TOKYO— Yoshie Minamidani’s heart leapt when she saw the stray tabby cat, a mainstay of the famous Asaichi Dori shopping street in Wajima city on the western coast of Japan.
Like the cat, she is a survivor of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that shook Wajima in Ishikawa Prefecture and nearby regions on New Year’s Day, leaving at least 180 people dead, scores missing and buildings in shambles — including Minamidani’s seafood store.
“We are coming back. I’m determined,” she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday. “There is so much we must protect, although we are starting from scratch.”Her chest tightened and she couldn’t speak when she first saw the lopsided storefronts, roof tiles shattered on cracked pavement, and yellow tape blocking the way to an entire section burned down by a fire.
“The Asaichi Dori I’d grown up with had vanished,” she said.
They were precious, she said, requiring many days of hard, loving work.
