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Kesennuma votes to destroy tsunami ship landmark

25 Comments
By AZUSA UCHIKURA

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25 Comments
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2 years on and so many people still in temporary housing! Please get your priorities straight Abe-san, its not spending cash on the Olympics, its not spending cash on weapons, its getting YOUR displaced compatriots rehoused and settled permanently so they can move on with their lives. We all know how quickly houses can be built here, mine was slowish and still took only 4 months...sort it out!

8 ( +11 / -3 )

II have just returned from visiting relatives in Kesennuma. The boat needs to go. Maybe not destroyed, cut into pieces and placed around the city or place into other cities around Japan. I live in Christchurch. Send a piece to our Quake shattered city as a monument to your disaster.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Please get your priorities straight Abe-san

Yeah great. Why are you addressing your letter to Abe-san? Here is the first paragraph for you again.

A stranded fishing boat that became a symbol of the devastation of Japan's 2011 tsunami has long divided the Miyagi Prefecture city of Kesennuma - between those who wanted to keep it as a monument of survival and those who wanted a painful reminder gone.

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

Somehow, I don't think these people need to be reminded of the devistation, do you? Get rid of it and get the NE coast back to livable ASAP!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Plus, it probably wont cost nearly as much as restoring that dead tree. Get rid of it and clean up the area!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I'm all for this ship breaking. Besides, a car crashed into it last week.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I would have voted to keep the ship and turned it into a Tsunami museum or a memorial.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Great photo.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

People aren't thinking ahead. It may be a reminder of the tsunami, but with the ship gone will people forget it? No! It's a part of their lives now so it may as well stay where it is as a tourist attraction to make money for the city and survivors. Why not knock down the Atomic Bomb Dome too? Would that help?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@Spanki

I thoroughly agree ! I have been trying to say the same thing for months already (but I usually get thumbed down...)

2 ( +3 / -1 )

boo. I love this boat on land. A symbol of strength shouldn't be taken down. Macross flashbacks help too

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

A constant reminder and so must be removed - no quite the opposite - one must be reminded so as never to let it happen again. Damn nuclear shouldn't have been built on a hot spot and sea walls etc were not properly constructed to withstand the attack. Despite the beauty of the monument. It must be kept and yes the money for destruction could be spent on food and benefits first rather than more destruction.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

This would make an honest, albeit painful, landmark to commemorate the losses of that day -- far, far more so than taking a tree and remaking it, somewhere else. But the bottom line is if it hurts people to see it, and the only ones for it being there are for it being there because they get some coin, it needs to be destroyed.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

It could have been a good reminder and perhaps made people more cautious in the future. Anyway the majority voted for it to be removed...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Why not move it back to the water on rollers?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Somehow, I don't think these people need to be reminded of the devistation, do you? Get rid of it and get the NE coast back to livable ASAP!

Many parts will never truly be livable. Aside from the blindingly obvious areas around the Fukushima NPP, for one, Minamisanriku has sunk slightly and will never be rebuilt (so they say) but will be moved to higher ground inland. Noone who lived through that day is going to want to build a house where there were houses before.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Think of the 9-11 memorial.. I guess they could have left a pile of rubble with some of the support structure standing as a reminder of that awful day, but they obviously decided to rebuild the new tower but also make a very tasteful park, memorial pool where they once stood.

The boat is a symbol of what happened, it will be removed but I hope it can be replaced with a memorial for all the lives lost that day

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Many of our comments are from people who are not from this area, but still have and are entitled to an opinion. In a free country you should respect the wishes of the local community and they have apparently spoken overwhelmingly. If that is the case I agree that it should go. Imagine if a tragedy occurred in your town or area and in other parts of the country people felt like it should be another way to what the locals wanted? The truth is that we can only imagine their pain and suffering. Maybe having a giant huge ship dominating that landscape (and it seems truly huge) is simply not an appropriate monument. It can be done much smaller (a monument or memorial) and with the same powerful meaning, but maybe people also don't want to see it every time they go out to eat, or look out their windows. Perspective...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

if the affected people were already been back to comfortable permanent homes rather than temporary homes, maybe they will have more positive thinking about this boat. but they are still in temporary homes, so why putting this boat as a priority for tourist attraction while most of the affected families are still in a serious situation of trying to get back to their normal lives living in comfortable homes that they can truly call home!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It's a very precious reminder so they should have built a musrum around the boat promptly- that way the locals dont have to see it yet the history remains for those who want to see it.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I really think it is up to the people who live in the town to decide and they did. It is a remarkable sight. I still pray for the peace of those lost and for healing from those terrible events. Nature is ...at times, very cruel. I just hope for healing and for any lost to be found still even after this time but know their memory is being preserved in the traditional ways.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I'm glad they took a vote. Obviously the majority of the residents there want it destroyed so let them. We don't know what they have gone through and we are no position to reverse their decision.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@Francis Urquhart

I totally agree...the typical mentality is that if we close our eyes, it will go away. Well, it won't go away. There are always going to reminders of this event, because it happened and nothing can change that. The best way to get over the pain is to pay tribute to those who lost their lives. The best way to do it is to erect a memorial or a museum and this ship would be an excellent structure to house it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

To the people bitching about the fact that comfortable permanent homes have not yet been built for the displaced in Kessennuma: Please visit the area.

Before new public housing can be started, mountain tops need to be cleared to create new high ground on which to build. That takes considerable time. And it's underway.

I'm happy for the people of Kessennuma that they've come to a decision and that the vote made it so clear which way was the way to go. (with only 16% of locals wanting to keep the ship).

1 ( +2 / -1 )

To the people bitching about the fact that comfortable permanent homes have not yet been built for the displaced in Kessennuma: Please visit the area.

Here here. And drop some money. And talk to various people there to learn how opinion on that is also divided. And then read something. And so on, and so forth.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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