A well-done book on a heartbreaking topic. Over 18,000 lives lost is incomprehensible, so the author focuses on the children lost from one school, the families left behind, the legal repercussions and, as the title says, the ghosts. ( )

(44) Was looking for a compelling non-fiction account of something apolitical and not true crime. This has some good reviews but it was just OK for me. This is the story of the 2011 earthquake and Tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. About 20,000 people died from being crushed or drowned by the water yet the earthquake itself caused minimal damage. Japan is one of the most susceptible places on the planet to earthquakes and Tsunamis yet has a disciplined, prepared, relatively well-off populace that drill and build to survive such natural disasters. Then why did almost all the children from one coastal elementary school die despite minimal earthquake damage and about 45 minutes to evacuate to higher ground? This is the story of the day, and the sad, sad aftermath as well as an interesting description of the passivity and uber-politeness of the Japanese people writ large.

So this should be very compelling reading - and at times it was incredibly poignant. The parents are so angry and in such a state of disbelief that they sue and fight the school to uncover a conspiracy that never was. I was troubled by this as well as the many sections about possession and ghosts. Umm... I should have expected it based on the title -- but the author doesn't just mean it figuratively but literally. And while I sense he is a pretty down to earth guy who doesn't buy it -- he had to be respectful of the families who confided in him and allowed him their stories to write the book. So communing with the dead and ghosts and exorcisms it is then. It just didn't do it for me. He tried to connect it to the fervent belief in religion. In Japan, the closest thing to religious fervor is worship of ancestors, so in a way it makes sense. But it just didn't resonate for me and disconnected me emotionally from the people he was writing about.

Some parts were good, but overall too disjointed and repetitive. Too much material that did not connect with me. The horror of the day at the school and the immediate aftermath was excellent, the rest not so good - for an overall mediocre rating. ( )

Living in the US and watching so many disasters close to home unfold, it was equally heartbreaking and familiar to hear how another culture deals with the aftermath of a tragedy. This earthquake and tsunami Japan experienced was monumentally disastrous, but the book focuses in on a school where children died due to the lack of planning and negligence of the officials. That narrative reminded me a lot of school shootings here, and how hard it is to get justice. This really reminds me that humanity is the same all around the globe, and our empathy should always reflect that. ( )

It took me a long time to finish reading this book, and I was a little disappointed in myself because of that, but it was, at times, a heavy read; especially if you're able to connect the unnecessary death of the children at the school to the regular mass shootings we have here in the United States, which I did regularly while reading this book.

Like mass shootings in the US, tsunamis are just a way of life in Japan, especially with the regular earthquakes they have and the geographic location of their country. It's terrifying.

It was also a fantastic book. I feel like I learned a lot about Japan and, to some degree, the world. It was truly a great book. I'm thrilled to own it.

Adrianne ( )

An astoundingly detailed account of the 2011 tsunami in Japan that concentrates on the destruction of a coastal village elementary school and the 74 children who were lost. I won't be able to do this review justice because it's hard to explain how deft the author was at slowly revealing the layers of this tragedy in brilliant prose. After the wave takes these children, the agony of the parents' lives going forward are breathtaking: the mother who learned to operate an excavator so she could continue looking for her child after the officials have given up; the young boys who tried to convince their teacher that they needed to run up the hill to get away from the coming disaster; the terrible disaster planning on the part of the school and the apparent negligent behavior of the principal during and after the wave; and the second guessing on the part of parents who failed to go pick up their children before the tsunami hit. Incredible reportage by a prose master who also made the Japanese culture understandable. Just an absolutely brilliant book that is also astoundingly sad. ( )

This book is really amazing. It’s a treatise on Japanese culture, death, parenthood ,and how you rebuild yourself after a tragedy. The story surrounds a particular incident during the Tsunami in 2011. ( )

‘’By the time the party came to an end, it was already becoming cloudy, but there was no wind. Not a single leaf was moving on the trees. I couldn’t sense any life at all. It was as if a film had stopped, as if time had stopped. It was an uncomfortable atmosphere, not the atmosphere of an ordinary day.’’
Sayomi Shito

Friday, 11 March 2011. A 9.1 earthquake strikes Japan, 70km east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku. Its duration? 6 minutes. It was the most powerful earthquake ever in the country, triggering severe tsunami waves. The result? 15, 899 deaths, 6, 157 injured, 2, 529 people missing. It caused nuclear accidents in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and reminded us that we are the tiniest specks of dust when Nature decides to confront us. This exceptional book by Richard Lloyd Parry describes the aftermath of the nightmare, centred around the tragic loss of 74 children and 10 teachers of the Okawa Elementary School.

