Ghosts Reportedly Stalking Japan's 'Tsunami City'

REPORTS OF GHOSTS HAVE BECOME COMMONPLACE IN JAPAN’S “TSUNAMI CITY”

From Dateline Zero

“I heard people working to repair the store became sick because of ghosts,” Satoshi Abe, 64, says, gesturing to a half-repaired supermarket. “People died everywhere, here and there. The city is full of such stories.”

A year after the devastation brought by the earthquake and tsunami, Japan is commemorating the dead and survivors alike. Among the stories circulating, tales of spirits, like the one shared by Abe, have become commonplace.

Ghost stories have become particularly common in Ishinomaki — Japan’s “tsunami city.” Around a fifth of the 19,000 who died across the northeast having lost their lives in this small city alone.

An article by Miwa Suzuki of AFP gives examples of people claiming to see ghosts attempting to flee the city over and over again, like a movie replaying; a cab driver afraid to bring passengers through certain parts of the city; and an unfinished building project blamed on interference of ghosts.

Shinto priests have been called upon to console the souls of the dead and ease their passage into the next world before they purify the places their bodies were found.

At the Buddhist festival of Obon in mid summer, offerings were made at altars as those left behind readied to welcome back the spirits of lost loved ones, who they believed would return to this world to visit for a few days.

From the AFP article:

While few in the city will talk openly of actually having seen a ghost, many are prepared to accept spirits could stalk the deserted streets.

Yuko Sugimoto says she is not particularly superstitious and has not seen any ghosts. But still she has no doubt they could be there among the shadows. “Many people who were leading normal lives died suddenly,” she said. “I’m sure they must find that difficult to accept.”

Cultural anthropologist Takeo Funabiki, of the University of Tokyo, told Suzuki that it was only “natural” that stories of the supernatural abound in the wake of such an event.

“A sudden or abnormal death, anything other than someone dying in bed of old age, is particularly difficult for people to comprehend. When there are things that many people find difficult to accept, they can find expression in the form of rumours or rituals for the dead, amongst other things.”

“The point is that it takes the shape of something that you can share with other people in your society,” he added.

Original post at Dateline Zero