It was around the time when I had just started photography. While traveling around Japan taking pictures, I heard on my portable radio the first report of the Southwest Hokkaido Earthquake. Listening to the panic-stricken voice of the newscaster from the small speaker, I felt the crumbling of the peaceful everyday existence. As I strained to hear the news, a newborn sense of mission gradually surged inside, which, before long, drove me to go to Okushiri Island myself.
The experience of carefully making my way through the soot-smelling rubble of what once had been a village made a deep mark in my memory.
Even though five years later, in 1998, a full-recovery proclamation was issued by Okushiri Island, the impression of the place being an "island of rubble" continued to stay with me. So with this visit, I wanted to wipe away that impression by confirming with my own eyes that recovery is definitely possible even if it takes many years. I also hoped the visit would help me imagine such a future recovery for the areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Natural disasters can take many things from us in an instant. However, people's everyday way of life is never destroyed, though it may go through changes as it is passed on to the next generation.
Feedback on having used 18-270mm (Model B008)
First of all, I was amazed by the lightness and the high zoom power. When I tried using it, there was almost no change in the camera weight balance even when I zoomed to maximum telephoto, and I saw no blurring due to the VC (Vibration Compensation) function. All this allowed me to concentrate on the world within the viewfinder.
