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Megan Sapp

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Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone

by Richard Lloyd Parry (Goodreads Author)

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Megan Sapp said: " Small spoilers:
Ghost of the Tsunami, is a powerful and well- written account of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The author spent several years after the tragic events, returning to Tohoku in order to figure out what truly happened on that da Small spoilers:
Ghost of the Tsunami, is a powerful and well- written account of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The author spent several years after the tragic events, returning to Tohoku in order to figure out what truly happened on that day. Parry gives us a deeper understanding than what we could ever read in a news article or see on a news clip from the event. The book starts with his own personal account, working in his office in Tokyo. He seems to praise Japan for their preparedness for an earthquake as he describes the event. Japan has buildings that are specifically strengthened to withstand an earthquake as well as warning systems and escape routes. While they very much felt the swayed of the buildings, they did not collapse. He states that once the shaking stopped, he went outside and saw very little visible damage, other than a few cracked windows and slightly leaned over poles. Because of how prepared they are, less than 100 people died as a result of the earthquake. However, Japan could have never really prepared for the tsunami that followed. He shares an eye opening and heart wrenching true story of life for the citizens of Okawa after the tsunami, many of them who lost their children due to the tsunami. He shares their memories of how they felt before and after the tsunami hit their land. He shares the details of how these families found their loved one’s deceased and also how many never found their loved ones at all. It even came to a point where the families attempted to sue the school and town for not doing what they could to protect their children, which was eventually won several years later.
In between the main story, he shared ghost stories. One was about a priest in northern Japan who performed 200 funerals within the next month that followed the tsunami. On top of that, he performed hundreds of exorcisms also. One story was of a man, innocent and open, whose wife came to him looking for a divorce. She explained to him how for three nights (he never remembered doing anything), he would snarl and say, “you must die. You must die, everyone must die. Everything must die and be lost.” He then continued to tell his story saying that the following night he saw many muddy people walking not even 20 feet away from him. After three days, he finally allowed the priest to perform an exorcism. Another woman, after visiting the remains of her child said that once she got to the parking lot, her legs were unable to move. She believed that her paralysis was her daughters way of telling her not to leave her there. After this, there were hundreds of other cases ranging from eerie dreams to hauntings to full on possessions, and some contacted mediums for the small chance that they could talk to their children and loved ones once again.
I really enjoyed this quote from the book: “there is no tidying away of loose ends to be done in a story about the deaths of young children, about the annihilation of a coast -- only more stories to be told, and retold in different ways, and tested like radioactive material for the different kinds of meaning they give out. Stories alone show the way." So many times, it is easy to forget with such a large number that each person who died had their own story. Not only that, but their families have their own stories also. The actual tsunami itself was overlooked in the media after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, so without someone doing what Parry did, hundreds of thousands of stories would never be heard. ...more "

Apr 23, 2020 08:08AM · see review