Japan tsunami 'miracle pine' cut down in Dh7m preservation move

Japanese workers cut down the so-called "miracle pine" that survived last year's tsunami, to give it anti-decay treatments and restore it.

TOKYO //A lone pine tree that stood as a symbol of hope in Japan after surviving the tsunami that swept away a forest of 70,000 will be cut down in a bid to preserve it.

The tree, which came to be known as the "miracle pine", will be sliced into pieces and treated before being put back together, in a process expected to cost about 150 million yen (Dh7m).

A ritual reflecting the beliefs of Shintoism, Japan's animistic native religion, was carried out on the pine yesterday before the delicate process began on the shore at Rikuzentakata, a city badly hit by the disaster in March last year.

"The process of cutting down could take two days or more, as we need to start cutting branches that can eventually be put back on the trunk," the city official Shinya Kitajima said.

He said the trunk of the 27-metre tree will be divided into nine sections, which will be hollowed out and given anti-decay treatment before being reassembled using a carbon spine.

The whole preservation process will finish in February, the official said, and the tree will be put back where it was, on a spot that was previously a thick shoreline forest.

A Facebook page launched this year soliciting donations towards the cost of preserving the pine had raised nearly 27 million yen by Monday.

About 19,000 people died when the huge waves of 18 months ago swept ashore, crushing whole communities on Japan's north-east coast.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, either because their homes were destroyed or because they had to evacuate the area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant when it began leaking radiation.