MINAMIASO, KUMAMOTO PREF. ¨C A mother returned on Thursday to the site of a bridge collapse in a landslide that happened after a massive earthquake in April 2016 in Kumamoto Prefecture that left one of her sons dead.
¡°There isn¡¯t a day that goes by when I don¡¯t think about what happened back then,¡± said Shinobu Yamato, 58, who visited the former site of?Aso Ohashi Bridge to offer a prayer for her son on Thursday, the 10th anniversary of the second of the two main shocks that struck the region.
The son, Hikaru, a 22-year-old university student, had delivered drinking water to a friend affected by the first shock two days before. On his way home, his car was caught in a landslide near the bridge in the village of Minamiaso.
He was named Hikaru, meaning ¡°to shine,¡± in the hope that ¡°he would reach out to others like a beam of light,¡± she said.
The authorities mobilized a total of roughly 2,500 search and rescue personnel over two weeks after the quakes. But they had to scale back their operations on May 1 due to the risk of secondary disasters.
But Yamato continued searching using a camera and binoculars.
After many anxious days, the search took a positive turn on July 24. With help from friends and supporters, Yamato found her son¡¯s car crushed beneath a large rock at the bottom of a valley.
¡°We¡¯ve finally found him,¡± she said at the time, feeling both relief and sadness. His body was recovered Aug. 11.
Hikaru¡¯s room at home remains largely untouched. Everything there is ¡°a treasure to me,¡± she said. ¡°I still cannot bring myself to touch anything.¡±
¡°I wanted him to live on,¡± Yamato added. ¡°I wanted him by my side for many years to come.¡±
She had long delayed interring Hikaru¡¯s ashes, but she placed them in a grave in the city of Aso at the time of the 49th-day memorial service for her husband, Takuya, who died at age 66 in September 2024.
Returning to the bridge site again this year, she laid flowers and offered incense sticks at a roadside altar overlooking the valley.
¡°Hikaru mattered more than my own life,¡± she said with tears in her eyes. ¡°Ten years on, I cannot see him, hear him or touch him.¡±
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