I was told once that the Japanese are so browbeaten by regularly-experienced random destructive phenomena (volcanos, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, war, etc) outside of their control that it scarred their collective psyche, and they became adept at groveling to higher powers (local lord, gods, etc). And when that didn't work, reinforcing the randomness of their lives and deaths, the only thing they could do was grovel harder and hope to make it through.
It's happening here too, a collection of entities has randomly fused into another invincible superghost and targeted the town for absolute destruction, and there's no way to stop it - all you can do is grovel and hope you make it through. And most don't, seeing as how this is a six-year flashback.