Richard Halberstadt is the foreigner who stayed.
Halberstadt didn’t expect to receive a message from the British Embassy following the 3.11 tsunami. He had been in Ishinomaki for almost 20 years. He worked in the city and had achieved as close to citizenship as possible. Ishinomaki was his home.
The meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant scared British officials, who advised Brits in Japan to leave a potentially hazardous zone. Halberstadt was torn when British officials came to retrieve him. He spent one sleepless night in Sendai before deciding to return to Ishinomaki to his friends and colleagues.
“It was tearful parting one day, tearful reunion the next day,” he said.
Today, he works in the Ishinomaki Community and Info Center, helping locals learn about the reconstruction of the city and visitors learn about the 3.11 disaster. Halberstadt said his passion and experience has led to him fulfilling this role.
“Everything I’ve lived has worked up to doing this, in a way,” Halberstadt said.
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Photo and text by Katy Spence