Must Read Article About Japanese Earthquake, Heroism, and Suffering - English translation in text

Original article, with photo, can be found here:
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/politics/news/110329/lcl11032913240000-n1.htm

English Translation:

East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami:
Female Worker Gives Life Broadcasting Emergency Information Until the Last Second
- Mother of the young woman, who was making preparations for her upcoming wedding ceremony: “She gave everything for us.”-

March 29, 2011   13:19

She single-mindedly continued to broadcast evacuation information, telling people to evacuate to higher ground and escape the incoming tsunami wave that followed the massive quake that shook the town.  Miki Endo (24) was the civil servant in charge of Disaster Information Broadcasting in Miyagi Prefecture’s Minami Sanriku, one of the towns devastated by the tsunami that followed the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.  Her whereabouts are still unknown.  “She always gave her all, in whatever she was doing.  But to give her life like this...,” her mother’s voice trembles with sorrow and regret.  Ms. Endo had been making preparations for her wedding ceremony this autumn.



“There’s nothing here,” her mother Mieko (53) mutters as she traces the information on the bulletin board at one of the nearby evacuation areas, where identification information and characteristic descriptions of missing and dead persons are posted.  Two weeks after the massive earthquake, information updates have slowed to a trickle.

Every day for the two weeks following the earthquake, Miki’s parents have walked from place to place looking for traces of their daughter.  “We can’t find anything.  There isn’t much that just the two of us can do,” her father Kiyoki laments.

The 3-floor Disaster Prevention Building where Ms. Endo worked was entirely swallowed by the wave, leaving nothing behind but the structure’s red iron frame.

On March 11th, Ms. Endo was making broadcasts over the city’s public address system.  “A 6 meter tsunami is coming.  Please evacuate.”  She calmly repeated her instructions over and over in calm, easy to understand words.  Her voice even reached her parents, who were on the shore when the announcement came. 

Of the 30 workers who remained at the Disaster Prevention Building that day, only 10 were spared.  Even many of the people who evacuated to the building’s rooftop were swept away by the towering wall of water.  (Translator’s note: apparently the ten people who were saved managed to stay alive by climbing the building’s antenna, see picture in article)

Ms. Endo was appointed to the city’s Crisis Management Division in April of last year, her fourth year working as a civil servant.  She had considered going into the nursing profession, but she instead chose to follow her parents advice and become a town government employee. 

In July of last year, she submitted her official marriage papers, and she was planning to hold her ceremonial celebration this September.  She had even obtained a hard to get wedding ceremony reservation at a hotel in one of Japan’s most scenic places, Matsushima.  She tried on wedding dresses for the first time last December.  She and her mother had plans to go and see the year’s newest bridal gowns in March of this year.

Ms. Endo’s mother explained, “A friend of mine who heard the whole thing said that Miki’s broadcast cut out midway through.  At the end, her voice had begun to tremble.  But she didn’t run away and continued broadcasting till the very end.  She must have been so scared.  As her mother, I’m so sorry that I couldn’t do anything to save her.”

Of Minami Sanriku’s 17,000 citizens, the whereabouts of approximately 8,000 are still unknown, and the full extent of the damage cannot be grasped yet.  A 64 year-old woman who was able to make it to an evacuation area, explains what she remembered from that day. “So many people were saved by that broadcast.  It’s because she steadfastly held on to her responsibility for the sake of the town’s citizens.” 

Her father’s eyes brim with tears as he says, “I want to say to Miki, ‘You’ve done a tremendous job. Thank you for everything.”’

“Miki’s name is written with the Japanese characters for ‘future’ and ‘hope.’,” explains her mother.  In this devastated town, new electrical poles have already been erected and the debris covered roads have been cleared so that cars may pass through them once again.  The people whom Ms. Endo saved are slowly facing toward their future and moving forward.

(Translated by Chris McCabe)