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Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com
Fukuko Hatakeyama, 81, poses at her temporary house in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan on Feb 6, 2012. The 2011 tsunami swept away her house and all her belongings, including all her cash savings.
Kuni Takahashi reports:
Fukuko Hatakeyama, 81, is living in temporary housing in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture. The tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011 swept away her house and all her belongings, including her cash savings.
“Since I was sick with cold and my legs were weak, my son told me not to go back to the house but I kept sneaking out (to look for the missing money)," said Hatakeyama, who ended up spending four months in the hospital after injuring her back while sifting through the debris. She never found any of the missing money.
Kuni Takahashi
Fukuko Hatakeyama weeps near the debris of her house in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan on March 29, 2011, following a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11, sweeping away her house and all her belongings.
The lot where her house once stood is in a zone where the city prohibited rebuilding because of the risk of another tsunami. In many coastal areas, the land sank as much as 3 to 6 feet, making it even more susceptible to flooding. Many residential plots will be converted to public and industrial spaces.
Hatakeyama went to the Kesennuma city office to find out about her land. “I complained to them that it’s my land and you can’t change it into park," she said. "But they even don’t know what’s happening and how long it’ll take to make a plan.”
Many residents are living in temporary houses built by the government, including Fukuko Hatakeyama and her husband Kojiro Hatakeyama, 83, who had been living in a nursing home prior to the tsunami. The expectation is that they will be allowed to extend their tenancy beyond the planned two to three years because many will not be able to find new land to build on or new homes to move to. Meanwhile, though they are not paying rent for their temporary home, there has been no compensation or plans for their land and nearly a year later, they are still living in limbo.
“I don’t know anyone outside of my town," Hatakeyama said. "At this age, where can I go with my sick husband staying in bed?”
“When I'm sleeping, sometimes I have to sing a song. Otherwise I feel like I'm going crazy. My husband liked to hear me singing but I can’t sing as well as I used to …”
- Read our previous piece on Fukuko Hatakeyama from 2011, shortly after the devastating tsunami.
- More from Kuni Takahashi on the survivors of the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
Kuni Takahashi, a photojournalist based in Mumbai, returned to his native Japan in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami. He recently revisited some of the people he met there— as well as some of the people that msnbc.com profiled in its After the Wave series -- to find out how they were doing nearly a year after the devastating natural disaster.
Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com
Fukuko Hatakeyama, 81, front, lives with her bedridden husband in a temporary house in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan.
Kuni Takahashi for msnbc.com
A fishing ship remains on the ground among the foundations of homes in Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan on Feb 6, 2012. A Massive earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011, sweeping away many coastal towns like this, killing over 15,000 and 3,000 are still missing.
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Hard to put into words, those emotions that I can't even imagine must exist ...... for those that have experienced such a life defining trauma. Add to that, a lifetime of misery that occurred within such a short period of a day..... that will follow them to their own end of days. Such utter sadness, and this is only one story out of thousands. We should all look inside ourselves, and wonder how we might have responded.
God bless them....
It seems so over whelming and I think we all imagine ourselves and our families if it were to happen to us. In our country, I hear so many people complain about having to pay for someone else. It seems like people care little about their neighbor. It makes you wonder what we would do under these circumstances? There were many who cared little about those who lived through Katrina. For those of us who do care, maybe we should practice as much as we can. Maybe we should reach out to others more often. There are many ways to do this, and it isn't just money that is needed. It makes me want to do more. I believe that much of what we give comes back to us in one way or another. God bless and help these people and all those seeking refuge from the harshness this life can give.
If a whole bunch of people gave them $5 each that would help them tremendously.
I agree. If I knew where to send her some money I would do it. She looks like my mother. My heart aches for their loss.
5 dollars each would help her, but what about the other thousands and thousands of others in the same situation?
Worry about the people in our own country first. I don't see the rest of the world helping us when we have Disaster's Every year here in the U.S. with Tornadoe's, Hurricane's, and Flood's. We gave Japan and the rest of the world ALL our Manufacturing job's, it made them wealthy and us poor. Enough is enough.
Tarzan7 - in fact, Canada had the first helicopters into New Orleans after Katrina. We were offered help by many countries but Bush refused.
If humanity pulled its resources together properly, this would be a non-issue and everyone would live in peace. It's just a dream.
One's heart is a good place to start.
This world is killing me, day by day. My heart is broken by all I see. I don't know that there's any saving it at this point, but I still try to hold on.
Japan is a rich country, the richest in Asia, and on per capita basis richer than Americans, yet they are allowing such tragedy to continue. It's just shameful.
