間中、「これは大きいぞ、阪神大震災級の地震だぞ」、と思っていたのだ。

おお！
私が生まれ育った街も、震度6強ではないか。
大丈夫かな、恐ろしい事になっていなければ良いが。

急いで帰宅したのだが、私が生まれ育った町が津波にのみ込まれて町ごと消えて行っている映像を、見ているなんて！…。
お母ちゃん、大丈夫か！
逃げられたか。
何とか、逃がしていてくれよ。
…俺は、今、お母ちゃんに死んでほしくないんだよ！
何とか助かっていてくれよ。

世界中の資本主義テロリスト達も、今は、ただ祈って欲しい。
2011-03-11
阪神大震災の時も時間の経過とともに、死者数がどんどん増えてきて最終的には6,400人超だった。
同じ様な事になるのではあるまいな。

帰宅して見たのは、高校生時分の私の、もう一人の無二の親友だったＯ君の実家が在る気仙沼と、岩手の八戸に津波が押し寄せている映像だった。
えらいことだが何とか持ちこたえている、良かった、と思って見ていたら、名取川の映像が同時間で現れた。

最初は私が生まれ育った町の川向かいの映像だった。
私が中学を卒業した頃に完成した当時は新しい橋…。
仙台に向かうのに大幅に時間が短縮できる様になった…。
その手前まで、全ての家や車を呑み込んだ津波が押し寄せていた。
橋の上には数台の車が我が町の方に向かっていた…。
危ないんじゃないかと思って見ていたら、あっという間に橋を乗り越えた津波に、みな、流されてしまった。

その後だった。
カメラが手前にスパンして来た時、僕は言葉を失った…。
自分が生まれ育った町が全て津波に呑み込まれ、中学校、そして、ずっと北に在る小学校まで呑み込んでしまった。
海辺からあそこまでは5ｋｍ以上はあるはず。
…さっきの放送では海辺から10ｋｍも離れた仙台・区役所の１階まで津波が到達していると。

阪神大震災の時の様に、時間が経つにつれて、幾何級数的に死者が増えない事を祈るのみ。

東京に居る親友のＫさん。
Ｋさんの母校のヨット部が定期的に合宿をしてくれていた…。
貴方も参加して…。
私の故郷は、一瞬にして、見た事もないようなCatastropheで消えてしまった。

子供の頃、チリ地震津波や三陸津波を記憶する石碑を見た事はある。
港の界面すれすれに、津波が来たのを見た事もある。

でも、こんな映像は誰も見た事がなかった。
ただ、そこは私が生まれ育った町だった。
私たちの国が２０年超も馬鹿な事ばかりやり続けて来たから神が怒ったのか。
何にも罪のない人たちが、実は、皆、避難した後の映像であることを祈るのみ。

What a catastrophe!!!
March 11, 2011
The building where our office is located, in Osaka City of course, shook for such a long time that it felt eerie.
When the shaking stopped, I checked online and saw that it was magnitude 7.9 off Sanriku.

In my home region, in northern Miyagi Prefecture, Tsukidate in Kurihara City had recorded seismic intensity 7.
…That is where the family home of my one and only best friend from high school is located….
I wonder if they are all right.
…I had not set up One-Seg on my mobile phone, so I could not watch television.

All through the shaking, I had been thinking, “This is a big one.
This is an earthquake on the scale of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.”

Oh no.
The town where I was born and raised was also at upper 6 on the Japanese scale.
I hope it is all right.
I hope something terrible has not happened.

I rushed home, only to find myself watching footage of the town where I was born and raised being swallowed by the tsunami and disappearing altogether.
Mother, are you all right?
Were you able to escape?
Please, somehow, let her have escaped.
…I do not want my mother to die now.
Please, somehow, let her still be alive.

Even the capitalist terrorists of the world, for now, should simply pray.
March 11, 2011
Even in the Great Hanshin Earthquake, as time passed, the death toll kept rising and in the end exceeded 6,400.
Could the same thing happen again?

What I saw after returning home was footage of Kesennuma, where the family home of O, another one and only best friend of mine from my high school days, is located, and of Hachinohe in Iwate, with tsunami waves surging in.
It was terrible, but I thought they were somehow holding out, and I felt relieved.
Then, at the same time, footage of the Natori River appeared.

At first it was footage from the opposite bank of the river from the town where I was born and raised.
There was the bridge that had been newly completed around the time I graduated from junior high school.
…It had greatly shortened the time needed to get to Sendai….
Up to the very foot of that bridge, the tsunami had surged in, swallowing every house and every car.
Several cars were on the bridge heading toward my town….
As I watched, thinking this was dangerous, in an instant they were all swept away by the tsunami that had overtaken the bridge.

Then it happened.
When the camera panned toward the foreground, I lost my words….
The entire town where I had been born and raised was swallowed by the tsunami, including the junior high school, and even the elementary school far to the north.
From the seashore to there must be more than five kilometers.
…And in the broadcast just now they said that the tsunami had even reached the first floor of the Sendai ward office, ten kilometers inland from the coast.

All I can do is pray that, as in the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the number of dead will not increase geometrically as time passes.

My friend K in Tokyo.
The yacht club of your alma mater regularly held training camps there….
You also took part….
My hometown vanished in an instant in a catastrophe unlike anything I had ever seen.

When I was a child, I saw stone monuments commemorating the Chilean tsunami and the Sanriku tsunami.
I had even seen tsunami waters come right up to the edge of the harbor’s surface.

But no one had ever seen images like these.
And that place was the town where I was born and raised.
Did God become angry because our country had spent more than twenty years doing nothing but foolish things?
All I can do is pray that the people who had done nothing wrong had in fact already evacuated, and that this was footage of the town after they had escaped.