‘’Do you know the number of missing children in each class, Headmaster? Without looking at that piece of paper. You don’t, do you? You have to look at your piece of paper. Our kids - are they just a piece of paper? You don’t remember any of their faces, do you?’’

From the very start of his chronicle, Lloyd Parry makes the readers feel as if they’re actually experiencing every step of the terrifying disaster. The descriptions of how he experienced the earthquake in Tokyo are extremely vivid and frightening. We have constant earthquakes here in Greece, and as a resident of Athens, I have experienced quite a few strong ones, but I can never get used to the phenomenon. I simply can’t. To go through an incident of this magnitude and duration is unimaginable. However, the actual terror and despair come later, in the aftermath of the disaster and the victims of the tsunami.

‘’-Itte kimasu.’’
‘’-Itte rasshai.’’

How can one describe the agony of the parents who didn’t know their children’s whereabouts? Their unimaginable pain? Their despair of not having bodies to bury and find some form of closure? It is often unbearable to read. From the strange quietness experienced by the mothers, preceding the nightmare, to the frantic search in the mud and debris, the reader is required to have a strong stomach. Where children are concerned, every sense of detachment simply vanishes. Yet, the way the writer narrates the experiences is sensitive, careful and deeply respectful. There is no shock-mongering, no vulgarity. Everything is handled with the utmost care and sincerity, but still, it is impossible not to yield in the face of the horror. A horror caused by nature and humans alike in a nightmarish fellowship, because of the negligence, the criminal incompetence that cost the lives of children and the ordeal of waiting for your son and daughter to be washed ashore in whatever condition...Japan was the last country I’d expect this to happen, but it did, and this shows us that no one is immune to wrong decisions and stupidity.

‘’[Tohoku] is associated with an impenetrable regional dialect, a quality of eeriness and an archaic spirituality that are exotic even to the modern Japanese. In the north, there are secret Buddhist cults, and old temples where the corpses of former priests are displayed as leering mummies. There is a sisterhood of blind shamanesses who gather once a year at a volcano called Mount Fear, the traditional entrance to the underworld.’’

Stories of children’s bodies shedding tears of blood. Priests who exorcised the spirits of the ones who met a tragic death and chose to reside in the bodies of the living, in search of a connection with our world and, possible, with a sense of justice. Hauntings were reported in the towns, at home, on the beaches. Young and old spirits, silhouettes covered in mud. Frightening dreams, unsettling feelings, possessions, dark figures, disembodied eyes. Lloyd Parry narrates the otherwordly experiences, the spiritualistic history of Tohoku, the destroyed graveyards, temples and household altars, the presence of the gaki, the hungry ghosts of the vast Japanese tradition. These parts of the book make it so unique, so powerful and one of those works that haunt you and stay with you forever.

Along with the chronicle of the disaster, the writer inserts facts about his gradual familiarization with Japanese culture and daily life, the patriarchy that is present even in the aftermath of terror, the political games of power. It is a dark journey for the reader, you will walk down the path with a heavy heart but it is a route we need to follow to understand how insignificant we are against Mother Nature, to change our ways, to start thinking clearly. Or just start THINKING, because it seems we are incapable of even that…

‘’Once the water has retreated, how much did you have left? [...] When you’ve got the truth in your hand, what are you going to do with it?’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

'It was quite late on, the summer after the tsunami, when I heard about a small community on the coast that had suffered an exceptional tragedy. Its name was Okawa; it lay in a forgotten fold of japan, below hills and among rice fields, close to the mouth of a great river.'