Fukuko Hatakeyama: Living in limbo with no savings
Considering the triple meltdowns and subsequent releases of radioactive gases and particulates, the headline should read;
Fukuko Hatakeyama: Living in radioactive limbo with no savings.
Just keepin' it real, folks...
But remember,
Nuclear power;
It's clean
It's safe
It's too cheap to meter
Right ?
You betcha!
Don't worry Kieth Richards is going to put on another show for you gals I'll send him what I can manage. pyayers to you mama. We know it's rough.
This woman lives about 200 or so kilometers northeast of the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant (site), away from the areas of the worst spread of radiation.
"This woman lives about 200 or so kilometers northeast of the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear power plant (site), away from the areas of the worst spread of radiation."
Operative word; "worst"
submarine: You can donate money here: http://www.jrc.or.jp/eq-japan2011/donation/index.html. The page is in English.
Hey lokay5, the operative word in the story is tsunami. Don't be so heartless, and smug of the real reason these peoples homes/belongings are gone.
True, the reason their homes and belongings are gone is due to the tsunami. The reason why many of the Japanese people will never return to their homes and belonging is due to the fact that their homes and belongings are radioactively contaminated as a result of the multiple meltdowns of the nuclear reactors and damage to the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Dai Ichi which was caused by the tsunami.
Heartless? No. By not releasing important information regarding the contamination of Japan, TEPCO and the Japanese government are heartless.
And the rich bastards do not care because they do not care about the masses and they do not care about life except their own.. The rich of this world are corrupt, they spend people's taxes on weapons and the military, money that should be spent on the people and their well beings.. Politicians, banks, insurances only interest is the suffering of the masses, because it pays. Same in america, trillions are spent on the military at the expense of good social programs for all citizens, this is why so many are becoming poor now... Criminals like Putins who are in power to control their countries natural resources, are a mafia that prey on the people. Putin has stolen 40 billion dollars from its people... and the poverty in russia is still rampant, but the same things are happening in the usa and all over the world.. they make laws to control us, to spy on us, to repress us, but they do not feel concern with these laws because they think they are above these laws... We are governed all over the world by a white collar mafia and in the usa, it is no differant... They do not care about the masses, all they care about is for the masses to pay. We live in a disgusting world and I hope people are going to rise up and put an end to all this disgusting corruption. Criminals like Putin should be shot !
I agree,Eat the rich! But what has Putin got to do with a tsunami in Japan?
Yeah I agree about the rich vs. the poor, but what does Putin have to do the tsunami in Japan?
The Japanese shame: greed and power. They give nothing to the tsunami victims, they used almost all the money that was collected for the tsunami victims for slaughtering off dolphins and whales....
And that's a real scandal if you ask me.
Michelle Unsane: Indeed it is a real scandal, or at least would be if it were true.
A tiny percentage of one portion of the money used for relief went to fund one ship used in the cetacean hunt (cf. http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/08/9303491-japan-using-tsunami-funds-for-whaling-hunt). None (that is zero) of the money "collected for the tsunami victims" was used: the money was taken from discretionary funds already in hand (that is, collected in taxes before 11 March 2011). Money collected for tsunami victims generally went to local governments to be disbursed.
Who the hell is asking you MORON!!!!!!!!!!
I hope thay have SSI version it's rough. thay can deal with the sunami , what about the radio-active exposure mabe we could get a heads up on this from news sources soon.
All these miserable old people who have no one to live with or help them need to be moved to a very nicely designed pleasant group facility where they can each have a private apartment but a group courtyard, gathering area and onsite community garden. They need to build this in each afflicted area so old people who tend to be clingy to physical things don't have to move so far from where their things used to exist.
Let us stop complaining for things we don't have and think about these poor people.
Sigh~feel sorry for her.><
Folks, here needed no worries about Japan is a rich country, it can handle and deal within self for whatever problem is.
What people should be confused is on many others manslaughter countries...Just look around and see..
There is no reason other than greed that it takes so long for government anywhere to pay people for land they take. They hope the person goes bankrupt or dies so they don't have to pay anything. I'm still waiting for land and home they took from me and going on a year now also. I wish I was wealthy and could help people like this directly myself. Bottom line - government only cares if they don't get paid.
They should grind up those Feral cows and feed them to the homeless people. then they could use the skins for shelter and clothing and could make tools from the bones to use for building new houses.
Waste not want not.
That Disaster in Japan was Karma. Nature got even for the Slaugther of whales and dolphin's.
Tarzan7: What "was Karma" for the American slaughter of the passenger pigeon?
Having to read your lame as$ed posts...