Ceremony to Remember March 2011 Tsunami Victims Held in N.Y.

New York, March 6 (Jiji Press)--Some 430 people gathered at a church in New York on Sunday to remember the victims of the monster earthquake and tsunami that devastated Pacific coastal areas of northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The participants in the memorial service, held ahead of the fifth anniversary of the disaster caused by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, included Tsurane Konno, the 55-year-old president of Suisen Shuzo, the only sake brewery in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, one of the hardest tsunami-hit cities. At the company, seven workers were killed in the tsunami, which drowned more than 14,300 people to death, around 90 pct of those who died in the disaster. More than 2,560 people remained missing as of Feb. 10. In a speech at the ceremony in Manhattan, Konno noted that after the devastation he rebuilt his company's head office and sake production facilities in Ofunato, another Iwate city. In September 2014, the company was able to launch U.S. sales of products under its first overseas brand, "Kibo," or hope. Even in adverse circumstances, "you have to move forward step by step," he said. "Otherwise, you'll never reach your goal." Noting that some tsunami survivors still live in temporary housing, including many children with unhealed mental scars, New York-based musician Akemi Kakihara, known as AK and head of the group that organized the ceremony, urged the crowd not to forget the disaster. END