Amongst the many personal stories emerging from the national tragedy of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Richard Lloyd Parry concentrates on the loss of 74 children at Okawa Primary School. In so doing, in interviews and numerous visits, he gives a human dimension to the national crisis, and carefully explores the subtleties of Japanese society and cultural codes of authority and responsibility. It is a profoundly moving and quietly angry piece of journalistic writing. Anyone even remotely interested in Japan should read this. And, frankly, everyone else should too. An important and impressive work. ( )

A compelling, fascinating, revealing and ultimately, sad read. ( )

Remarkable reportage from a writer of deep empathy and compassion. It's clear that Parry is very familiar with Japan. There just arent that many non native Japanese speakers who could have conducted these interviews, which must have required such sensitivity and such an appreciation for how language works in Japanese conversation. Parry is also an incredible writer. In addition to chronicling the tsunami and its aftermath he also manages to give non Japanese readers a strong understanding of Japanese culture, and of the way the culture shaped how survivors grieved and coped. ( )

This story tells the story of the tsunami by focusing on one elementary school, the decisions its leaders made and the tragedies caused. A sad, sad tale. ( )

This book describes the 2011 tsunami that struck northern Japan, killing more than 20,000 people and wreaking incalculable psychic damage. The author does not spare his readers. The book is based on the stories of survivors, and of many who did not survive, bringing the horror down to the level of the individual. As the book progresses, the author looks at how the survivors tried to cope, focussing on a school where dozens of children lost their lives. At first, the community held together, but as the months and years wore on, strains and fissures emerge. Some of the responses to the disaster were uniquely Japanese, but others -- the more lasting ones -- reflect the common human dilemma in confronting loss. "Why", we ask, and an answer does not always come. This is a very wise and beautifully written book. I expect to read it again. ( )

A great read. Parry is a gaijin reporter, but seems reasonable.He does not laugh at the
strange things that happen in japan, but he almost loses his mind at the government of
Abe and the resignation of the people. He follows the story of the Fukishima quake and its tsunami, which killed 74 children and 10 teachers at an elementary school in the
Northeast of Japan, ( )

I visited Japan in 1990, 1994, and 1998 for business. Each time I went, I had a greater appreciation and interest in the people and the culture. I suspect this went a long way into my interests in the catastrophe that killed an estimated 20,000 Japanese people on March 11, 2011, when the fourth largest earthquake ever recorded exploded off the coast of northeast Japan in the Tohoku region. Millions felt the quake, but the initial damage and casualties were remarkably light in this coastal area. The tsunami arrived about 45-50 minutes later.

I've seen the videos. Imagine the ocean inexplicably swelling and growing, reaching heights of over 120 feet in some remote coastal villages. Imagine fleeing to the nearby hills, watching your entire town and potentially thousands of people being swallowed up and swept away by an unforgiving, black, incompressible wave of liquid death. This book focuses in on the village of Kamaya, located near the mouth of the Kitakami River where it empties into the Pacific northeast of Ishinomaki.

A group of children and teachers at Okawa Elementary School in Kamaya felt the earthquake that day. Per protocol, the kids and teachers exited the building and dutifully lined up neatly in the school courtyard. They heard the tsunami warnings. What followed was confusion and a lack of urgency and correct decision making that proved lethal. The doomed group left the courtyard for what they thought was "higher ground" somewhat closer to the river. After the tsunami arrived, only 4 kids and 1 adult survived by actually running to a nearby hill.

Richard Lloyd Parry has detailed the actions and decisions of several families involved in this tragedy, from before to during and after the quake and the tsunami. He vividly and accurately describes the horror they experienced and the gut-wrenching aftermath of searching for their lost children, as well as their journey to find the truth of what actually happened that day at Okawa Elementary School. Parry also layers the book, to me at least, with an underlying sense of dread that this is but one of thousands of stories that occurred on that day when the seas swallowed the northeast coast of Japan, but for some reason this story seems to stand out among the tragedies.

