Elderly Farmer Found Stranded in Empty Japanese Town…Alone Since Tsunami
- Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:03pm by
Scott Baker
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MINAMI SOMA, Japan (AP) — The farmhouse sits at the end of a mud-caked, one-lane road strewn with toppled trees, the decaying carcasses of dead pigs and large debris deposited by the March 11 tsunami.
Stranded alone inside the unheated, dark home is 75-year-old Kunio Shiga. He cannot walk very far and doesn’t know what happened to his wife.
His neighbors have all left because the area is 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant — just within the zone where authorities have told everyone to get out because of concerns about leaking radiation.
No rescuer ever came for him.
___
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tokyo News Editor Eric Talmadge, along with photographers David Guttenfelder and Hiro Komae, were reporting from the evacuation zone of Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan.
___
When a reporter and two photographers from The Associated Press arrived at Shiga’s doorstep Friday, the scared and disoriented farmer said: “You are the first people I have spoken to” since the earthquake and tsunami.
“Do you have any food?” he asked. “I will pay you.”
Shiga gratefully accepted the one-liter bottle of water and sack of 15-20 energy bars given to him by the AP, which later notified local police of his situation.
He said he has been running out of supplies and was unable to cook his rice for lack of electricity and running water. His traditional, two-story house is intact, although it is a mess of fallen objects, including a toppled Buddhist shrine. Temperatures at night in the region have been cold, but above freezing.
The Odaka neighborhood where he lives is a ghost town. Neighboring fields are still inundated from the tsunami. The smell of the sea is everywhere. The only noise comes from the pigs foraging for food.
Local police acknowledged they have not been able to check many neighborhoods because of radiation concerns.
As radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant has fallen in recent days, however, the police have fanned out inside the evacuation zone to cover more areas.
On Friday, they were busy searching for bodies two miles (three kilometers) from Shiga’s farmhouse.
Hundreds of police, many mobilized from Tokyo and wearing white radiation suits, pulled four bodies in an hour from one small area in Minami Soma. They had found only five bodies the previous day.
The AP crew, which had been watching the police search, later broke away to see if it could find any residents living inside the evacuation zone. Some construction workers directed them to a part of town where some houses were intact.
The farmhouse where Shiga’s family has grown vegetables for generations is at the end of a long mud- and rubble-covered road blocked by fallen trees and dead and decaying animals.
The journalists spotted the relatively undamaged house about 500 meters (yards) away. Unable to drive on the road because of the debris, they navigated the rest of the way on foot, sometimes crawling over large branches.
Shiga was seen wandering in front of his house but went inside. The journalists went to greet him.
He said he spent his lonely days since the disaster sitting in bed in his dark home and listening to a battery-powered radio. A scruffy beard covered his face.
“The tsunami came right up to my doorstep,” he said. “I don’t know what happened to my wife. She was here, but now she’s gone.”
Shiga said he was aware of the evacuation order but could do nothing about it, since he is barely able to walk past the front gate of his house. His car is stuck in mud and won’t start.
The AP journalists asked Shiga for permission to tell the authorities about him. He agreed, and they went to a police station to tell them about the stranded farmer. The police said they would check on him as soon as they could.
Even if authorities can make it to him, Shiga said he might rather stay.
“I‘m old and I don’t know if I could leave here. Who would take care of me?” he said, staring blankly through his sliding glass doors at the mess in his yard. “I don’t want to go anywhere. But I don‘t have water and I’m running out of food.”
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Comments (84)
caprica
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:49pmDear God – please help these gracious Japanese People …..Please help this man and people like him…..this is heart braking.
Report Post »ILUVJESUS
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:32pmMay god forgive me if I am wrong, but is this a scam?
Report Post »His hair and eyebrows look freshly dyed (not his beard). His clothes look clean!
If he really is a disoriented man who has survived the storm I do respect him.
