Photo albums once scattered by tsunami came back to the owner (from asahi.com)

Asahi.com Mar. 22, 09:47
Our memories are back!!! Photo albums once swept and scattered by tsunami came back to the owner.
About 200 hundred photo albums with pictures of smiling kids, of weddings and trips to hot spa are now displayed in the town hall of Yamada, Iwate. These albums which were scattered on the streets, all over the town, were picked up and brought to the town hall by residents themselves, saying ‘Please give them back to whom they belong to.’ Sometimes the owners of the albums find their own in the display. Little by little, memories go back to those afflicted who have lost their homes.

Photo albums covered with mud are displayed either on the tables or in cardboard boxes in the lobby on the 1st Fl. of the town hall, Some of them have some pages opened to make it easy for the people who might be the owners to see if they are theirs. There is always a bunch of people who turn pages of the albums, hoping to find pictures of their beloved ones.

Ms. Tamiko Seki is one of the people who got their album back. It was a small one with 20 some pictures. It was found near the place her house used to be at and picked up by a neighbor. The pictures there were those taken near 30 years ago when her family visited Ueno Zoo in Tokyo with
her relatives.

“My son was so excited to go out of the countryside and visit a city. He can’t look happier there as a 3-year-old boy with pandas and giraffes….”

Her family was left unharmed, but her house was swept away by tsunami.

"I am so happy to know at least I have something I can keep beside me," says Seki.
Yuichi Inoue (quoted)