12 Years On: Tsunami-Struck Town Resident Published Local Paper

Kamaishi, Iwate Pref., March 4 (Jiji Press)--A resident of a northeastern Japan town hit by a huge tsunami in 2011 singlehandedly published a newspaper focusing on residents' perspectives for over eight years following the disaster.

Yukiko Kikuchi, 48, was motivated to publish the Otsuchi Shimbun, which continued for eight years and nine months until 2021, by what she felt was a lack of information being reported about the town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture.

Otsuchi was battered by the tsunami, which followed the massive earthquake on March 11, 2011 and reached over 10 meters near the town office. The disaster took the lives of about 10 pct of the town's population.

Kikuchi was in the neighboring city of Kamaishi at the time of the quake, but was going home when she saw the massive tsunami and escaped to higher ground. She returned to Otsuchi the following day.

The publication of the local paper had stopped due to the disaster. Poring over newspapers delivered to evacuation centers, she became dissatisfied with the scarcity of information about Otsuchi.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]