19th March, 2011
It was hard, standing where I took this shot, to escape the feelings of sadness that have come and gone consistently since the quake and tsunami of 11th March. But more than that, because of the events of the previous week we were all more vigilant and edgy about what could still happen. And, after all, I was stood right next to Sagami Bay for this shot.....
I was standing on a dock, in a village, on the bay under which the Great Kanto Earthquake had struck in 1923. A quake which was followed immediately by a typhoon. The quake itself lasted for between four and ten minutes. Together the quake and winds accounted for the lives of 140,000 people. Although the numbers are disputed, possibly up to 6000 ethnic Koreans and Chinese were murdered immediately after the quake in a frenzy of ethnic violence.
Quite a headful of stuff for a beautifully sunny, March afternoon....
The objects I was surrounded by in the spring sunshine - fishing nets, boats; the drying-racks and pegs for the seaweed - were objects typical to docks I had stood on in Fukushima; typical to the coast anywhere in Japan.
It was calming to see them where they should be, not tossed three kilometres inland as countless pictures and moments of video footage from the northern tsunami had showed.
Everything was quiet. The kids and Hiromi were in the car. Charlie, our youngest, was smiling silently at me through the glass of the rear passenger window. There was no wind. I knew I was surrounded by colour - blue pegs, a blue box, the red stripe along the hull of a nearby fishing boat, a green basket, a mop with a pink handle....... but for a few moments all I could see - in the absolute silence - was black and white.
Shadows.
alfiegoodrich.com/2011/03/japan-after-the-quake-part-1/ 