A Day in the Life: Shadowing survivors six years later

Five of us left the hostel at 5:30 a.m. on the morning of May 26, each carrying a camera and something to shield us from Tokyo’s rain. We met up with in-country director Keiji Fujimoto and another UM alumni and translator, Nanako Arita, at the train station before walking to the apartment building where our sources live.

Asuka Sato, 18, and Shota Sato, 20, are from a coastal town called Kesennuma, about 300 miles north of Tokyo. They both came to Tokyo for school. Shota wants to be a sushi chef and move home to take over the family restaurant. Asuka wants to stay in Tokyo, where she’s studying theatrical set design.

We went in with the intention to interview Asuka and Shota about how the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami changed their lives, but when they offered us a chance to shadow them at school we seized the opportunity to see what their everyday life was like. Our group split up after the morning interviews, and I spent the day following Asuka with Keiji, Zachariah Bryan and Tate Samata.

Despite not understanding what the teachers were saying, it was fun to sit in on the Japanese classes. I watched Asuka interact with her friends and I was able pick up on random parts of the lessons—like how to tie a kimono properly.

When we went to English class in the afternoon the professor asked us to pick up the podium microphone and introduce ourselves to the students. They were too shy to ask us questions in English, but they had no problem giving us hugs at the end of class and saying, “Thank you! I love you!”

After breaking the ice with Asuka’s friends, she felt more comfortable around us, which made it easier to transition back into more formal interviews at her apartment that evening. We learned that both Asuka and Shota had some journalistic experience, even though they didn’t call it journalism. They helped shoot and edit a photography book called 3/11 Kids’ Photo Journal back in Kesennuma. The book displays photos of the tsunami’s destruction and the reconstruction that followed.

Keep a look out for more about Asuka and Shota Sato. Zachariah’s busy working on a print story about them, and Jack Ginsburg has a video piece in the works too.