In closing, this book is not for everyone...it is dark. But if you really want to get a sense of what some of the people of Japan went through during and after this geological event, I highly recommend this. My only criticism is Parry closed the book with spiritual comments of people being possessed by the "ghosts" of this event. This seemed a bit out of place for this book. ( )

High up on my list of one of the best I've read thus far this year, this captivating, well-written book pulled me in from the first page.

March 11, 2011 was a day of incredible disaster for Japan. In particular, the hardest hit were the Northern reaches which are comprised of small hamlets of hard-working people who live off the land. Near the epicenter, and the hardest hit by after shocks and 30-foot tsunami waves and walls of crushing danger, everything seemed to happen so very quickly.

In Tokyo, 125 miles away from the epicenter, initially, a strong tremor was felt. Earth quakes are a common occurrence, and thus at first some thought it was no big deal. But others knew by the strength of the quake that this was something to be reckoned with. Those in underground transportation stations were very aware, and afraid that the ceiling had the potential of falling on them.

As skyscrapers swayed and buildings cracked, the earthquake measured a solid 9.0 of the Richter scale. Soon, followed by this roughly five minute solid tremor, a tsunami was predicted. Japan is located on four highly active tectonic plates. Yet, because they feared dependence on other countries for oil, they built nuclear power plants. Warned that this was not a wise undertaking given the daily shocks from the underground, still, they built 54 plants.

Four of the nuclear power plants nearest the center of the quake closed, The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was the most impacted and the core failed.

After shocks measured a consistent 7 on the Richter scale, and soon after the major first five-minute tremor, a tsunami warning went out .

This book focuses on a small school in the Northern area. The was Okawa Elementary School branched out to many children living in small hamlets or villages. When the tremor was first felt, the teachers made the children duck and cover. Then, herding the children to the playground, they unwisely waited. A few parents drove through the winding roads to get their children. They witnessed buses running, but no children were boarding.

Approximately one hour after the first quake, the tsunami rapidly enveloped roads, huge pine trees and walls of 30 feet of black water rapidly engulfed everything and everyone in its path. For unknown reasons, the teachers did not move the children to higher ground. There was a large hill within distance, and if told, the children could have run up that hill. One teacher did. He lived. Later, he would be the scorn and hate of all parents who lost their beloved child or children.

There were 78 children, of which 74 died. There were eleven teachers, of which ten died. Sadly, dramatically, this was the lone school in all of Japan to suffer such overwhelming death. Later, as the author notes, angry parents demanded a reckoning. When they learned that in fact some of the children asked the teachers if they could run up higher, the anger of parents was white hot!

The author writes vividly about the emotional pain of parents who spent every waking moment digging and looking for their children. Piles and piles of bodies, and yet some of the parents still could not find their child.

Highly Recommended.

Five Stars! ( )

Shortly after Japan's 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown accident, I read a couple of books about the incident. Both of these books focused quite a bit on the nuclear accident aspect of the disaster. I haven't heard much about the status of the accident in quite a while, and was interested in finding out more. This book, however, barely mentions the nuclear accident, and then only in passing. Instead, its focus is very narrow--primarily on the tsunami, and primarily on the tragic effects of the tsunami on one small school in one small village.

The school in question was Okawa Elementary School which served several small villages surrounding it. Although the tsunami hit an hour or more after the initial quake, and despite that fact that tsunami warnings were issued, including trucks blaring evacuation warnings driving around and past the school, for various reasons the teachers did not move the children to higher ground, and 74 of the 78 children and 10 of 11 teachers perished in the tsunami. (In all the rest of Japan only 1 other child perished while in the care of teachers at a school).

The book examines the various ways we grieve or hide our grief. Schisms opened between parents who lost a child and those who did not. Parents whose child's body was recovered immediately had different issues than parents whose children weren't found for months (or in some cases ever). Some parents were angry and vociferous, and demanded answers from school officials at the many public meetings to try to determine a cause for this tragedy. Some parents felt that the reason didn't matter; some parents blamed themselves for not picking up their child immediately after the quake. The book provides qreat insight into Japanese culture and national personality.

