'Scar' in the heart of Japanese tsunami victims

12 months after the tsunami, Yuko Sugimoto was reunited with her family and living in a shelter, but the scars from the double disaster were still haunting her mind and her young son.

>>> Thesoul haunts a tsunami-hit city in Japan

A year ago, this young mother wrapped a blanket on her body, standing and huffing in despair among the ruined city, her eyes looking for her little son.

Yuko Sugimoto wrapped the blanket blankly amidst the ruins in the castle
Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, March 11, 2011. Pictures of her back
a symbol for the Japanese in tsunamis. (Photo: AFP)

"The disaster made me realize that if I could continue living tomorrow, it would be a miracle," she said as she went back to where she had stood a year ago and entered a photographer's lens. . The photo of Sugimoto in moments after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami became the symbol of Japan and was re-posted by many newspapers, magazines and websites all over the world.

Sugimoto recalls two days after the cataclysm, she huddled between the cold to find her son.

"My liver is getting as hot as burning fire , " she said. "I kept asking myself if he was alive or dead."

Sugimoto, then 29, was working, while the 5-year-old son Raito was in kindergarten, the big wave suddenly hit Ishinomaki. The roads suddenly disappeared, the buildings were flattened, part of the way to the nursery was sunk in the sea. Someone said that the children were swept away, no one survived.

Three days later, she and her husband left the shelter to another shelter, hoping to continue the hope. Until March 14, their prayers were answered.

"Tears faded. I couldn't see my son's face clearly anymore, I couldn't say anything," Sugimoto said. "When I calmed down, I saw the boy in his father's arms. It was really a miracle. We had to enjoy every day together."

Sugimoto then heard back that when the warning bell rang, 11 children in the nursery then climbed on the roof and were lucky to escape the tsunami in a narrow distance. They huddled there in the snow until 2am, when the water receded, they began to climb down to the second floor of the nursery that was flooded and waited for the rescue boat to come and rescue the next morning.

Sugimoto and Raito's son a year after the double disaster. (Photo: AFP)

Sugimoto's small family is now one of tens of thousands of families living in shelter supported by local authorities. Sugimoto knows that despite having lost his house and all the possessions they have, she and her family are still lucky. More than 19,000 people left when the tsunami hit the picturesque coast in northeastern Japan. One sixth of these has not been found.

On the surface, Raito seems to be starting a new life, his mother said, but this disaster really affected the boy's soul. Sugimoto said that weeks after the disaster, whenever he had a tsunami warning, Raito also became ill and was still afraid of the dark.

"You can't see it if you just look at him, but I believe this pain has left a scar on her, " she said.