The soul haunts a tsunami-hit city in Japan

After a year since almost the entire city of Ishinomaki was swept into the sea by tsunamis, the stories of ghosts now haunt the survivors while they struggled to rebuild from the beginning.

A reconstruction project seems to be stalling by the fear of ghosts of those killed in tsunamis.

"I heard people say the supermarket repairers were sick of ghosts," said Satoshi Abe, 64, of a project to repair the commercial district in the city.

"People died everywhere, everywhere. This city is full of stories like that now."

The photo was taken on March 21, 2011 at a cemetery in Oshinomaki city,
Miyagi Prefecture, showing cars thrown by tsunamis. (Photo: AFP)

Ishinomaki is a city in the northeastern Japanese province of Myagi, where the tsunami suffered in March 2011. Some places in this once-bustling port city, signs of life have returned, houses are coming up, shops are re-active and children go to school.

Up to one fifth of the 19,000 people killed in tsunamis are residents of this small city of Ishinomaki, so few are sure that it will return to the old.

Shinichi Sasaki, a resident here, said that the memories of the terrible March 11 were still haunting, never fade, and they created "ghosts". "That fateful day marks the mind of people forever," he said.

"If you know someone who was killed, and the death is too sudden, you will feel like that person is still somewhere. I don't believe in ghosts, but I can understand why this city is full of the story of souls ".

An unnamed taxi driver said that there were some points in the city that he didn't want to stop, because there were a lot of people swept away. He was afraid that if he stopped his car, he would encounter a ghost.

Another woman who is also a city resident said she heard many stories of people queuing up the hills, they kept trying forever, hoping to escape the waves, and repeating and trying desperate force in the last minutes of his life.

Consultants and psychologists say that the belief in ghosts is common in places where major disasters are experienced, and it is also part of a process of healing the pain of a society. .

Statues in Ishinomaki cemetery, party
Next to them are cars brought by tsunamis. (Photo: AFP)

The cultural and anthropologist Takeo Funabiki said that ghost stories spread everywhere are normal after such a big upheaval.

"People are very difficult to accept death, whether it is an idealist or materialist. A sudden and unusual death is always something that makes people difficult to understand and accept."

When there is something that people are hard to accept, they tend to find ways to explain by myths or to do certain rituals for the deceased.

"What is interesting is that these things create a bridge for people to share with each other in society," he analyzed.

For those with lost relatives, traditional rituals can help them relieve themselves. The priests of Shinto are often invited to pray to comfort the souls of the dead and make them easily accessible to the afterlife, once their place of death is cleansed.

Ishinomaki port city location. (Graphics: Google)

However, there are still many people struggling to accept the loss.

Koji Ikeda, a lecturer and psychotherapist from the Japan Advisory Institute, said "survivors have a lot of emotions - fear, anxiety, suffering and struggle for the dead to return ".

Perhaps a whole range of such diverse and intense emotions has made it impossible for those who cannot accept the reality to find stories about ghosts.

"That intense emotion needs to be relieved so that people can accept and adapt to the new reality, to continue living with pain."

Although many people in this city did not claim to have seen ghosts themselves, most agreed that perhaps ghosts were wandering in deserted streets.

Yuko Sugimoto, a resident, said she was not really idealistic and had never seen ghosts. But you absolutely believe that somewhere can have ghosts in the dark."A lot of people who are living normally suddenly leave , " she said. "I'm sure they can't accept that fact." It would be strange if we didn't hear anyone say anything about them.