Japan city votes to destroy tsunami ship

Aug. 13: A 60-metre long fishing vessel that was beached during the 2011 tsunami has provoked a long debate within the city that surrounds it.

For many, the vessel has become a local landmark, a monument to the power of nature and a memorial to the 19,000 people that lost their lives in the disaster. But for others it is a painful and imposing reminder of the day a magnitude-9.0 earthquake sent a wall of water into coastal Japan.

Following a vote by the residents of Kesennuma, the ship is to be dismantled later this month. The 330-tonne Kyotokumaru was swept 750 metres inland when the tsunami reached the shoreline in northeastern Japan. It came to rest in an area that was almost completely flattened by the wave.

In the months afterwards, debris from the tsunami was quickly cleared away but the boat has remained towering above the local neighbourhood and attracting visitors to the site.

The ship became an attraction in a region that worries about losing permanent residents, especially young people. Much of the tsunami-hit coastline remains in ruin.

Locals have remained divided over what to do about their new landmark for over two years but now 68 per cent of the residents who took part in a city-wide poll have voted to have it removed.

Yoshimi Abe, a 72 year-old housewife and Kesennuma resident, told the AP news agency: ?It's just a constant reminder of the terrible disaster?when I walk by it every morning, my heart aches.? Abe?s house was one of thousands of properties that was destroyed by the tsunami.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130814/jsp/foreign/story_17230193.jsp

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