Japanese Family Huddles in Emergency Shelter

“I was so scared by what I saw. After the water was all gone we went back to see our house but there was nothing left. I lost all my toys including my favorite dragon.” Photo credit: Jensen Walker/Getty Images for Save the Children

Suzunoskue, aged 6, was at home in Onagawa, Japan, when the earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, a Friday afternoon. As he told us about the earthquake, he explained, “I didn’t know what was happening.  I was scared and ran to my father.”

Luckily, his father, Hirohiko, knew exactly what to do. Without waiting, he said, “I picked up my son and pregnant wife and said, ‘We have to go now to higher ground.’”

They fled up the hill and waited in the safety of a temple. A half an hour later, Suzunoskue and his parents watched in horror as a 30-foot-high wall of water swept up the valley.

Suzunoskue describes the scene. “Then came a huge mountain of water. It came right over our house. Everything was gone. But then another wave came and it was even higher.”

The second wave combined with the first, creating a towering wall of water that upended office buildings and smashed nearly every house in the valley.

“I was so scared by what I saw,” said Suzunoskue. “After the water was all gone we went back to see our house but there was nothing left. I lost all my toys including my favorite dragon.”

Like so many other children in Onagawa, Suzunoskue and his family have now taken shelter in the hospital on the hill. He ends saying simply, “I want to go home. I want to have a bath and to be with my friends.”

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