Name: Miu TOMITA

Age: 23

(Age 11 in March 2011)

Birthplace: Iwaki City

Home address: Tokyo

Occupation: Actor

(5th grade elementary school student in March 2011)

‘I am’

① When the shaking subsided, we left school with the teachers and kids from the neighborhood. On the way home, I kept crying, until I was told off by the teacher: “If you don’t get it together, who’s going to take care of your grandma?” which quieted me down.

② The adults who watched the news about the reactor explosion were all in agreement: “It’s all over.” Seeing that left a big impression. I had no idea what was going on, but I could tell that something was very wrong.

③ When we left Fukushima, I felt like we would never come back, so I cried and raged: “I don’t wanna go! I’m not going! If I have to die, I’ll die here!” My mom scolded me: “Hurry up and be quiet!”

④ When we arrived in Kanagawa, I felt empty in my mind. All I could do was think about school and things that were close to me, like, “I was supposed to play the recorder at the graduation ceremony…”

⑤ All I wanted was to go back to Fukushima, and I hated being away from my hometown. I couldn’t fit in at school in Tokyo. Just for the last 10 days of my final year in elementary school, I had myself enrolled in a school in Iwaki so I could graduate there. When my teacher saw me off, he said: “Now that you properly graduated from this school, go do your best in Tokyo. Promise me.”

⑥ At a time in my life when everything was up in the air, I found an ad for a training school for actors, that said “Make your debut in only three months!” Thinking, “This is the best way to express what I am doing now,” I decided to join the training school.

⑦ There was an audition for the film Solomon’s Perjury, which I decided to go for, with the idea that I would give up acting altogether if it didn’t go through, but miraculously it did. While practicing, I felt “There’s so much to acting! I want to make a living out of this!”

⑧ When the director gave a stage talk to people in Iwaki, he told them: “I’m sure that this girl was destined to leave Iwaki to find this film and this role, so please support her.” Realizing this had all been part of my destiny, I felt a big weight falling off my shoulders.

CAPTION

・The melodica she played in elementary school. She used it during music class. Her name is written on both the melodica itself and its case.

・The recorder she used in elementary school. The recorder has the letters “MIU” on it. She was supposed to play this during the graduation ceremony to send off the new graduates, if it had not been for the disaster. She practiced a lot, but due to the disaster she lost the chance to play it.

・The pouch she used in the 5^th grade to store her sewing materials. All the items, from scissors to pins, have her name on it, showing how well-organized she was.

・A photo taken with her friend in Iwaki in October 2011, after the disaster. Even after transferring to a school in Tokyo, she still visited Iwaki regularly to play with her friend.

・A photo of the end of her graduation ceremony at the Iwaki Satogaoka Elementary School. Even though she was forced to evacuate due to the accident at the nuclear power plant, she was transferred back to Satogaoka Elementary school for the last period of her 6^th year, so that she could graduate here.