Associated Press, Nov. 18: An aerial view shows neighborhoods destroyed by the March 11 tsunami at Natori, in northeast Japan.
Though much of the debris left by the tsunami has been removed, eight months later there is little sign of rebuilding in communities across northeast Japan.
The rubble of last year’s destructive tsunami and earthquake in Japan is mostly removed. What remains are barren stretches of community that yearn to be rebuilt.
If the rebuilding effort seems slow, perhaps it is a true measure of just how devastating the losses have been.
I don’t know that there is any such thing as a “clean slate” that allows nations and people to start fresh. The wreckage may be gone, but the history of such an event is written in the hearts and minds of the survivors.
Yet a year later, it is encouraging to know that technology is helping keep track of what was, what is and, I pray, what will someday replenish the spirit of the Japanese people.
In recent months, Google has employed its high-tech Street View method by documenting the conditions of Japanese streets. The intent is to drive home the idea — with full 360-degree panoramic imagery of areas once buried in mud, machinery and human debris — that while the news event may be over, the tragedy is not.
Sometimes it is difficult to look, even at a clean slate. What was once so full, is now empty.
Even so, as the wind speeds freely across the barren flats of seaside Japan, its direction is neither east nor west. It flows toward the future.
Blessings to Japan. We remember and grieve with you. And we begin to see what must be so difficult for you to imagine: MANY ABUNDANT TOMORROWS.
