March Was Made of Yarn

I read this to remember the 10th anniversary of 東日本大震災, the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, tomorrow (March 11).

Published a year after the event, it's a really interesting collection of short stories from Japanese writers, addressing the disaster in different ways.

Yoko Tawada's “The Island of Eternal Life” is a kind of sketch of what was to become her novel “The Last Children of Tokyo”, while the bleakest, angriest and most harrowing piece is a short manga by Brother & Sister Nishioka (“The Crows and The Girl”).

But I think my favourite was Shinji Ishii's “Lulu”, a magical, almost child-like story of translucent women and an imaginary dog (Lulu of the title) that helps orphaned children in an emergency evacuation centre come to terms with their trauma and grief. It's simple in some ways, but so emotionally charged and beautifully written it will stay with you for a long time.