2 homes, different traumas: Japan quake leaves scars seen and unseen
YATSUSHIRO, Japan – Hirosuke Shimada’s home emerged largely unscathed from this week’s earthquake in southwestern Japan, but the violent shaking left him, his wife and their three daughters too frightened to sleep inside, forcing them to live in a tent in the front yard.
Across town, carpenter Makoto Sawatari surveyed crumbling plaster, smashed roof tiles and cracked windows, wondering how much it would cost to rebuild his home in the coastal city of Yatsushiro, a decade after another major earthquake damaged it.
Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 temblor claimed at least 34 lives, but for thousands of survivors — especially those living near the epicenter in places like Yatsushiro — psychological and financial scars will endure long after the initial disaster.
“It was a feeling of, not this again,” said Sawatari, 52, assessing the cost of repairs in the sweltering summer heat as his wife and other family members cleaned up inside. “We spent about 10 years getting things back to the way we wanted.”
He expects the bill could exceed 10 million yen ($61,000), more than double what he spent after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, which killed more than 260 people and damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes.
A decade on, his breezy, historic city is dotted with collapsed houses. Most homes are without running water and some are without power — a big concern as temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday. Officials have given no clear timetable for repairing the city’s shattered infrastructure.
Too terrified to return
Outside his tent, Shimada, 46, said his house also survived the 2016 earthquakes intact, which he attributes to its thick beams and firm foundations. Even so his family, including three daughters, the youngest aged 3, were so shaken that they prefer the stuffy canvas shelter to the air-conditioned rooms inside.
“The house is all right, but I’m still too scared to stay inside,” his wife Yuka said, resting inside the tent.
Thirty minutes earlier, she had dashed outside when an aftershock jolted the house as she was cooking lunch.
When the initial quake hit on Tuesday afternoon, Yuka had hidden beneath a desk at the nursery school where she worked before helping evacuate the children to the playground. It had terrified her, she said.
Despite his house failing to withstand two major tremors, Sawatari, the carpenter, said he wasn’t thinking about abandoning the property.
“This is the only place I can live, so it cannot be helped,” he said after spending much of the day trying to salvage items from his home with its uneven floors and cracked walls.
But it may be some time before he can return. Sawatari expects to spend the coming months repairing other people’s houses before he can tend to his own.
“My house will probably be the last,” he said, with a resigned look. – Rappler.com
