Real Voices of Reconstruction
"You can't tell what kind of disaster might happen in the future. It might be a tsunami, or a landslide due to heavy rain. Evacuation comes first. Evacuation is a top priority, whatever happens."
Half a year after the 3/11 disaster, the woman in her twenties (temporary worker), who experienced the horror of the tsunami at her workplace, responded assertively.
Shichigahama itself sits on an undulating patch of land surrounded by the sea on three sides, which forms a peninsula for the Sanriku area. The lower land, where the residents were blessed with natural resources from the sea, was damaged by the tsunami, while the higher land was spared the devastation. Before the earthquake, development of housing complexes and public facilities was already under way, mainly around the higher land area. The tsunami ended up encouraging further development and settlement in that area.
The woman, residing in the higher land area, gave refuge to relatives whose houses were beside the sea. She seems to be reflecting on what it means to live with the sea without living near it.

Filmed by Machizukuri-bu (Community Building Club), September 9, 2011
Filmed at Sakaiyama, Shichigahama, Motoyoshi district, Miyagi