Yuzuru Hanyu - 5 anos do grande terremoto.

2016 0307 ‘’被災地訪問‘’続けるワケ ２１歳の‘’覚悟... por yuzupino

This video is a good summary of Yuzuru’s feelings towards the disaster-affected areas and related activities since Sochi Olympics.   Videos and translations of each event have been posted before;  this is an overall view, plus translation of a few new parts.

Jan 2016, at the school that served as the evacuation centre:
“My parent(s) and sister, holding plastic containers, lined up for water here, they lined up for a long time…. everyone was lining up.”

“The stars were beautiful, the day of the earthquake.  The starry skies of March 11…. because it was pitch dark, the stars were really beautiful…. very beautiful.  People in the olden days must have looked at stars like this.”

Photos of Sendai’s starry sky from the night after the quake;  there was no power/electricity, the lights of the town had all gone out.

“A lot of memories are coming back.”

(parts translated recently in nonchan1023’s video “Memories of That Day”)

“In my life, among all my memories, among all my experiences, this was the most painful.” 

10 months after the earthquake, Jan 2012 (17 years old):
“(At the evacuation centre) I lay here, just looking at the ceiling, wondering what’s going to happen to Japan;  thinking, can everyone live in the same way again?   I was fearful.”

“I did think about skating.  I wanted to skate but I definitely couldn’t say it.  I cannot be (selfishly) doing something that I like.”
But 2 weeks after the quake, he started to skate again (due to an invitation to do a charity ice show).
“I felt very sorry to all the people who were still in the disaster area.  Because of my skating, I alone escaped… Is that really alright?”

3 years after the quake, he won the Olympic gold at Sochi.   At the press conference:
“My hard work was not of any help to the reconstruction.  I feel very helpless.  I feel like I didn’t do anything.”

4 months after Sochi Olympics, June 2014:
He visited Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture and interacted with the people there.
“I realised once again that my skating and my results gave strength to these people.  So I want to be able to come back here with good results again.”

He also learned of the horrors of the tsunami.
Old man: Everything, my home, my wife, my dog, my shed…. everything was washed away.  Nothing was left.
[Old man walks off.] 
Yuzu:  "It hurts / it’s painful (x4)…. He can smile/laugh like that now; how much suffering he must have gone through to reach this point….  It’s so hard, painful (x4).“

It was the first time that he faced directly the reality of the tsunami’s devastation.
Yuzu: "There is so much that I don’t know.  I feel that I should know these things properly.”

For the reconstruction of his hometown Tohoku, Hanyu felt that there was something he could do.  He visited disaster areas and conveyed the existing situation to others.
[scenes from June 2015 visit to Fukushima]

(t/n. 7 Jan 2016, he also went to Otsuchi in Iwate, not shown in this video.)

This year January (2016), he went to the area near Sendai airport in Miyagi prefecture.  There is a monument erected there that is 8 metres high, same height as the tsunami.
“A height of 8 metres and it came from that direction, right? …. at a speed of some tens of metres per second…”
[he rings the bell and says a prayer.]

(parts translated in nonchan1023’s video)

Now, 5 years from the disaster, 21 years old, his thoughts:
“Directly visiting the affected areas, listening to the voices of the people there, being told words like ‘you gave me strength’,  'I can look ahead’….. that my skating makes people feel something, gives them energy (genki), there is nothing happier than this for me.

I will treasure my practice every day and I will cherish my daily life.  I will do things one by one to help the affected areas and the people there.  I have to work hard and become better.

Because we are the people who are alive, we have to live our lives fully.  For those who have passed away and for those still suffering now, I feel strongly that we must live in a way that we can be proud of.“

–translated by yuzusorbet.tumblr some parts are summarised; video thanks to yuzupino

Mensagem de Yuzuru no aniversário de 5 anos do terremoto/tsunami que afetou o Japão.


160311 震災から5年 彼からのメッセージ por YzRIKO

Yuzuru leiloando seus patins em prol das vitimas do grande terremoto
Source: sukisukiyuzu.tumblr,  Yahoo Japan