PhotoBlog – “Dear Mommy. I hope you’re alive. Are you okay?” 4-year-old quake survivor writes.
In this March 22 photo, Manami Kon, using Japanese hiragana characters she just learned, writes a letter for her mother who’s still missing after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at the devastated city of Miyako, northeastern Japan. The 4-year-old Manami wrote, “Dear Mommy. I hope you’re alive. Are you okay?” It took about an hour for her to finish it. Twenty days after the disaster that hit Japan’s northeastern coast, her parents and a sister were still unaccounted for.
What were you doing when you were four years old? Did you think the world had ended?
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March 31, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Sometimes we focus too heavily upon the big picture. This story, however, boils it all down to the personal level…
The Japanese government has had how long to deal with this thing and has yet to tell the truth? And only now are they going to throw in the towel and build the now infamous ‘sarcophagus’?
I dunno. The whole thing sounds eerily reminiscent of bad decisions made in the past, which cost untold numbers of Japanese lives. Stubbornness seems to be a trait of theirs.
What else can I say? I’m sorry for the innocents caught up in this thing. Somehow it just doesn’t seem right. But what can you say, huh?
March 31, 2011 at 7:46 pm
I’m at a loss for words Unc.
March 31, 2011 at 7:58 pm
yeah…there are no words really…
March 31, 2011 at 7:59 pm
wca, I don’t know what I as a human being could possibly say to a tiny child like this.
March 31, 2011 at 8:24 pm
they should tell her the truth that her parents and her sister are dead and will not return.
there isn’t a way for anyone to fix her situation, but if they continue to conceal the truth they delay her adjustment.
April 1, 2011 at 6:06 am
I’m sure that the overwhelming sense of community loss is completely baffling. I’m sure that her grandmother (thankfully spared) will help her understand it all.
April 1, 2011 at 6:48 am
it’s very good to hear grandma survived
April 1, 2011 at 8:19 am
She is blessed that someone will care for her.
March 31, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Poor little mite. May the Lord cradle her and all the other bereaved in His breast pocket.
April 1, 2011 at 6:04 am
Yes Mary.
April 1, 2011 at 7:21 pm
That was so lovely, Mary.
If the story and photo of this child had not already broken my heart, your compassion would have.
This poor child is just one of oh, so many. It is breathtaking to think about the extent of this tragedy. I cannot even picture it, can you?
April 1, 2011 at 8:20 pm
It’s simply devastating to me, Leslie.
April 2, 2011 at 12:25 am
It’s a shame that a four year old even has to think about something like this.
April 2, 2011 at 5:52 am
I remember being four and the safety of the world never crossed my mind. Joy was chasing butterflies and playing in the sand.