英語訳
**[Right Page, Upper Section]**
As the water suddenly receded and exposed the sandy bottom, he sensed that something extraordinary was about to occur and shouted at the top of his voice: "Tsunami! Tsunami! Run! Run!" Those who heard him immediately fled to higher ground. In less than a minute, a great pitch-black wave, as tall as a mountain, reared up offshore and advanced with a thunderous roar, sweeping over everything in its path. A sailor aboard the same vessel reported that their ship had been anchored with two anchors, but was suddenly swept away. One anchor chain was severed, and the ship came to rest in a wheat field held by the remaining anchor. His blood had run cold, and he had felt no sense of being alive, yet fortunately no one aboard the ship was harmed.
**○ A Sailing Vessel Standing Upright in a Field**
According to a laborer from the Tanaka Tetsucho-gumi of Kamaishi who returned to Tokyo and related his account: four vessels—the Daisan Chosei-maru, the Kaijo-maru, the Myojin-maru, and the Konpira-maru—which had been moored at the Kamaishi wharf to transport pig iron and other goods, were swept ashore by the tsunami and came to rest in a field, remaining grounded where they had landed. When the waves receded and the vessels were examined, their hulls were buried in the mud and they stood upright like mountains—a sight that was, even amid such devastation, strangely remarkable. However, the hulls were unexpectedly undamaged, and the loss was limited to a small quantity of pig iron that had been washed away.
**○ Death Through Filial Devotion**
A man named Owada Yotematu had a family of twelve, but his elderly mother, his wife Moyo, his eldest son Suketsu, his second son Katsunosuke, his third son Toramatsu, his eldest daughter Riu, and one other—seven persons in total—drowned. Among them, the eldest son Suketsu had struggled desperately, tossed about by the churning waves, to save his mother, but in the end lacked the strength to do so, and both mother and son drowned together—a most pitiable end. Yotematu himself survived, though he had a large nail driven into his right foot and his head was split open. His father Seijuro also survived, though injured. That seven of a family of twelve perished is heartbreaking, yet compared with those households where every single member was lost, one might say this family was relatively fortunate.
**○ A French Missionary Caught in the Disaster**
A French missionary residing in Morioka, Mr. Henri Orisbal [Urisbale], had been on assignment in the Kamaishi area and was staying, along with Engineer Kaneko and others, at the Niinuma residence near the shore. On the day of the disaster, dinner had not yet been served, and the cook was busily preparing a Western meal in the kitchen. A maidservant was bringing tea to the missionary's room when she suddenly heard cries of "Tsunami!" She was seized with panic, threw down her tea tray on the spot, and ran out. The missionary, sensing something was wrong, tried to follow her out, but by then it was already too late: a tremendous wave, with the force of collapsing cliffs, came surging in from the direction of the shore. There was no withstanding it. The missionary was engulfed in the raging waves and disappeared without a trace; his body has still not been found. Two other French missionaries—Messrs. Ilaud Jacquet and Dufresne—together with Japanese evangelist Mr. Yoshida Kiichi, came daily to mourn at the site of the disaster. Whether it was grief for their lost friend or not, their sorrow was plainly written on their faces. Mr. Yoshida himself had been caught in the disaster along with Mr. Orisbal, but had barely managed to save his own life, as he recounted in his own words.
**○ "Help Me, or I Shall Curse You"**
In a merchant household in the town of Kamaishi there was a young employee, a boy of about thirteen. As the tsunami struck, he plunged through the water and made to escape, when a woman behind him seized his hand. As the boy frantically tried to shake himself free, the woman raised her face from the water and said, "If you do not help me, I shall curse you." Even so, the boy managed to escape alone. He says that even now her voice lingers in his ears and he cannot forget it—so the boy himself told the account.
**○ The Devastation of Shirasu**
Within the town of Kamaishi, there is a district called Shirasu, situated beside a headland called Ozaki that juts far out into the sea on the southern part of the bay. Located near the mountain slopes more than two ri from Kamaishi's main town and facing the sea, it formed a small community. Of its sixty-three houses, all but two—sixty-one in total—were swept away. Of its approximately 280 to 290 residents, only 106 managed to survive; the rest were all carried off by the tsunami, and only twenty bodies were found washed ashore. Even among the survivors, nine out of ten suffered injuries of varying degrees, and the worst cases were enough to make anyone shudder at first sight. To give one or two examples: a man named Kubo Ishimatsu (age 30) had both legs torn apart at the joints, as if an eagle had ripped apart a small animal—the flesh stripped away and the leg bones exposed; and below his navel…
**[Left Page — Illustrations]**
**[Upper Caption]**
Scene of the tsunami striking during a military welcome ceremony held at Otsuchi
**[Lower Caption]**
Scene of a courageous woman of Shizugawa rescuing four members of a family