What I didn't like about the book is that a large chunk of it deals with the supernatural. There are several stories about people who found themselves "possessed" by the ghosts of those who perished in the tsunami, and about the Buddhist priest who performed exorcism rites on them. I mostly skimmed these sections, although they were probably important.

If you are interested in the subject and are aware of the limitations of its focus, I would recommend this book.

3 stars ( )

After reading Richard Lloyd Parry's essay entitled Ghosts of the Tsunami in the London Review of Books, I instantly became obsessed with getting and reading his book, Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone. Parry was living in Tokyo at the time of the earthquake and spent six years as a foreign correspondent visiting and reporting from the tsunami disaster zone.

Shocking facts about the Japanese earthquake on 11 March 2011*
- It was the biggest earthquake ever to have struck Japan, and the fourth most powerful in the history of seismology.
- It knocked the earth 10 inches off it's axis.
- It moved Japan four feet closer to America.

Shocking facts about the tsunami that followed*
- The tsunami killed 18,500 people.
- At its peak, the water of the tsunami was 120 feet high.
- The earthquake and tsunami caused more than $210 billion of damage, making it the most costly natural disaster ever.

Review
I didn't know that the Japanese honour their dead ancestors in the form of household altars and memorial tablets. When these were destroyed in the tsunami, the subsequent grief and bereavement was about so much more than the immediate loss of life. The tsunami destroyed memorial books and tablets containing the names of generations of ancestors and even ripped open cemetery vaults and scattered the bones of the dead.

Without their memorial tablets, and important family items, survivors weren't able to honour their ancestors. Entire families lost in the tsunami left nobody behind to honour them and their ancestors. The disaster left a population in deep grief and a feeling that the souls of thousands of ancestors had been suddenly 'cut adrift'.

Parry interviewed hundreds of survivors and many of their experiences are in this book. He tells how survivors "spoke of the terror of the wave, the pain of bereavement and their fears for the future. They also talked about encounters with the supernatural. They described sightings of ghostly strangers, friends and neighbours, and dead loved ones. They reported hauntings at home, at work, in offices and public places, on the beaches and in the ruined towns."

I was hoping to read more about these encounters and the way in which the nation and individual communities dealt with the sudden loss of 18,500 souls. Stories like this one: "A fire station that received calls to places where all the houses had been destroyed by the tsunami. The crews went out to the ruins anyway, prayed for the spirits of those who had died - and the ghostly calls ceased."

However it soon became clear that Parry's overwhelming focus was going to be the story of the children at Okawa primary school. Tragically, the teachers did not evacuate the children to higher ground, despite having more than enough time to do so before the tsunami struck. Parry documents the parent's grief, the search for their children's remains (often lasting years), the process of pursuing the school and government for answers, right through to class legal action; quite unusual for Japan.

Reading Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone was incredibly informative, factual and shocking but at the same time heart wrenchingly tragic.

Unfortunately for the Japanese, the threat of earthquake and tsunami is constant. Parry tells us that in 2012: "a new study concluded that an earthquake and tsunami originating in the Nankai Trough could take 323,000 lives along the south-central Pacific Coast." He also says that "it is generally assumed Tokyo will be shaken by an earthquake powerful enough to destroy large areas of the city......that will kill many tens of thousands of people."

I hope this doesn't happen during my lifetime, although the Japanese seem as prepared as they can be for the inevitable. Until then, this generation will continue to wade through their grief and loss the best way they know how.

* Copy courtesy of NetGalley * ( )

Ghosts of the Tsunami is a tragic story beautifully told. It centers mainly on the Ishinomaki Okawa Elementary School (大川小学校), which lost 70 of 108 students and nine of 13 teachers and staff. It's a multi-genre work with elements of reporting about the tsunami, stories of personal loss and grief, revelations about Japanese culture and even some magical realism as suggested in the title. It's well done and a little different, it would be appealing to anyone who normally reads fiction but is also reliable factually. It's one of the first titles of a new imprint called MCD by Farrar, Straus & Giroux for experimental works (for FSG that is). ( )