A Mother’s Love
by Kumi Pinneo
– English translation from a Japan Sankei News article, March 21, 2011
[ … She doesn’t raise her voice to call his name anymore.
It has been nine days after the terrible disaster for a mother looking for her 9-year-old son, in a twisted place where his elementary school once stood.
“I know he is not alive, but he must be very cold in there – I just wanna hold him in my arms and take him out of the dark and cold place,” she said.
Her son was at school when the huge earthquake shook Japan. Few if any, especially that boy’s mother, expected a giant tsunami would eat the whole town only a few minutes later.
In those moments, all the students ran to high ground to escape. But the power of nature was bigger than any could imagine. The monster tsunami swallowed 108 students in one relentless bite.
Only 24 students survived. Many bodies are still under knots of rubble, splintered schools, homes, cars and trees. Many parents still today come to this place to look for their children’s bodies … ]
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Pref., Japan - Small bags near the Ooakawa School, Mar. 18, 2011, where numerous children went missing after a tsunami engulfed the building. (Japan Sankei News)
As a mother of two boys, it just hurts my heart so much to read that.
How could I face the fact if I lost them? How could I face that fact if I couldn’t find their bodies in the wreckage, knowing they are in that dark and cold place? How could I control myself?
The mother above was not crying or screaming or going crazy.
She just looked and looked and looked for her beloved son.
As a mother, I strive to protect my sons from any danger and I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. But what if their safety is out of my control? What if we cannot protect our children from injury or death?
What would I do?
What would I feel?
I have no idea. I can’t even imagine.
I feel for that mother in Japan so much. I really feel her – as if I was her. But I think that what I am feeling for her is not even one percent of what she is feeling.
Such as it is with earthquakes and tsunami, the power of nature is strong and often human beings have no power over it and it just happens. The Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster was no one’s fault. It just happened. It happened just as spring arrives in one’s town.
Can that mother blame someone or something? No, she can not.
What is she feeling right now? I pray that we will never know.
Let’s hug and kiss our children when they leave the house each day for school.
When they leave, let’s not forget to let them know – to make them feel – that they are so loved.
Sometimes they give us a hard time whining, fussing, ignoring us, yelling and distracting.
However we do not want to regret. We do not want to look back, at the moments that we didn’t give them hugs and kisses, and wish we had.
~ With love and respect to all the mothers in Japan who lost their children, but not their hope.
Tags: children, damage, earthquake, help, ISHINOMAKI, japan, Miyagi Prefecture, mother, Ooakawa School, recovery, tsunami
On Fatherhood 
March 23, 2011 at 8:02 am |
Kumi, this is incredibly beautiful. I have no other words that could possibly do justice to the emotion that I am feeling right now for you, Japan, and this horrible tragedy. I love you!
March 23, 2011 at 11:40 pm |
Losing a child. It is mine and every other mothers worst fear and nightmare. I cannot imagine the pain, grief, helplessness this mother and so many other mothers are feeling right this minute in Japan. I can say a prayer, raise money for recovery, but my heart cannot imagine the depth of pain these women are feeling. The thing I can control is hugging my children a little longer, watching them sleep in their beds, sharing a look, a memory, and be grateful for this moment, because like every moment since their births, it is a blessing.