Man stranded in empty Japanese town since tsunami

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: AP

MINAMI SOMA, Japan (AP) -- The farmhouse sits at the end of a mud-caked, one-lane road strewn with toppled trees, the decaying carcasses of dead pigs and large debris deposited by the March 11 tsunami. Stranded alone inside the unheated, dark home is 75-year-old Kunio Shiga. He cannot walk very far and doesn't know what happened to his wife.

His neighbors have all left because the area is 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant - just within the zone where authorities have told everyone to get out because of concerns about leaking radiation.

No rescuer ever came for him.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_EARTHQUAKE_STRANDED_ALONE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[opihimoimoi]

1. I hope he got help n food....

[Mnemosyne]

5. "On Saturday, a police official in charge of missing persons called the AP

to say Shiga had been rescued and taken to a shelter. The official, who did not give his name because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said Shiga was expected to be fine."

Heartbreaking comment by Mr. Shiga:

snip>

Although Shiga moved to a shelter, he had said Friday that he was not sure whether he really wanted to.

"I'm old and I don't know if I could leave here. Who would take care of me?" he said, staring blankly through his sliding glass doors at the mess in his yard.

snip>

A prayer/energy for Mr. Shiga...:grouphug:

[David__77]

2. Couldn't they have taken him to the police or hospital?

I would certainly have done so. Perhaps they offered and he refused, believing he must be there were his wife to return. I hate human suffering!

[Poll_Blind]

3. Worth reading the whole story- the AP photogs gave him 15-20 energy bars and water and...

...they went back and notified the police who said they would get to him "as soon as possible."

Hopefully a Japanese police "as soon as possible" means something different than an American police "as soon as possible".

PB

[Mnemosyne]

4. "I don't know what happened to my wife. She was here, but now she's gone."

This poor man is still in terrible shock and the loss of his wife may bode ill for him at 75yo.

That poor, poor man. :cry:

[malaise]

6. Too sad

:cry:

[Obamanaut]

7. . nt