“鬼魂”不散阻撓日本地震災後重建

A woman walks away from a message wall after writing a message to the victims of last week's earthquake and tsunami in Japan in central Seoul, South Korea on March 16, 2011.　　Japan's reconstruction following the devastating earthquake and tsunami nearly one year ago exactly is being delayed by an unlikely factor – ghosts。

Numerous reports of ghost sightings have reportedly been made by residents in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture, home to nearly a fifth of all tsunami fatalities。

Reconstruction and repair have been put on hold in some instances due to workers' fears that the spirits of the dead who passed away a year ago will bring them bad luck if they continue。

Highlighting one half-repaired supermarket, local Satoshi Abe, 64, told the reporter: "I heard people working to repair the store became sick because of ghosts. People died here everywhere, here and there. The city is full of such stories."

A taxi driver, who did not want to be named, added that he was unwilling to stop in certain parts of the city that were badly damaged in the tsunami for fear of picking up a customer who is a spirit of the dead。

Meanwhile, another local woman described hearing stories of people seeing queues of people rushing towards the hills, a replay of their final moment as they attempted to escape the tsunami。

As the first anniversary of the disaster approaches, Ishinomaki appears, on the surface at least, to be returning to a new level of normality, with the tsunami debris cleared away in most areas and a growing number of businesses reopening。

At the same time, the emotional impact of the massive losses of human life are clearly continuing to take their toll on residents: close to 4,000 Ishinomaki locals were killed in the tsunami out of a total death toll of 19,000 for the northeast region。

However, experts described the city's apparent widespread belief in ghosts as a "natural" side effect of a large-scale tragedy which wiped out vast swathes of the community and a potentially positive part of the healing process。

"Human beings find it very difficult to accept death, whether they are inclined by nature to superstition or are very scientifically minded," said Takeo Funabiki, a cultural anthropologist。

"A sudden or abnormal death, anything other than someone dying in bed of old age, is particularly difficult for people to comprehend。

"When there are things that many people find difficult to accept, they can find expression in the form of rumours or rituals for the dead, among other things. The point is that it takes the shape of something that you can share with other people in your society."

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website。)距離日本強震海嘯的發生已經近一年了，如今日本的災後重建工作卻受到了意外因素“鬼魂”的阻礙。

據報道，日本宮城縣石卷市的很多居民稱自己遭遇“活見鬼”，大約1/5的海嘯遇難事故都發生在這附近。

某些重建和修復工作被暫時擱置，因爲工人害怕如果繼續下去，一年前的亡靈會給他們帶來厄運。

在一個修復了一半的超市，64歲的當地人安倍聰告訴記者：“我聽說很多修復這家商店的工人都因爲鬼魂生病了。這裏曾經到處都是死人。市裏有很多類似的故事。”

一位不願透露姓名的出租車司機補充說，他不願意在城市的某些遭到海嘯破壞嚴重的地區停車，害怕上車的乘客是死者的魂魄。

另一位當地女性描述稱，聽到有人說看到成羣結隊的“人”往山上跑去，重現了人們試圖躲避海嘯的最後場景。

日本大地震一週年就要到了，石卷市似乎迴歸了常態，至少表面上是這樣。大部分地區的海嘯殘骸都清理乾淨了，越來越多的商家重新開張。

而與此同時，大批人逝去的精神創傷很明顯仍在影響着居民：接近四千名石卷市民在海嘯中遇難，日本東北部地區因此喪生1.9萬人。

但專家表示，城市裏表面上流行的鬼魂思想是席捲衆多社區的大災大難後的“正常”負面反應，並在恢復過程中起着潛在的積極影響。

文化人類學家船引武夫說：“人類很難接受死亡，不管是天生迷信，還是具有科學頭腦。”

“突然的非正常死亡和因年老死去不一樣，人們很難理解。”

“當很多人都很難接受某件事的時候，他們可以在有關死者的傳聞或者傳統儀式等形式中找到答案。重要的是，這些都是以能夠和社會中的其他人分享的形式存在的。”