Japan Finds Story of Hope in Undertaker Who Offered Calm Amid Disaster
By HIROKO TABUCHI
KAMAISHI, Japan — Amid the grief of finding her mother’s body at a makeshift morgue in this tsunami-ravaged city last March, Fumie Arai took comfort in a small but surprising discovery. Unlike the rest of the muddied body, her mother’s face had been carefully wiped clean.
Mrs. Arai did not know at the time, but the act was the work of a retired undertaker well-versed in the ancient Buddhist rituals of preparing the dead for cremation and burial. The undertaker, Atsushi Chiba, a father of five who cared for almost 1,000 bodies in Kamaishi, has now become an unlikely hero in a community trying to heal its wounds a year after the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged much of Japan’s northeastern coast a year ago Sunday.
“I dreaded finding my mother’s body, lying alone on the cold ground among strangers,” Mrs. Arai, 36, said. “When I saw her peaceful, clean face, I knew someone had taken care of her until I arrived. That saved me.”
As Japan marks one year since the quake and tsunami that claimed almost 20,000 lives in the northeastern region of Tohoku, stories like these are being told and retold as mementos of hope even as Japan struggles through what is expected to be an effort lasting decades to rebuild the region.
Mr. Chiba’s story has been immortalized in a best-selling book in Japan, which has sold over 40,000 copies and is in its eleventh printing.
“The dead bodies are the most disturbing aspect of any disaster, and some people might not want to remember,” said the book’s author, Kota Ishii, who spent three months in Kamaishi and its environs in the wake of the disaster, chronicling Mr. Chiba’s work. “But this story is ultimately about how small acts of kindness can bring a little humanity, even in a tragedy that defies all imagination.”
The 30-foot waves that struck Kamaishi shortly after the magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11 spared the white statue of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, which looks out to sea from the hills above the city. But the waves destroyed the liveliest parts of the city, the bars and restaurants frequented by the area’s fishermen.
As the black water receded, rescuers entered the city’s devastated streets and started pulling the dead from the rubble, carrying them on trucks to a vacant middle school that had escaped damage. The rundown gymnasium quickly became a large morgue.
Mr. Chiba, in his early 70s, whose home was also spared, raced to the gym on the day after the tsunami to look for friends and family, but was struck by the state of the mounting number of bodies there. Most were still clad in muddy clothes and wrapped in plastic, their rigid limbs jutting out and faces bruised by debris and contorted in agony.
“I thought that if the bodies were left this way, the families who came to claim them wouldn’t be able to bear it,” Mr. Chiba said Thursday in an interview. “Yes, they are dead. But in Japan, we treat the dead with respect, as if they are still alive. It’s a way to comfort the living.”
Mr. Chiba set to work. He became a fixture at the morgue, speaking to the bodies as he prepared them for viewing and then cremation. “You must be so cold and lonely, but your family is going to come for you soon so you’d better think of what you’re going to say to them when they arrive,” he recalled saying.
He also taught city workers at the morgue how to soothe limbs tense with rigor mortis, getting down on his knees and gently massaging them so the bodies looked less contorted. When the relatives of a middle-aged victim sobbed that her corpse looked gaunt, Mr. Chiba asked for some makeup and applied rouge and blush.
Mr. Chiba’s attempts to honor the dead quickly caught on. City workers put together old school desks to make a Buddhist altar. They lay the bodies of couples and of family members together. Each time a body was carried out, workers lined up with heads bowed to pay their last respects.
And at Mr. Chiba’s urging, Kamaishi became one of the only hard-hit communities to cremate all of its dead as called for by Japanese custom, enlisting the help of crematoriums as far as Akita, over 100 miles away.
In all, 888 of Kamaishi’s approximately 40,000 residents are known to have died; 158 more are listed as missing and presumed dead.
The disaster has been a major blow to the already declining fortunes of the city, whose steel industry thrived during the 1960s and 1970s but has been shrinking ever since. The tsunami laid waste to half the city, and a year later, streets in the worst-hit neighborhoods are still lined with the shells of buildings and empty plots.
As the city prepared this weekend for memorials to mark the disaster’s first anniversary, a Buddhist priest paid tribute to Mr. Chiba’s contribution to the city’s emotional recovery.
The priest, Enou Shibasaki, from the Senjuin Temple in the hills overlooking Kamaishi, remembers the change that came over the makeshift morgue as Mr. Chiba and other city workers tended to the bodies.
“Whether you are religious or not, mourning for the dead is a fundamental need,” Mr. Shibasaki said. “Mourning starts by taking care of the body. It’s the last you see of your loved one, and you want to remember them as beautiful as they were in life.”
