Yasuhiko Konno - Sake Brewery

Yasuhiko Konno - Sake Brewery

Sake brewer loses all to tsunami, vows to rebuild
Local Japanese News In English

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan -- Yasuhiko Konno stands next to a pile of debris that reaches over two stories high. He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath.

This was his sake brewery, one of the best in Japan, with a history that goes back hundreds of years. A week after he barely escaped a tsunami that flattened it and nearly everything else in sight, he's come back for the first time, and it takes him a second to collect his thoughts.

"I will do everything I can to bring us back for business, to start up again," he says.

Konno, 64, is a respected man in this town on Japan's eastern shore, and others bow as they pass him amid the wreckage. As the initial shock and sorrow of their tragedy fades, the small towns hit hardest by the disaster are beginning to think about the future, and it will be men like Konno who lead the way. (Seattle Times) Source: cleanup