Naomi Chiba watched her community struggle in the aftermath of the 3.11 tsunami. Ishinomaki Senshu University, where she is a librarian, became an unofficial evacuation center because it was built on high ground and had open sports fields where helicopters could land. Hundreds of tents lined these fields in the weeks after the disaster, alongside trees given to Japan by the United States.
The dogwoods were given by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2013 in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington D.C. Some of the dogwoods now grow on the university grounds, but Chiba says they did not flower this year.
Chiba taught Japanese for 17 years at the University of Montana and reached out to us when she learned about our project. She insisted our reporting include a trip to Ishinomaki, her hometown and the place most devastated by the tsunami.
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Photos and text by Sydney MacDonald
