Mother Mourns Son 10 Years after Kumamoto Quake in Japan

Minamiaso, Kumamoto Pref., April 16 (Jiji Press)–A mother returned on Thursday to the site of a bridge collapse in a landslide that happened after an April 2016 massive earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, leaving 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 Aso Ohashi Bridge site to offer a prayer for the son, again choosing the anniversary of the second of the two main shocks that struck the region April 16, 2016. The son, Hikaru, a 22-year-old university student then, 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. Prefectural and other authorities mobilized a total of roughly 2,500 search and rescue personnel over two weeks. But they had to scale back the operations May 1 due to the risk of secondary disasters. But she continued searching until dusk, using a camera and binoculars. After many anxious days, the search took a significant turn July 24. With the help from friends and supporters, she found his car crushed beneath a large rock at the bottom of a valley. “We’ve finally found him,” she said then. She felt relief while tears welled up. 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,” she 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 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 in tears. “Ten years on, I cannot see him, hear him or touch him.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]