Hope fades for lone pine tree survivor of Japan tsunami
By Chris Meyers and Elaine Lies; Editing by Robert Birsel
22 February 2012 RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (Reuters) – Very little was left standing in the Japanese city of Rikuzentakata after a huge tsunami tore through nearly a year ago. Even the centuries-old pine forest by the sea that had long been a symbol of the city was obliterated. But amidst the destruction that killed about one in 12 of the city’s residents, one lonely pine tree out of more than 60,000 has clung to life along the ravaged coast. It came to embody residents’ hopes for renewal. “We didn’t have any hope at the time. So even having one survive really was like having a beam of light shining through the darkness,” said 47-year-old Seiko Handa. But now the 250-year-old pine tree is dying, a victim of the salt water left in the ground by the tsunami. “Even toward the beginning we in charge of the tree were worried that it would indeed die off,” said Kazunari Takahashi, an official at the city’s Forest, Fisheries and Agricultural Department. Originally planted as a windbreak to keep salt and sand from blowing in from the sea and wreaking havoc in the fields, the rows of pines known as Takata-Matsubara stretched along two km (a mile) of beach and were one of the most famous sites of northern Japan. But the nearly 10-metre (33 ft) wall of water that roared in after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck offshore on March 11 last year obliterated even the land where the forest had stood, along with more than 3,000 buildings in the city. Nearly 2,000 people were killed in Rikuzentakata. In all, about 25,000 people perished in northeast Japan. Now, city officials have abandoned hope of keeping the tree alive. […] “We took a small graft from the tree and used that as one method to help keep the tree’s heritage alive,” said Takahashi. “We also gathered up the pine cones attached to the tree and the few remaining seeds to raise its successors.” […]
