Japan quake aftermath: Tears, survivor’s guilt, and desperate pleas for help in hard-hit Wajima

WAJIMA, Ishikawa – Mr Kazuhiro Saka’s mind went a complete blank as he witnessed images of the devastation wrought by a New Year’s Day earthquake in his home town Wajima, unable to concentrate on quality time with his family in Tokyo. While he works as a consumer consultant and lives with his wife and three children in the Japanese capital, he was born and raised in Wajima’s Kuroshima neighbourhood. Kuroshima is designated a historically important cultural district for its distinctive wooden buildings and black tiled roofs that date, architecturally, to the Edo era (1603 to 1868). Many of these were levelled by the magnitude-7.6 tremor that struck at 4.10pm on Japan’s most important festive holiday. Its strength, at the maximum…