Interviewees

Father

I was working at the company. I was in the experiment room, called a clean room, where we observe the process of semiconductor manufacturing. Since Japan has many earthquakes, all experimental equipment located within Japan is designed to be earthquake-resistant. So the equipment was not broken, but some of them moved slightly. The company itself was also designed to be earthquake-resistant, but some desks and shelves moved around despite that.

Mother

Your younger sister and I dove under the table,  holding our pet dog in my arms. The earthquake lasted longer than I expected. The goldfish tank fell off the shelf, flooding the floor. The refrigerator door had swung open. The cupboard had an earthquake-resistant design, so its doors stayed shut, preventing dishes from scattering across the floor. But inside the cupboard, many plates had shattered. I was sad because so many of them were my favorites. Almost all the handouts and textbooks on my study desk were scattered across the floor. Before we could check the entire house, we hurriedly grabbed our jackets and evacuated to the park in front of our house together, afraid another earthquake might strike.

Father

After about two hours, I was finally on the way home. There were many cars on the road because the traffic lights did not work at all. Every time I passed through an intersection, I had to yield to other cars. Some police officers were directing traffic instead of traffic lights at some intersections, but since it was only at major intersections, it took a while to get home. Plus, it started snowing. So we had to be careful. 

I did not have my cell phone or smartphone at that time, so I did not contact your mother or anyone else. But I knew that at least your mother, sister, and pet dog were in the park in front of our home because it was decided to be the primary evacuation place.

Mother

I thought your father would come back home safely. He went to his company by car so I could not do anything for him. But I was worrying about you. You were at the elementary school, right? I did not know how you would come back from school because you were in the first grade and I did not know much about your school’s evacuation system yet. I believed you were at school, though. In the park in front of our home, I met my mother-friend, who had a daughter in 6th grade in the same school. And she kindly told me that I had to go to school to pick you up. I really did not know it. 

So firstly, I was planning to ask our neighbor to take care of your younger sister and dog while I went to school to pick you up. We (our family members and neighbors) were so close to each other, so I thought I could leave your sister with them. Either way, I had to go pick you up, so I figured the neighbors would understand. But the problem was not neighbors – your younger sister. She strongly refused to stay with the neighbors. I could understand her feeling, but at the same time I really had to go to school to pick you up as soon as possible, so it was very hard for me. I had to deal with everything alone until your father came back from the company. Since we did not have any tools to contact each other, I could not ask your father to pick you up on the way home. 

Father

I was worrying about another earthquake, because after the major one, there were several aftershocks. Since our house was in a place where we did not have to worry about tsunamis, I think it was a relief that we only had to worry about things like food, electricity, water, and gas. I remember you were kind of enjoying the situation, while your young sister was worried about it. Personally, I did not feel any serious anxiety because we all slept together in the main room just in case. 

Mother

It was hard, of course, but I did not feel any serious anxiety, like your father. During power outages, once it got dark outside, there was nothing left to do but go to sleep. But many nights, it was still too early to sleep, and I wasn't sleepy. On those nights, I think it was really nice when we'd just turn on a small light and play with shadow puppets together. Since we were all sleeping together, I didn't feel scared either.

The only thing that was a bit tough was taking care of your sister. Since I couldn't do laundry properly, I wanted her to avoid getting her clothes dirty as much as possible, but she was only two years old, so it was often difficult. I imagine families with other children around the same age or even younger had a really hard time back then. Your father and I knew how to endure, but you and your sister still struggled to fully grasp the situation. Precisely because you both naturally had desires like “I want to do this” or “I want to eat that” on a daily basis, it was often hard to fulfill those requests when my kids had to endure the situation.

Father

We'd been close with my neighbors even before the disaster, so after it happened, we could borrow things from each other and share food, which was really helpful. Most of all, because they knew you and your little sister were young children, they were always considerate when we met outside and tried to share things with us. It was a huge help when neighbors, even though they had limited hot water (some neighbors lived in houses with systems that stored hot water in tanks), let us use their baths for the children. I remember us also sharing the food we gathered by cycling around supermarkets together, and sharing information like, “You can buy this at that supermarket right now,” with the neighbors.

Mother

Receiving food from others was a tremendous help. Because the power outage rendered our refrigerator unusable, we also needed to consume food as quickly as possible. So we exchanged food with our neighbors. Gas was precious too, so it was a huge relief when people shared food cooked on their kerosene stoves. We also took food to neighbors' homes, cooked large batches together using ingredients we'd all gathered, and shared the results. It was reassuring how much they cared about the children, like you and your sister. We still couldn't get much information about school and there were many unknowns, but we learned a lot from the people around us.

Father

The disaster happened on Friday, right? So I did not have to go to the company on Saturday and Sunday, because it was the weekend. The next Monday, I went to the company by car. But the electricity was not working at all and we could not do work without electricity, so we just checked the situation and went back on Monday. Then, since I was on home standby for the next three or four days, I did not go to work and stayed at home. Because being on standby at home was considered to be at work, I was paid for the days. As soon as the power came back on, I  went to the office and began the restoration work inside the company as part of my duties. 

After the earthquake, I thought that I needed to have a smartphone to contact family members in an unusual situation. At that time, only your mother had a cell phone, so we could not contact the family members, including my relatives, as well. So actually I bought my own smartphone after the earthquake.

Mother

Lack of electricity was very hard for us, actually. I think since we had a 2-year-old younger sister, the situation was way harder. But I felt it would be better if we could somehow secure power during blackouts. Nowadays everyone uses smartphones, and I think electricity has become even more important compared to back then. So after the earthquake, I bought a solar generator small enough to use on my balcony at home. I use it daily to generate power and charge my smartphone, so I can stay calm and use it during disasters. I also started stockpiling more supplies like gas canisters and water. We had some stockpiled during the earthquake, but I felt it was a bit too little for a family of four, so I bought more. I'm especially careful to make sure the gas canisters don't expire. 

I have many hobbies—cooking is one of them, and I used to knit a lot too. But right after the earthquake, I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy my hobbies. After about a month, life started to get back to normal. You began going to elementary school, and your dad started working at his company again. Still, I just couldn't muster the feeling to dive back into my hobbies wholeheartedly. I think it was two or three months later that I slowly started knitting again, and then began sewing.