A poem by a Sumatra-born woman expressing the sadness of seeing her hometown engulfed by tsunami in 2004 recently captured the hearts of evacuees in a devastated town in Miyagi Prefecture.

" 'Gomen ne' (I'm sorry) . . . I could not stop the sea when she sent her waves that morning," Syafwina, a volunteer worker from Kyoto, said as she read out the poem in Japanese at a morale-boosting program for people sheltering in Minamisanriku.

The waters "washed away all of our dreams, destroyed our home and took us and our children away to a different world," she continued as the evacuees silently nodded or shed tears.