Japan’s survivors scavenge for hope

Just memories, debris remain in fishing town

KESENNUMA, Japan | Hideto Miura, 37, never thought he would become a scavenger.

He was working at a fish-processing plant by the ocean in his hometown of 70,000 when the March 11 tsunami forced him to flee for his life.

Like many other survivors who lost everything, he has been returning here almost daily to search for his car and anything else of value left in one of the most devastated cities in northeastern Japan.

“I have no job and nothing else to do, so I might as well look for things,” he said.

Unlike the homeless and trash-bin divers of Tokyo and Osaka, this new breed of temporary scavengers includes parents who were working as fishermen, teachers, mechanics and clothing makers less than a month ago.

At first, most were too scared of the sea to come back from evacuation shelters in schools and town halls perched on bluffs above the disaster zone.

But nearly three weeks of desperation and depravation have given them the courage to brave the nightmarish area they used to call home.

Though accustomed to blood and fish guts at work, Mr. Miura said it took time to get over the fear barrier in the 5-mile-wide swath between the sea and the highway, where police say at least 1,200 are dead or missing, and perhaps 40,000 or more lost homes and land they might never recover.

“I’m only afraid at night now,” he said, “because it’s perfectly dark, and full of ghosts.”

He was no longer disgusted by the smell of corpses buried under debris and the throat-burning acrid air from homes and vehicles charred by towering fires, which burned out of control long after the tsunamis subsided on the cold night of March 11.

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