The Japanese town of Rikuzentakata was hit hard by March’s tsunami and earthquake. Nearly 2000 of the city’s 23,000 residents were lost in the damage, as the Wall Street Journal points out, making recovery a difficult task for the remaining citizens.
The school fields became temporary housing for those displaced by the disasters
Local baseball, though, has brought together members of families who lost loves ones in the disaster.
This WSJ article chronicles the importance of the sport to the city:
The sport has long been important in Rikuzentakata. One of the city’s proudest moments was when Takata High went all the way to the national championship tournament outside Osaka in the summer of 1988—Ms. Yoshida’s senior year. Hundreds of fans turn up for the team’s big games.
The article focuses on the children of Toshiyuki Yoshida, who was lost in the devastation. His sons, Rinnosuke and Shinnosuke,16, are struggling to carry on the love of the game that their father instilled in him. The long article chronicles their efforts to honor their father’s name and reclaim some sense of normalcy for the city.
Read the whole article to get an idea of what baseball means to Rikuzentakata and how the city is trying to cope with the effects of March’s catastrophe.
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