Exrepublisheep
Posted on April 10, 2011 at 12:34amI kind of hope it IS a scam. Too sad if its true.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:30pmI can’t imagine how bad this man hurts losing his wife. It always makes me think of a song I really like, although it’s kind of sad, called, “Don’t Blink”, and the line…”You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Report Post »Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your “better half”
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you’re praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don’t blink”
I feel for this guy, I want to go before my wife like in the song.
Devil Dog 7175
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:16pmIf I may add to your post… This is a story told to me over and over by my beloved Father in Law…
My wife is Filipina and her Dad was serving with the American army at that time. He was captured and forced on the Death March. After a severe beating,nearly killing him they told him to “RUN”. as he tried to get to his feet , two Japanese soldiers shot him, kicked him in a ditch and left him for dead.
Report Post »He managed to crawl to a village and was cared for until he was able again. Many Japanese died at his hand after that, and until the day he died in 1998 there was a hatered for the Japanese only he and others like him could understand.
I cant hate them but do realize that at the time they were a different people. I think things have changed now, but do deeply respect and understand your feelings about them. This day is marked on my calander and we light a candle and say a prayer to his memory each and every year on this day to remember his service and sacrifice, and all who had suffered at the hands of the Japanese.
TruthToTell
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:57pmI’m not prejudice, I have a long memory. These people use to bury chinese women and children alive in mass graves as others watch the undulating ground churned up by the suffocating women and children under the dirt they have been buried in … ALIVE!
Report Post »Granikus Prime
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:25pmAnd another one crawls out of the woodwork!
Tell me sir, considering your “long memory”, as you say, and the general manner in which most nations have acted in at some point in the last century or so, do you in fact harbor and deep and abiding hatred of humanity?
Report Post »Granikus Prime
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:49pmIt may only be a very small thing compared to the enormity of the tragedy, but it is still good to see something like this every so often.
Report Post »beaubird
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:48pmthat should tell these ass politicans to get yur head out of your ass and get somethng done!Both sides enough is enough, May the lightning hit their ass if they dont do something and do it for the right reasons. I am sure that will not happen but maybe somebody will have a little sense and get it done. STOP spendin our money. We are just goin to have to stop sending it if they keep throwin it away!!!!!!!! That is the only way to stop them . They cannot spend what they dont have just like us,, We cant!!!!! We dont have a printer to print it when we need it like washington does. I would love to know who ones that!!! SOROS??
Report Post »Granikus Prime
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:48pmCongratulations, NHABE64. You are…. the callous idiot of the week.
Report Post »SIHKS1120
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:26pmgod bless our friends the japanese!!!!!
Report Post »Jack007
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:13pmLife on planet earth can suck at times; Good Luck to you Mr. Shiga
Report Post »lildeb56
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 4:57pmThat poor man. My heart goes out to him. Not only losing his wife, but the whole town gone.
Report Post »Jezreel
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 4:41pmPoor dear soul. Prayers for him.
Report Post »hollowpoint
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 3:44pmTo Creestof: You are so right. I too so admire the Japanese people for their banding together and/or surviving alone with dignity and honor. They have set a wonderful example for the rest of the world. Here in the US I would say there will be those that do stick together and help each other, such as on 9-11. But God forbid something happens again in New Orleans. What an embarrasment those people were. In contrast I will always remember the Amish during the school massacre and now the Japanese. I pray for Japan daily because they truly are suffering and may even lose part of their country entirely. God Bless.
Report Post »thegreatone
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 3:26pm“Do you have any food? I will pay you”……”I will pay you?”…..”I will pay you?”. Unbelievable in his circumstances he would not expect anything for free from anyone.
Thank you Mr Beck for doing a special about the Japanese people. I wish half of our fellow American could say those words “I will pay you” instead of demanding everything free from Gov.
Report Post »LadyIzShy
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 3:02pmwow.. what a shame that they all left him behind.. very glad the AP found him
Report Post »dmforman
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 3:25pmAgreed.
