As Ofunato town is located in the coastline, people had high awareness of tsunami prevention and all knew tsunami evacuation points to leave. Therefore, we smoothly started moving to those points on the hill by each car as soon as the tsunami warning came out.

　My apartment was in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture, located forty kilometers south of Ofunato, and I was commuting with two other coworkers with whom I drove inland to the mountain from the coastline. When aftershocks calmed down, we drove to Kesennuma checking about information on aftershocks and tsunami on the way home. Some roads were temporarily closed to traffic and congested with traffic, it was 11:30 at night when we finally made home.

　Kesennuma is on the coastline and had been hit hard by tsunami and severely damaged, but fortunately my apartment on the hill was undamaged.

How did your family at home country react?

　Right after the earthquake, the telephone wasn’t connected because of the congestion of lines or the tsunami damage of base station for phones, and it was four days later, on March 15th, that I got hold of my parents in China at last. Although my parents cried and told me to return to the country, I was concerned about my wife who was at the late pregnancy in the hospital and about the company. So I decided to think over whether we should go home or not, seeing how things would go for a while, and persuaded my parents of my stay in Japan.

　The Kesennuma hospital where my wife was in had an in-house power generator for the medical treatment in spite of the power failure of the entire city, but the doctor there recommended that we move to other hospital. My company, on the other hand, called me to stay home for a while and to come back to the office in mid April. So we flew by helicopter to a hospital in Sendai City, eighty kilometers south of Kesennuma, and stayed at my relative’s house in Sendai till the middle of April. The lifeline in Sendai was quickly restored and I could get information through TV and Internet. The nuclear plant seemed to run steadily and I found it would be no problem to stay in Japan for a while and explained it my parents.

　 In the middle of April, I confirmed with my friend in Kesennuma whether lifelines there, such as water service and supply of electricity and gas, were restored or not, and his answer was enough to reassure me that I would be able to live a normal life there, so I returned to Kesennuma.

How is your current life and work condition?

　Kesennuma was one of the municipalities worst hit by tsunami, so the members of the Self- Defense Force and the volunteers are still working on removing rubble. Kesennuma is known for its fishing industry, but many fishing boats and fishery processing facilities have been severely damaged. It will seemingly take a long time to revive as it used to be before the quake.

　Lifelines there have already been restored and the shops, such as supermarkets, convenience stores and gas stations, have been open for business with enough goods in stock as before the quake, so we are living our lives as usual without any trouble.

　Among all repair operations, what surprised me was the rebuilding of roads. In the coastal area where I had lived, the bridge girders had been swept away and the roads fissured at many places. However, roads were rebuilt about seventy percent within a week after the quake and all the main roads within a month.

　I was also surprised by the fact that there is a system in place from peace time for the correspondence and repair operations at disaster. It made it possible for many teams from all over Japan to promptly pour into the stricken area, Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures for repairs and recovery on water service and supply of electricity and gas.

　 In fact, the men who repaired the gas at my relatives’ house in Sendai were from Yamaguchi and Niigata Prefectures. Thanks to those people, the repairs in Sendai and Kesennuma had been done faster than we had imagined.

　About my work condition, now I am working on the restoration of the factory in Kesennuma. Although I had originally been assigned to an Ofunato factory, my manager allowed me to stay in Kesennuma factory so that I can take care of my wife and our new born baby. I am on work to put things in order and other works there. All the employees are working hard aiming for the company’s plan to resume operation in September, the season of mackerel pike fishing.

Please describe what you think about the recovery and reconstruction from this natural disaster.

　Though my individual capacity is limited, I do believe Japan will revive if each one of us, including the volunteers and the workers from all over Japan and the world, cooperate and put all efforts together. For my part, I should concentrate on my job that is a part of the main industry of this area, then it will lead to the restoration, I believe.

　In addition, I, as a father, do my best with a wish to restore the town to its lively state for my child.