On the eve of a terrible day in history, a nine-year old girl plays happily with her cousin in the living room of a Bay of Plenty home.
Mereana Tawhai is thinking about TikTok, not the anniversary of Japan’s devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe. Her little brother Atarea is clutching at her playfully.
Her parents’ minds are back on that day, March 11, 2011 and their home in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture.
“I try not to think about it, though, because it is a horrible memory. It's going to stick with me for the rest of my life,” Kelly Anaru says.
The couple were together at a train station in Iwaki, unusual for 2.46pm on a Friday, but they had a date in Tokyo, a doctor’s appointment and an ultrasound scan. Mereana was there, just.
“We were expecting, Kelly was hapū (pregnant),” Kihi Tawhai says.
The magnitude 9.1 earthquake just off the coast of Japan was the fourth largest in history.
“I thought it would never end. It lasted five minutes, the actual earthquake,” Kihi says.
The tremors eventually threw them off their feet. As they headed for their apartment, TVs in store windows showed the tsunami hitting the shore, just down the hill from them.
Nearly 16,000 people died after the quake triggered a massive tsunami.
Amazed, they found their apartment standing while other buildings had fallen. It still had power, water and an internet connection.
As many crowded into shelters, Kihi and Kelly sheltered in place.
Each had their own way of dealing with the terror – Kelly worried and called home; Kihi grabbed his laptop and watched his beloved Chiefs losing again to the Crusaders.
Both thought the worst might have passed. But, their place in Iwaki was about 40km from Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Messages from local and international media where mixed and unsettling.
“Once the reactor blew, in Japanese media it was like, 'Just be mindful that if you go outside make sure that you're all covered and there's no skin exposed and just make sure your air vents are closed’ and stuff… but really calm… and we're [like] hang on... are we really hearing this?” Kihi says.
Mindful of the hazards to an unborn child, they struggled and planned to flee. But with roads blocked, no car, and all public transport suspended, their only hope was his brother Atarea, in Tokyo.
Atarea Tawhai had promised his tuakana, his older brother, that he would get them out. 1 NEWS was there as he mounted a rescue mission, dodging roadblocks and traffic jams for hours and foraging fuel, to find his whānau and get them to safety.
The family made it to Tokyo-Narita Airport days later, departing for home, Aotearoa, New Zealand, leaving behind friends and workmates, some of whom they have never heard from; they still don’t know if all survived.
In Māori cosmology, earthquakes are ascribed to a deity, Rūaumoko, the unborn child of Papatūānuku.
The couple credit their own unborn daughter Mereana with their survival.
“Our baby, our girl, that's who brought us home,” Kihi says.
Garth Bray was TVNZ’s first reporter to reach Japan when the earthquake struck in March 2011.
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