"I thought Japan would disappear."
An 83-year-old Japanese woman is among the lucky ones after escaping from her now-destroyed home in Ishinomaki.
How she escaped the tsunami, however, is what makes her story unique.
When Tsuna Kimura heard the warning siren for the tsunami, she responded instinctively:
"After the tsunami warning, I got on my bicycle, by myself, and rode away."
The octogenarian prides herself on her physical stamina. A lifelong rice farmer and mother of two, Kimura was living alone when the wave came.
She now calls a shelter home, unsure of what to do next. Strong and proud, the independent woman has no interest in "being a burden" to her children.
"I have no idea what I will do next or where I will go."
Kimura was a teenager during the Second World War, and clearly remembers the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The current nuclear crisis is especially unsettling for those who will never forget 1945's nuclear devastation.
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