Report Post »SlimnRanger
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:59pmI pray that God will meet the needs of this man,he has to be a strong willied person to have lasted this long
Report Post »GIDEON612
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:34pm@mossbrain
Did Ed Schultz tell you to say that? With that kind of comment I feel safer to think of when things hit the fan. You and your kind will not last long at all.
Thank God for what you have and ask for His forgiveness. Ask Him to open your eyes and go make a difference. There are enough libs walking around taking up space.
mossbrain, I will leave you with this. You know that God exists and His word says that hell will increase her borders. The choice of residency is still yours.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:12pmHas he no family? Bring him here. I live in a tiny house. We’re just getting by, but he can live with my wife and I.We’re used to taking care of old people. Have been doing it in every of our close to 40 years of marriage. Seriously, if you can get him here, we’ll find some room somewhere.
Report Post »Leslie_Benedict
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 3:15pmBless you.
Report Post »freedom101
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:47pmI agree. Bless you.
Report Post »MacWell
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 11:01pmNow THAT’s what makes Americans Americans. God blessed you sir with a heart for people. You’ve just lived 1 of only 2 commandants that Jesus Himself left for us.
Report Post »When I took my family to mexico a few years back on a mission trip with my church at the time, myself my wife, and 3 daughters visited the city dump. We saw many whole families that lived there, inside the city dump. they make their living there from scrounging, I guess. Anyway, my point was to say how blessed it was for me and my girls to do something like that together, as a family.
I do believe that we Americans are going to have it a lot rougher before it gets better, and it will get better.
After all
this
is
America,
We the people can do anything!
Granikus Prime
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 11:19pmI can’t see any way for that to happen, but good on you for being willing to care for someone no matter what. It’s good to see at least someone willing to do so.
Report Post »BJAlexandria
Posted on April 10, 2011 at 8:41amI was just thinking the same thing as I read these posts.
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on June 6, 2012 at 1:28pmSet up a fund we will contribute this man needs help but keeping him where he is may be the best for him sometimes moving the elderly kills them they become depressed living in a place not their own.
So take care
Report Post »d4jmf
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:09pmGomenasai
Report Post »GONESURFING
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 3:12pmSo desu ne. Kore wa taihen mondai desu. Minasan tasukete kudasai. Mada praying
Report Post »Ellbee
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:04pmHeartbreaking.
Report Post »mrclean
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 10:14pmImagine.
How would each one of us feel if we found ourseves completely ALONE, isolated, forced to survive in squalor, without hope, confusion clouding the brain, reduced to begging for water and food?
When we’re done IMAGINING that, each heart should be shattered. Walk a mile in his shoes and we should never take anything for granted ever again. Soon we may actually face those very circumstances, which is why so many of us are urging each other to prepare for the devastation, which in our case will be man-made, courtesy of his royal barackness.
Report Post »and to the republic
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:43pmyeah, that certainly is something I’m sure God would want us to thank him for…
Report Post »name change: Peabrain
and to the republic
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 4:26pmit appears the original post from Peabrain was removed. Thanks Blaze….
Report Post »ShiningCityGirl
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:42pmOur ‘response’, or ‘lack of a response’ makes me feel like a ‘tsunami’ has washed away the ‘heart of America’…
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:09pmThere is a tad too little pigment in the Japanese DNA for Obama to get too wound up about them.
Report Post »I donated to Samaritan’s Purse who is delivering aid AND the Gospel in Japan. It‘s Franklin Graham’s group. Here’s a link if you feel led.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/pray_for_japan/
Stuck_in_CA
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 4:10pm@Gonzo
Report Post »I agree with both of your points. The people in charge of DC have been proven to favor people of color. Whitey has it comin’, don’t ya know?
RickyPatriotson
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 10:39pmno it was taken away when we elected Obowtome to office
Report Post »rightwinglefty
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:41pmGanbare, Shiga San.
