●Nathan Shiga; October 16

A piece of pep-up news for the quake-stricken folks in East Japan. A local 23-year-old woman Seika Utsunomiya has been appointed the first motor-woman to serve the Sanriku Railway between Miyako and Kujji.

A major earthquake hit East Japan on March 11, 2011, to paralyze most towns and villages along the Pacific coast of what is known as Sanriku. Fatally damaged was the local railroad network Sanriku Railway. Efforts of the railwaymen paid off miraculously to partially restore the services barely in five days, March 16, of the tsunami between Kuji and Rikuchu Nakano. The feat was a timely encouragement for the victims.

The entire line of the Sanriku Railway was restored three years afterward on April 6. 2014.

Miss Seika Utsunomiya from Miyako, Iwate, was herself a victim of the great earthquake in her high school days. The experience helped set her mind up to contribute to the wellbeing of her hometown and its people and started working for the Sanriku Railway in April last year. Seika received her writ of appointment as motor-woman and her nameplate on October 14.

At 9 o’clock that morning she took her seat in the first train to run, checked the procedures one by one and on she went with her eyes set forward. Seika Utsunomiya commented:

“So thrilled and excited with the gravity of responsibilities as a motor-woman. I want to offer what little I can do for my hometown and folks.”

—Sponsered Link—