In a society wary⁴ of admitting to mental problems, many are turning to exorcists（驱魔师） for help.

 

Tales of spectral⁵（光谱的，幽灵的） figures lined up at shops where now there is only rubble⁶ are what psychiatrists⁸ say is a reaction to fear after the March 11, 2011, disaster in which nearly 19,000 people were killed.

 

"The places where people say they see ghosts are largely those areas completely swept away by the tsunami," said Keizo Hara, a psychiatrist⁷ in the city of Ishinomaki, one of the areas worst-hit by the waves touched off by an offshore⁹ earthquake.

 

"We think phenomena¹⁰ like ghost sightings are perhaps a mental projection¹¹ of the terror and worries associated with those places."

 

Hara said post-traumatic stress disorder¹² (PTSD) might only now be emerging in many people, and the country could be facing a wave of stress-related problems.

 

Shinichi Yamada escaped the waves that destroyed his home and later salvaged¹³ two Buddhist¹⁴ statues from the wreckage¹⁵. But when he brought them back to the temporary housing where he lived, he said strange things began to happen.

 

His two children suddenly got sick and an inexplicable¹⁶（费解的） chill seemed to follow the family through the house, he said.

 

"A couple of times when I was lying in bed, I felt something walking across me, stepping across my chest," Yamada told Reuters.

 

Many people in Japan hold on to ancient superstitions¹⁷ despite its ultra-modern image.

 

Yamada, like many other people in the area, turned to exorcist Kansho Aizawa for help.

 

Aizawa, 56, dressed in a black sweater and trousers and with dangling¹⁸ pearl earrings¹⁹, said in an interview in her home that she had seen numerous ghosts.

 

"There are headless ghosts, and some missing hands or legs. Others are completely cut in half," she said. "People were killed in so many different ways during the disaster and they were left like that in limbo²⁰（地狱的边境）. So it takes a heavy toll²¹ on us, we see them as they were when they died." 

 

In some places destroyed by the tsunami, people have reported seeing ghostly apparitions²² queuing outside supermarkets which are now only rubble. Taxi drivers said they avoided the worst-hit districts for fear of picking up phantom²³（幽灵，幻影） passengers.

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