Report Post »wasnt me
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:17pmThat just breaks my heart. a lot of love his way and a prayer
Report Post »Robert-CA
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:56pm“Do you have any food?” he asked. “I will pay you.”
This sums it up for the Japanese people .
Report Post »Untameable-kate
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:09pmPoor man. Prayers go out to him and his wife.
Report Post »drattastic
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:11pmSad
Report Post »GONESURFING
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:25pmYes indeed, there is a lot of suffering over there. We think we have problems, but for most of us, our problems pale in comparison to what is happening in Japan. Keep praying.
Report Post »and to the republic
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:42pmthat makes the heart sink….
Report Post »KwikKarl
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:47pmAt least he was prepared… He was running out of supplies – almost a month… Kudos… How long would most of us Americans have made it? How long were the people of New Orleans able to survive without help?
Report Post »Tusker
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 1:55pm@ Gonesurfing, you are sooooo right! No matter how bad we think we have it here, it can always be worse. We should stop and count our blessings every day and prayers for those in Japan also.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:26pmGod be with him into the time ahead, and comfort him over the loss of his loved one.
Report Post »Creestof
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 2:30pmThey say “every cloud has a silver lining” …that we should look for the positive within the negative. For me, if there is one, the silver lining has been the privilege of seeing how the Japanese have conducted themselves in the face of such adversity. They have shown true honor and set the example for the rest of us to follow when our time comes here in the states.
I don’t pretend to hide my disgust for what a large percentage of Americans have devolved into, and I have little hope that these same “people” will act better than animals when chaos comes to our shores…but I will pray that God reminds them of the noble nature they were born with, once upon a time.
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 4:48pmHow very sad. I hope someone found his wife and she is safe in a shelter; and they can be reunited and live out the rest of their lives together.
Report Post »theonefromabove
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 5:06pmPoor guy. Glad to see someone survive all this time.
http://politicalbowl.com – Political Videos
Report Post »bry
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:07pmThe poor soul. I fear there may be many others that share his plight.
Report Post »Devil Dog 7175
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:31pmPoor old guy… I hope his Buddah smiles on him and comforts him. They have lost every thing yet still remain proud and strong yet humble. Kinda makes you wonder where this country went so wrong.
Report Post »thegrassroots
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 6:33pmGod have mercy! May Mr Shiga and his wife be reunited and may good things come their way. In Jesus Name!
Report Post »Showtime
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 7:06pmThank you, Associated Press, for giving him water and the energy bars.
Report Post »leftcoastslut
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 8:47pmsoros is collapsing economy as we speak
Report Post »parlayer
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 9:15pmA Good News Story, for once!
Report Post »pattybbb1
Posted on April 9, 2011 at 9:43pmYep, how many of us could survive a month like he did? My prayers are with him and all of Japan.
Report Post »godlovinmom
Posted on April 10, 2011 at 12:59amPoor old guy…and to lose your wife like that…I too pray for Japan still…can’t imagine something like that here…this is a good example to store food…for you, your family and your neighbors!
Report Post »dawg of gawd
Posted on April 10, 2011 at 10:56amLook! It’s Marco Rubio in 2016!
Report Post »CarolinaBlue2
Posted on April 10, 2011 at 11:43amPlease God, bless & keep this man and his fellow countrymen in their devastating time of need …..
The news outlets have been wall to wall ‘shutdown’ …. before that, Libya –
The lion‘s share of coverage they did do on Japan’s triple tragedy was all about that wicked, ”something nuclear this way comes” ’cause if it bleeds it leads” ….
I guess the Japanese people weren’t bleeding enough to suit the media decision-making powers that be ….
A truly sad ‘state of disgrace’ enacted
upon the souls of an extremely gracious people.
Carolina
Report Post »jackrorabbit
Posted on April 10, 2011 at 11:24pmPoor soul. Life can be so cruel sometimes.
Report Post »