一般財団法人　連帯　東北・西南　RENTAI　TOHOKU-SEINAN

by Iino, Staff, Rentai Tohoku

As announced in the article on the 28th July, the exhibition of a wooden temporary house was presented by Sumita-town and a general foundation, more trees, at Roppongi Hills Arena and I visited the site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could smell the aroma of Kesen cedars from the distance I was taking photographs.
Four Kesen carpenters who arrived the day before and some carpenters in Tokyo built the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The house made of Kesen cedar timbers provides good thermal insulation, and eventually, when it ends its service and is knocked down, the timbers will be used as fuel. As a merit of local production for local consumption, the building cost is only 3 million yen per house.
The event "Tohoku Marche and Food Stalls" took place at the same time and was run by volunteers from Sumita-town.

The exhibition was filled with vitality and humane spirit of people of Sumita-town proud themselves in Japan's best forestry business and more trees staff who are working together toward reconstruction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wooden temporary housings in Sumita-town are being built by the wise decision made by Mayor Tada, and LIFE311 has set a goal to provide 300 million yen as a fund. LIFE311 (more trees) is accepting contributions to "build even more temporary housings and help reconstruction of disaster areas"(Mayor Tada).

 

[About donations] LIFE311(Support Project for afflicted areas of the Pacific coast by Tohoku Earthquake) by more trees

http://life311.more-trees.org/

 

 

 

(Mr. K, Age 49, Tokyo)

This time I helped with tying nets for seaweed cultivation, cutting ropes to make nets and making loops. When cutting ropes to make nets for seaweed, I chatted with young fishermen. According to them, there was a meeting at Shiogama where they discussed if fishing rights should be sold to business entities. Apparently, most fishermen were strongly against the idea. One of the reasons was that they had seen a capital investor who obtained fishing rights fail in business and retreat leaving local fishermen with debts. Another fisherman worried that if a salary system was introduced and fishermen wouldn't be able to earn according to how hard they worked, their motivation to culture good quality seaweed might decrease.

by Nagayama, Staff, Rentai Tohoku

 

The latest event related to Tohoku disaster relief activities has been announced.

 

LIFE311, a support project for afflicted areas of the Pacific coast by Tohoku Earthquake, is going to organize an exhibition of a wooden temporary housing at Roppongi Hills Arena from 29^th (Fri) to 31^st(Sun) July, 2011. LIFE311 has been building wooden temporary housings using local timbers from affected areas.

The reporter visited a building site in Sumida-machi, Kesen-gun, Iwate, and met staff members of more trees and local carpenters. They told the reporter that more funds were needed to build houses.

If you have some spare time over the weekend, why don't you drop in on the exhibition and experience the warm atmosphere of the temporary house built by skilful Kesen carpenters.

 

[Event details]

more trees - Get to Know Trees, Get to Know Forests. ～See What it's like inside wood temporary housing ～http://www.roppongihills.com/events/2011/07/arn_moretrees.html

 

[Event Organizer]

LIFE311(Support Project for afflicted areas of the Pacific coast by Tohoku Earthquake) by more trees

http://life311.more-trees.org/en

 

Activity: Cutting ropes to be used for floating rafts of seaweed and oyster farms

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Mr. T, Age 30, Tokyo)

Gathering information on television or the Internet may be one thing, but I realized how important it is to talk directly with local people and experience the reality of affected areas. Even now, destroyed houses and public buildings are left abandoned, and tons of rubbish and huge containers are washed up on the beach. There are cracks in the ground at the port due to liquefaction. Apparently the removal of the rubble had just started one day before our arrival. Actions by the local government could have been a little faster.
When I asked local fishermen if they had any particular worries, they said "No, not specially. But we would need successors."
They are doing their usual work as they have always done. Fishermen on Katsura Island have already taken a path to self-supporting recovery.

Some people I met were anxious about the disposable of the rubble and said they were willing to take any advice or suggestion.

(Mr. M, Age 25, Tokyo)

 

Activity

I helped fishermen tying ropes for fishing etc. with their technical advice.

The current state of Katsura Island

When I arrived at the island, though four months had passed since the earthquake, it was surprising that paved roads were still left cracked, the subsidence area were flooded at high tide, and destroyed houses were abandoned as they were. The earthquake seemed to highlight their longstanding problems such as the successor problem in the fishing industry and the depopulation of the island.

Mid- to long-term support for recovery required

When I asked locals if they had changed their prospect about the restoration since immediately after the earthquake, they told me that at first, they expected things would get back to normal before summer, but now, they admitted the recovery would take years. For the reconstruction support, I strongly believe that it is most important to continue support activities to assist the people in affected areas to become self-reliant. We should talk with local people to specify what is most needed and provide advice and actual help for their self-supporting recovery.