So how is a new future created when the old disappears? Let me share a story I heard last month in Tomioka Town in Fukushima, Japan.
Before the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosions, Tomioka was a town of 16,000 located about 10 miles from the nuclear reactor that exploded. One of the pictures here is of the building across from the train station, maybe a half mile from the ocean where a 50-foot high tsunami roared in on March 11, 2011. It was a traditional storehouse built with very thick walls and it managed to survive. A new future isn’t created because of a government plan. It is created because people step up and say, “This is what I am going to do.”
Endo-san was a Tomioka boy who went to college in Tokyo. When he was 20, drinking with friends one night, he decided that when he turned 35, it would be time to return to his hometown permanently. When he graduated from college, he found a job with a business providing support in developing countries and he traveled the world. Most places where he went, wine was a popular beverage and grapes were grown for that purpose. He was very surprised to discover that, although wine was forbidden in Pakistan and not sold there, still wine grapes were grown for export.
When he turned 35, true to his promise to himself, he moved back to Tomioka. Years later, on March 11, 2011, he was not at home but nearby, when the news of the big earthquake reached him. He felt a big tsunami might be coming, so he rushed home to get his wife and small son from their newly built home. They rushed up into the hills and watched as the tsunami destroyed their home and everything around it.
Like everyone else, when the nuclear reactors exploded the next day, they evacuated. But he had this dream of planting grapes and making a winery…
Endo-san pointing to the first area where he and volunteers planted grapes, removing trees from a hilltop forest his family has stewarded for generations.
He was able to return to Tomioka in 2016. On a hill high over the ocean, his family had stewarded a forest for more than 100 years. He asked for government support to start a winery, and they said no. He shared his dream with friends and 10 stepped forward to say, “We’ll support you.” He cut down enough trees to start planting grapes. Other people said, “We will come and plant grapes with you.” It was like raising a child, he said. He would look at each grapevine planted with care and concern: “Will it be okay? Will it produce grapes that can make wine?”
Each year, people came to help him plant more grape vines. “It will take 30 years before this business can be profitable, I believe. I build this not for me, but for my children and my children’s children. I build it for the future in 100 years.” He also began to build his new home, next to the grapes, from materials recycled from temporary housing for evacuees in 2011 that was being torn down.
There are now 2500 grape vines in this location in the hills. When he first had the idea of creating a winery, before the disasters, he looked longingly at the rice and vegetable fields in front of the train station and thought, “What a perfect location for grapes; it would be the first thing people saw when they came to Tomioka.” He negotiated with the 7 families that owned that now vacant land and was able to get it because it could no longer be used for housing.
(left) The hilltop home Endo-san built for his family next to the forest and the grapes
(right) A view of the 3rd planting of grapes with an ocean view
Now 10,000 grape vines are there surrounding the station, with more to come with cloud funding support. He’s also building a winery and restaurant which overlook the train station. “No place else is there a winery so close to the sea, and between the sea and a railroad station to bring people in conveniently. The salt in the air makes the skins thicker and the taste so good.”
There are now 2400 people living in Tomioka. One thousand are people who have returned from the original 16,000 population, and 1400 are new comers. “When I was 20 I had a plan to come back here and do something. Now, a miracle has occurred.” He says this all with a lot of humility and with a big smile on his face. “Each ten steps, I make new connections who want to help.”
I could feel his joy. He had an inspiration. He had a place he loved. He had friends, old and new, who he could turn to. And he makes a new path by walking it. And he speaks of doing it with humility and kindness
No one gave him permission. The government gave him no support. But step by step this new dream is taking shape.
So honored to have been here, on our 2024 Fukushima Learning Journey. With deep gratitude to Norio Honda and Noriko Senda for making this year’s journey possible.