When I was at #IshimoriProductions. March 11, 2011 The Great East Japan Earthquake happened.
When I was at #IshimoriProductions .
March 11, 2011
The Great East Japan Earthquake happened.
https://x.com/takigawa_w/status/1792981067684798567?s=46&t=8Vf8aUwk_B-ZbQ5UAGv05w
Ishinomaki City, where the Ishinomori Manga Museum (or Ishinomori Mangattan Museum) is located, and Tome City, where Shotaro Ishinomori Furusato Memorial Museum is located, were also hit by the disaster.
In particular, the Ishinomori Manga Museum, located in the middle of the Kitakami River, was hit by a tsunami back and forth.
When the tsunami hit, the square-shaped ground floor entrance was damaged by debris.
The Ishinomori Manga-kan was designed by Shotaro Ishinomori before he passed away in the image of a spaceship that landed in the middle of the island and had a rounded oval shape.
I felt it was a miracle that Mr. Shotaro Ishinomori wrought.
On the day of the earthquake, the building withstood the earthquake and tsunami, but about 20 people who were almost swept away by the tsunami were holding on for dear life on the parapet of the bridge in the middle of the river. Mr. O of the Ishinomori Manga Museum found them and invited them to come inside. and beckoned.
However, the tsunami that had traveled up the Kitakami River returned.
Another 20 people were holding on to the parapet again. Mr. O also invited them to the Manga-kan, where about 40 people and Mr. O spent time together during the aftershocks.
Fortunately, the Manga-kan had emergency power and food for the restaurant, so the Ishinomori Manga-kan was used as a temporary shelter for five days.
Miraculously, all the family members of the staff of Ishinomori Mangattan Museum were also safe.
This is all a story that I heard later, but it became a famous story in Ishinomaki City and was featured in the news and mangas.
We were in Tokyo and worried, so we contacted Mr.
K, an executive at Ishinomori Manga Museum, and asked him, "What do you need?" I thought there must be a lot of things that were lacking, such as food, medical care, clothing, etc.
This happened on March 19th.
Mr. K then said, "We have 100,000 original manuscripts by Shotaro Ishinomori stored at the Ishinomori Manga Museum. Fortunately, none of them have fallen off the shelves or been flooded, so they are all safe. However, the front door has been broken, which makes it a burglar-prone risk, so could you please take the original manuscripts?"
What he is worried about at such a difficult time is
Shotaro Ishinomori's original manuscript.
I told them, "I'll go and pick them up, and I'll bring the necessary supplies with me when I get there," and from that day on, the office started purchasing various easy-to-eat foods, diapers, sanitary products, etc. from Amazon, Rakuten, etc.
Immediately after the disaster, these items were in short supply, but we managed to gather them together, and after discussing it with Mr. K, at 5 am on March 30th, when the Tohoku Expressway had finally been restored, we rented a Prius (because there was a gasoline shortage), and two of our employees, myself, a two-ton truck!! and its driver, and drove off.
We headed to Ishinomaki.
We encountered traffic jams and passed through damaged roads along the way, but I think we finally arrived at Ishinomaki Interchange around 1 pm.
When we arrived at
Ishinomaki Interchange, an older man working at the highway asked me, "Where are you from? Oh, Tokyo. Are you transporting something?" When I answered, "We've loaded relief supplies and food into the back truck," he asked me, "Did you get a permit?" When I answered,
"I don't know,"
he said, "If you had a permit it would be fre, but I guess you don't have one.
"You're coming from Tokyo?
That's expensive. It's so expensive,,,, so it'll be free! Go for it!" he said, letting me through for free.
I was a little surprised, but I gratefully accepted and passed through Ishinomaki Interchange.
From there we headed towards Ishinomaki and at first, the roads were not too badly damaged, but as we got closer to the city the amount of rubble increased and the roads became rougher.
Once we entered the city we saw something stuck into the tops of telegraph poles and boats running aground, and whether we liked it or not, it was etched into our minds just how devastating the earthquake had been.
The two employees from Ishimori Productions and I had made a promise to each other that "No matter what happens, we'll stay calm!", but that scene left a heavy, heavy blow to our hearts.
After much effort, we finally arrived at Ishinomori Manga Museum, but the other buildings on the island were nowhere to be found, and Ishinomori Manga Museum was located amongst the rubble.
When I met Mr. K and his friends there, the first thing Mr. K said to me was, "I'm really sorry that you came all the way from here. All of your original manuscripts are safe."
Hearing those words, no matter how difficult the situation they must have been in, I was so deeply moved and touched that my soul trembled.
I almost started to cry.
This is a Japanese person,
this is a person from Tohoku,
this is Ishinomori Manga Museum,
and this is Mr. K.
In March 2011, the whole of Japan was filled with a sense of doubt about what would become of the country.
At that moment, I was convinced that everything would be okay.
Afterward, I went to see the statues of Cyborg 009 and Kamen Rider that had been erected in Ishinomaki City, but for some reason, they were all safe and the Kamen Rider statue was sparkling clean.
When I asked, I was told that
"The people of Ishinomaki are polishing it because they feel sorry for the dirt on it."
This also brought me to tears.
#ShotaroIshinomori
#Ishinomaki
#KamenRider
#Cyborg009
#MangattanMuseum
#Japan
#GreatEastJapanEarthquake
#IshimoriProductions
#Gorenger
#Kikaider
#Inazuman