Nonoshima Island had been quite heavily damaged by the tsunami.

Report from the field: OBI teams share their firsthand, eye-witness accounts of the relief efforts in Japan

NONOSHIMA ISLAND, Japan – We are into our second day, and second island, of the Urato Islands eye clinics. We left Shiogama port this morning on the ferry, then transferred to an even smaller ferry at the first of the islands. We eventually arrived at our destination of Nonoshima Island, which had been quite heavily damaged by the tsunami.

The local oyster and seaweed growing industry had been destroyed in the tsunami, along with 90 percent of the island’s houses and buildings. The survivors on the island were isolated from help from the outside world for an entire week but managed to survive on food that they could find in storage refrigerators that had been strewn about the island by the tsunami.

We set up the eye clinic at the evacuation center in the local hilltop middle school. The first in line to receive a prescription for a new set of glasses was Mr. Hiroaki Suzuki (63). Mr. Suzuki had left his glasses in his car when the earthquake struck, but then the tsunami had taken his car away.

Operation Blessing teams set up the eye clinic at the evacuation center in the local hilltop middle school.

He eventually found the destroyed car, and was able to salvage child safety seats that belonged to his grandchildren, but his glasses were nowhere to be found. When he heard about the clinic, he couldn’t believe that such a service would be available to him on this isolated island. He was very grateful for this opportunity to see properly again.

Another person who was patiently waiting in line for his turn to have his eyes examined was Mr. Yoshinori Suzuki (30), an oyster fisherman. He had been out at sea when the tsunami struck and had left his glasses in what he thought was the safety of his own home.

However, when he returned to the island he found his home, where he lived with his parents and grandmother, had been completely swept away. Mr. Suzuki had just come to the island a year earlier from the city to take up oyster cultivation alongside his father, who had inherited the business from his grandfather. Mr. Suzuki plans to stay on the island because he loves working on the ocean. When asked if he was afraid of the sea, he replied that though the ocean can be fearsome, but it is also a source of life.

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