LIHU‘E — From the images they captured with their digital camera while on vacation, one would have no notion that LaVerne Packard and her daughter lived through the devastating earthquake in Sendai, Japan. There are photos of 10-year-old Kamaile eating
LIHU‘E — From the images they captured with their digital camera while on vacation, one would have no notion that LaVerne Packard and her daughter lived through the devastating earthquake in Sendai, Japan.
There are photos of 10-year-old Kamaile eating a mound of pink shave ice, smiling with her mother and uncle, and even one of the ramp she and her mother struggled to climb when the earthquake hit.
“You could feel your feet moving with it,” Kamaile recalled.
Packard was mostly struck by the groan of metal rubbing against metal, as the ramp began to pull away from the platform where they stood after disembarking from a double-decker ferry.
“It was either go back on to the ferry or try to get on to the ramp,” Packard said. “We didn’t realize how strong it was.”
On their first full day in Japan, the pair, along with Packard’s father, took a ferry tour of Yokosuka Bay. They had come to the area to visit Packard’s brother, George Tsukamoto, who is stationed at a U.S. Naval base in Yokosuka, in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. Located south of Tokyo, it’s more than 200 miles from Sendai.
They also planned to see relatives in Okinawa and to give Kamaile, who is home-schooled in Kapa‘a, a chance to learn first-hand about the country she is studying.
“I was hoping it would be an experience she wouldn’t forget and it surely will not be one,” Packard said.
Following the quake, the Packards watched from a dock as Japanese people swarmed out of a nearby shopping center. Many stopped to watch a pole constructed to sense earthquakes.
“It swayed like a pendulum,” Packard said.
Tsunami sirens hadn’t sounded at that point, but could already see water beginning to recede. The family never witnessed any damage in the area, but felt many aftershocks.
“They were coming every 10 minutes of so,” Packard said. “That was pretty terrifying.”
Back at their hotel, Packard and Kamaile watched earthquake and tsunami footage from Sendai, and eventually learned they were outside of a flood zone. But Kamaile didn’t understand that at first.
“I felt really scared, like the wave was going to go into the land and pull out the hotel and everything,” Kamaile said.
In her journal, she wrote about how she started to cry while watching CNN.
“Then, I went outside and saw my cousin Keoki. I gave him a big hug and he asked me if I was scared, so I nodded ‘yes’ and he said ‘Me, too,’” Kamaile wrote. “Now that made me almost start to cry.”
During the days after the earthquake, Packard scheduled a trip home — more than a week earlier than originally planned — out of concern for Japan’s damaged nuclear reactors. They also feared, like many people in Japan, that the 8.9 earthquake was a precursor to something stronger.
Packard had hoped she and her daughter would spend their time in Japan taking tours and visiting family, the Tokyo Disney Resort and local shrines.
“If it hadn’t been for the nuclear reactors, we probably would have stayed and tried to go south,” Packard said. “We were there only four days and had to live it. I can’t imagine (the Japanese people) trying to get some type of normal lifestyle.”
While they waited through the weekend for their Monday trip home, Packard and Kamaile spent most of their time near the naval base and in nearby malls. On their last day, they saw people swarm a grocery store, to buy everything they could.
On another occasion, they saw elderly people crying by themselves.
“Just the whole experience itself was heartbreaking,” Packard said. “I always had a tear in my eye, just imagining my grandma in the same position.”
With all that they experienced in Japan, Packard said she hopes to visit the country again, so she and her daughter can remain connected to their roots, and see the family they missed this time around.
“We’re definitely sure we’ll return,” Packard said.
Packard said they are nervous about leaving Tsukamoto in Japan, but understand that it is his duty.
People with property damage from the recent tsunami can call 211 and provide their information to The United Way for damage relief. The information goes to Hawai‘i Civil Defense.
• Jessica Musicar, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or by e-mailing jmusicar@kauaipubco.com.
