Olympic volunteers strive to tell earthquake stories

RIFU, Japan — Atsushi Muramatsu’s handmade flyers are the size of a business card, written in several languages.

“Welcome to Miyagi Stadium,” one reads. “The gymnasium next door was the largest morgue for tsunami victims.”

More than a decade after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, the Tokyo Games were supposed to offer a chance to showcase how much has been rebuilt. They were even billed as the “Recovery and Reconstruction Games,” and the Olympic torch relay started from Fukushima prefecture, the heart of the nuclear disaster area.

But the coronavirus pandemic means few spectators are coming to any of the Olympic events, including soccer and baseball, being held here. That leaves some Olympic volunteers having to find their own ways to recount their experiences to those rare fans who pass through, as well as members of the media.

“I believe that residents in disaster-hit areas want to express gratitude for support from overseas, and I also want to keep delivering a message that we want to be remembered,” said Muramatsu, who is serving as a volunteer at the Miyagi Stadium media operation center.

The stadium has a capacity of 49,000, but because of the pandemic, it’s one of the few venues that allow up to 10,000 spectators.

Another volunteer, Mieko Onuma, wants to return the favor to all those who supported the reconstruction by sharing her experience with Japanese visitors to Miyagi at a storytelling center set up near a shuttle bus station.

“When the disaster happened, I was working as a teacher at an elementary school. I feel a sense of duty to tell what happened that day, so I tell my stories here,” said Onuma.

Toshihiro Umeki, 14, came to see the soccer games with his father, but also joined Okuma’s storytelling session.

“Back then I was 5 years old, so I barely remember the disaster. So it wasn’t like recalling back my memories but rather learning new things,” said Umeki. “There were so many shocking things I didn’t know.”

On March 11, 2011, the magnitude 9.0 quake sent a tsunami that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The disaster heavily damaged coastal neighborhoods and took more than 18,000 lives in all, with around 10,000 people killed in Miyagi prefecture.

Muramatsu said he observed hundreds of dead bodies being cleaned after their recovery from the ocean, then carried to the gymnasium.

Being exposed to such scenes every day and hearing about the deaths of his friends, Muramatsu said he felt there was no line between life and death. What

motivated him to stay alive was the daily conversations with foreign rescue workers, who helped lift people’s spirits with a joke or a kind word.

“I want to pass on the message to the next generation that we have received so much support from overseas, and we shall never forget that support,” Muramatsu said.

“I want to pass on the message to the next generation that we have received so much support from overseas, and we shall never forget that support.” — Atsushi Muramatsu, Olympic volunteer

(AP/Chisato Tanaka) Olympic volunteer Atsushi Muramatsu poses for a photo Thursday in front of Sekisui Heim Super Arena, which was used as a morgue after the 2011 earthquake, also known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, in Rifu, Japan.

This photo shows Sekisui Heim Super Arena.

Muramatsu shows business-card-size flyers to express gratitude for support from overseas Thursday during an interview with The Associated Press in Rifu. He made the flyers to hand out to foreign media covering the 2020 Summer Olympics at Miyagi Stadium, where he is serving as a volunteer.

Muramatsu shows photos Thursday of Russian rescuers he took at Sekisui Heim Super Arena on March 18, 2011, when it was used as a morgue following a devastating earthquake, during an interview with The Associated Press in Rifu.

Olympic volunteer Mieko Onuma talks about her experiences of the 2011 earthquake on July 28 at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai, Japan.