When a natural disaster or significant trauma occurs, the effect is often to freeze a moment in time and magnify it. For 66-year old Nanao resident Yoshiko Oyachi, when the Noto Peninsula earthquake struck on New Year’s Day, she was sitting in her car beside her husband.
“I held hands with my husband until the shaking stopped,” she said. “It was shaking so much, I didn’t have a choice but to stay still.”
But Oyachi couldn’t stay still for long. Living near the sea, she knew where to go when her phone began blasting earthquake warnings and speakers broadcast warnings of a tsunami.