70歲禮儀師千葉敦史撫千具遺體慰人心
紐約時報報導,一位曾在釜石市災區細心照料將近一千具遺體的殯儀業者,不可思議地成為日本舉國傳誦、感激的人物。
卅六歲的荒井文枝去年三月懷著無比的哀戚,在釜石市的臨時陳屍所尋找母親遺體時,意外獲得小小慰藉。因為多數的遺體都是渾身汙泥,而她母親的面龐卻已被仔細清洗乾淨。當時,她並不知道那是已退休的殯儀業者千葉敦史按照他熟悉的佛教古儀,在火葬之前為遺體所做的準備。
荒井文枝說:「我很害怕在一堆陌生的遺體之間,看到母親孤零零地躺在地上。當我看到她祥和、平靜的面孔時,我知道在我來之前,有人細心地照顧她,這讓我覺得好過一些。」
千葉敦史在海嘯發生後,趕到體育館尋找親友時,被現場屍體堆積的混亂狀態所震懾。多數的死者都裝在塑膠屍袋裡,身上裹著滿是爛泥的衣服,四肢僵直、扭曲,滿臉都是瘀傷與驚恐。
千葉接受訪問時說:「我當時心想,如果任憑遺體維持原樣,來這裡認屍的家屬一定會很難受。沒有錯,他們已往生,但在日本,我們會懷著尊敬對待遺體,就好像他們仍然在世一樣。這是安慰生者的一種方式。」
千葉敦史於是投入他熟悉的工作,為遺體淨身供家屬認領,也為火化作準備。他會對陌生的遺體說:「你一定覺得又冷又孤單,但你的家人很快就會來看你,你最好趕快想想要對他們說些什麼。」
2012/03/12聯合報.A3.焦點.編譯陳澄和
巨痛中的感動!
70歲禮儀師細心照料千具遺體
他,會對陌生遺體說:「你一定覺得又冷又孤單,但你的家人很快就會來看你,你最好趕快想想要對他們說什麼。」他,教導工作人員如何緩和遺體的僵硬狀態,他跪在遺體旁邊,溫柔地按摩他們,好讓遺體看起來不會那麼扭曲。
日本舉國為一年前在大地震與海嘯中喪生的兩萬國人哀悼之際,一位曾在石釜市災區細心照料將近1000具遺體的殯儀業者,也不可思議地成為大家傳誦、感激的人物。
36歲的荒井文枝去年3月懷著無比的哀戚,在釜石市的臨時陳屍所尋找母親的遺體時,意外地獲得一些微小的慰藉。因為多數的遺體都是渾身污泥,但她母親的面龐卻已被仔細清洗乾淨。當時,她並不知道那是已退休的殯儀業者千葉敦史按照他熟悉的佛教古儀,在火葬之前為遺體所做的準備。
荒井文枝說:「我很害怕在一堆陌生的遺體之間,看到母親孤零零地躺在地上。當我看到她詳和、平靜的面孔時,我知道在我來之前,有人細心地照顧她,這讓我覺得好過一些。」
紐約時報10日的報導表示,七十出頭的千葉敦史是五個孩子的父親,去年他在釜石市的災區細心照料了約1000具遺體,他的事蹟後來被寫成暢銷書,賣出逾4萬本。
千葉敦史在海嘯發生後,趕到體育館尋找親友時,被現場屍體堆積的混亂狀態所震懾。多數的死者都著裝在塑膠屍袋裡,身上裹著滿是爛泥的衣服,四肢僵直、扭曲,滿臉都是瘀傷與驚恐。
千葉接受訪問時說:「我當時心想,如果任憑遺體維持原樣,來這裡認屍的家屬一定會很難受。沒有錯,他們已經往生,但在日本,我們會懷著尊敬對待遺體,就好像他們仍然在世一樣,這是安慰生者的一種方式。」
千葉敦史於是開始投入他熟悉的工作,為遺體淨身供家屬認領,也為火化作準備。他會對陌生的遺體說:「你一定覺得又冷又孤單,但你的家人很快就會來看你,你最好趕快想想要對他們說些什麼。」
他還教導陳屍所的工作人員如何緩和遺體的僵硬狀態,他跪在遺體旁邊,溫柔地按摩他們,好讓遺體看起來不會那麼扭曲。一位女性受難者的家屬嗚咽地說,死者看起來好憔悴時,千葉先生就向人要來一些脂粉塗抹在死者的臉上。
這本書的作者石井康太災後花了三個月的時間,在釜石市附近地區記述千葉敦史的工作。他在書中說:「這個故事最終是在告訴大家,即使在無法想像的重大悲劇中,細小的仁慈行為也能發揮一點人性的光輝。」
2012-03-11/聯合晚報/A3版/311日震周年特別報導編譯陳澄和
原文參照:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/world/asia/a-year-later-undertakers-story-offers-japan-hope.html
Slideshow: Faces of the Tsunami
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/02/26/magazine/japan-tsunami.html
Video: In the Wake of Disaster
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/11/world/asia/in-wake-of-disaster.html