2024-01-07 07:00:00
Officials from temples affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake are running a soup kitchen in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. “I want to repay you for helping me.” They plan to work until the night of the 7th and provide approximately 1,600 hot meals to disaster victims forced to live in evacuation centers.
◆Hot meals to cheer up disaster victims
“I feel better.” “Thank you.” At noon on the 6th, Oya Elementary School near the center of Wajima City. When they served pork soup made with ingredients brought in from outside the prefecture, evacuees expressed their gratitude one after another. Kiyoshi Ikeda (78), whose home in the city’s Fugeshi-cho was completely destroyed and who took refuge in an evacuation center, said, “I’ve been eating bread and rice balls every day, and it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten freshly made food. It warms me up,” he said happily.
Michinori Sasaki (right) and Kacho-san serving pork soup at Oya Elementary School in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture
The people running the soup kitchens include Michinori Sasaki (51), chief priest of Shingyo Temple in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, as well as other temples in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, Kumamoto City, which was affected by the Kumamoto Earthquake, and Mifune Town, Kumamoto Prefecture. A total of 8 people, including the chief priest and deputy chief priest. Sasaki led the gathering to support his colleague Kishiharuka, 45, who runs the disaster-hit Jomyoji Temple in Wajima City. Mr. Gai is forced to sleep in his car with his family while coordinating the soup kitchen supporters from all over the country.
◆A “Zundo” user entrusted to me by a temple friend in Noto
Mr. Sasaki’s main hall and other buildings were damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake. Around May 2011, he started running soup kitchens in coastal areas such as Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, and the people who came to help him at the time were his temple friends from the Noto Peninsula. When I saw the damage caused by the earthquake on TV, the faces of the people I worked with in 2011 came to mind.
Immediately after the earthquake, I called out to my friends and formed a support team. They arrived in Wajima City on the 5th and started a soup kitchen that night. In 2011, he brought in a “Zundo” machine that was entrusted to him by a temple friend in Noto and is able to make pork miso soup for 400 people.
Until the evening of the 7th, they were patrolling evacuation centers throughout the city, offering pork soup, curry rice, gyoza, and other foods, as well as small-scale public baths.
During the Kumamoto Earthquake, I went to the area to help with soup kitchens about 10 times in total, and the friends I met back then gathered in Wajima this time. “At times like this, we have to return the favor. I want to continue supporting them in the future,” he said. (Yasuyuki Ichikawa)
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