Where the Ocean Shouldn’t Have Been

December 23, 2024

Masanori Yoshida is a dentist at Yoshida Dental Clinic. His wife, Kazuko Yoshida, is a dental hygienist who gives talks on dental health. Both remember the 2011 disaster with clarity.

“Before the earthquake struck,” Masanori said, “there was a strange deep sound. It was much louder and stronger than anything I’d heard before. The ground was rumbling, and I could hear the sound getting louder and louder. That’s when I thought, ‘this earthquake is going to be massive.’”

Kazuko described what she saw while evacuating. “There was a place where I could see the ocean. I looked around, wondering, ‘Is the tsunami coming?’ But I didn’t see the kind of huge wave I had always imagined. Instead, I saw a massive cloud of dust rising from below. I thought, ‘Is this really a tsunami? What am I looking at?’” She eventually returned home safely, but the images stayed with her.

“Later, when I saw the video footage, I finally understood. What I had actually seen was the houses being destroyed, debris flying into the air. That was why I saw the massive cloud of dust rising from below.”

In the days that followed, information was hard to come by. “We were safe inside our house,” Kazuko said, “but we had no idea what the situation was like in the area near the bay.”

“There was no electricity and the TV was not working,” Masanori added. “Only the radio worked. Since I didn’t know what was going on, I decided to go check myself.” He didn’t take his car, worried the roads wouldn’t be clear. “I planned to take my bicycle to see the situation. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to return if I took my car.”

As he got closer to the coast, the damage came into view. “Debris piled up as far as the old elementary school, which was about a mile away from the bay. Fragments of houses were scattered in every direction. Wreckage clogged the roads, making them impassable. At that moment, I realized that everything was gone. I gave up and went home.”