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By Chris McLaughlin
BBC Scotland sports news correspondent
For one coastal city, 500 miles north of Tokyo, the existence of this Rugby World Cup means over a celebration of sport.
Kamaishi lies in the state of Iwate and used to be best known for its steel industry, fishing as well as the 35,000 residents’ fascination with rugby union, since it was home to the bar which dominated rugby .
This was until March 11, 2011, however. That triggered a catastrophic tsunami and was the day the nation hit.
News footage from the time reveals automobiles bobbing throughout the roads and houses floating about like matchsticks from the rain, as well as the sight of folks to a hillside desperately crying to their fellow townsfolk to conduct since the sea invaded the roads, crushing everything in its path.
A total of 1,300 people died and the city was utterly devastated. Many survivors took what they can salvage and left, never to return. But were determined to rebuild.
To be washed away was that the school. It lay in the heart of the town, both mentally and physically.
Thanks to a tsunami evacuation process that was well-established, the majority of the pupils made it but nothing remained of the building.
In the months that followed, a plan which would provide the town with a feeling of intention and restore a pride was devised by locals – and rugby was at the heart of it.
The Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium stands on the specific spot where the faculty was washed off, having been built with the support of government investment made to assist in the recovery of the area.
Many think it’ll be the most significant, although it will be the tiniest of the World Cup places.
“We wanted to build something that would symbolise hope for its future,” said arena manager Takeshi Nagata.
“It’s not simply rebuilding something physically – it’s all about rebuilding hearts.”
That view is echoed when the wave hit, by Akiko Iwasaki, who almost lost her life. She owns a little inn that sits at the border of the ocean. When recounting her near fatal encounter she smiles broadly.
“There was a feeling that’today is your day’,” she remembers. “We’d been anticipating it since we’d been told that a major earthquake would one day come out our way.
“As I tried to run for the mountains, I was captured under the water.
“I looked up at the sky and remember thinking it looked so pretty before I lost consciousness.”
One of her customers who had made it to safety was trapped beneath a van but pulled clear iwasaki. She wants Kamaishi to be recalled for rugby rather than a period of tragedy.
“I don’t think this city and the people could have made it during the previous eight years if we didn’t possess the World Cup to focus on,” she explained.
Not everybody is in agreement that is complete though. As government investment is ploughed around the arena and World Cup infrastructure, Many sailors point towards these forced to reside in home.
The new stadium will sponsor Fiji v Uruguay and Namibia v Canada, however, those who visit won’t fail to observe that the athletic event will take place where tragedy once struck.
The tsunami memorial situated just outside Akiko’s inn also serves as caution.
The words etched into the tall black granite rock read, simply:”Just run! Run uphill! Do not be worried about the others. Save yourself first. And inform the future generations that a tsunami reached this stage and people who survived were the individuals who ran. So run! Run uphill!”
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