Sendai - A Year Later

A friend from L.A. recently asked me how Tokyo was one year after the earthquake and tsunami.  I reflected for a moment, my emotions gathering together like a hurricane collecting force and debris.  Any question regarding that event stirs up emotions hard to suppress: fear, gratitude, love, understanding.

Fear - remembering the sheer terror, thinking it was the end, seeing Ranger shaking uncontrollably; realizing I was too. Utter, retched, helplessness.

Fear it might happen again.

Gratitude - we survived and nothing was damaged.

Love for Russell, Ranger, all our family and friends who cared so much.

Love for the Japanese people who went out of their way to help, with humbling grace.

The revelation in understanding the difference between an "us" society; not a "me" society.

Understanding what's truly important, not material possessions, but the ones you love.

In Tokyo a year later, buildings are still standing, people are working, aftershocks are still occurring. Energy conservation is over; the lights are all back on. The city is bereft 33,000 foreigners who never returned to the country after they fled from the earthquake and aftermath.  In Tokyo there is no destruction, no shelters for those who lost their homes. Those shelters begin 150 miles away.  More than 330,000 people are still living in temporary accommodations.   Sure a few expats worry about where the food in the super market comes from.  CNN and BBC are still over-dramatizing the effects on Tokyo but under-dramatizing the need in the areas hardest hit like Miyagi prefecture where 10,000 were missing after the tsunami.  But mostly, people are remembering.  There is a looming sense of pathos and yearning over the city.  There are still over 3,000 people who have never been found.  Debris washes up on foreign shores.  The Japanese mourn for the 15,800+ people who were lost and those yet to be found.  But they persevere.   They help each other.

While Russell and I were doing the Kyoto Walkathon, i.e., seeing 25 sights in 36 hours, our friend Nancy, was surveying the tsunami damage one year later.  The Tokyo American Club had arranged a tour, (read: trip to secure donations) for members of the U.S./Asia Business Summit.  Unfortunately not enough members of the summit cared to attend so the tour was opened up to Tokyo American Club members, (read: hopefully rich expats or representatives of rich corporations).

I had lunch with Nancy after her trip, tears filling our eyes as she recounted all she had seen and heard.
I asked her to submit a guest post.  Below is what she sent me including a couple of sobering pictures.

I thought I would cry a lot when I went to Sendai.  I didn’t, but I did find myself thinking about how awful it must have been there.  What touched me most was seeing a wooden horse lying in the rubble.  This was probably a child’s toy or a family chachki.   I also found several dishes and a record still intact.  It made me want to pick them up and find the people that they belonged to and give them back. From where I was standing, those that were at ground level didn’t stand a chance of survival.  Even people on the roofs of their homes would likely have been swept away by the waves.  Those who made it to higher ground or in concrete buildings on the low levels survived.  I sat next to a man on the bus who had been to Sendai several times to volunteer.  He said the hardest part was finding personal items.  I saw pictures that they passed around of the boxes of photos that volunteers collected  hoping to reunite them with their owners.  They were brought to shelters so survivors could look through them hoping to find photos of their loved ones.  Buildings are still being torn down. Red zeros are seen on buildings indicating no bodies have been found inside.  Red cr’s are spray painted on buildings that have been condemned and await demolition.  Buildings ripped off their foundations remain sitting atop debris and wedged between other buildings.  A department store with first floor lights hanging by wires from the ceiling has no walls on the first floor. Debris is sorted in to recyclables and burnable piles.  Heavy equipment still remains everywhere working constantly to disassemble buildings.  We visited a sake brewery where the owner gave us a tour.  He was lucky as his buildings are on higher ground.  The water level came up just to his residence.  Walking up the hill to the brewery, you could see where doors, siding and tiles had been replaced on some of the homes.   They were flooded on the first floor but were able to remain in their homes while they repaired the first floor.  The brewery owner told us he lost 80% of his customers who were local restaurants and bars demolished by the Tsunami.  The majority of the boats washed ashore have been disassembled or repaired and put back into service.  A 3 ½ ton fishing boat still remains sitting in the middle of what once was a residential street.   All of the homes around it have been torn down but the city will keep the boat where it is as a reminder of the Tsunami. I was surprised by how cold it was.  I visited on March 3rd, eight days before the Tsunami struck the year before.   It was 18 degrees when we left our hotel that morning and in the 30s for the high.  Many died from hypothermia and complications due to injuries even if they did survive the Tsunami.    We watched home videos on the bus ride and could see it snowing on many.  You could hear the pain in people’s voices and hear them crying as they watched all of their possessions vanish before their eyes.  One video showed people up above a parking lot and as the water rose, the cars started to float away.  A pine tree forest was completely destroyed except for one lone tree that still remains.   The tree has become a symbol of hope and will be pictured on a comemmerative coin with proceeds going to the Tsunami relief fund.  Unfortunately, the tree is dying slowly due to the salt water.  Piles of cars still remain and mud and standing water are still covering the land near the ocean. We weren’t allowed off the bus in this section of town, closer to the water, as it is still unsafe.  Workers and volunteers wear special steel reinforced boots so a nail won’t go through their foot.  Special gloves for picking up glass are mandatory.  A lot of work remains and donations are waning now that it has been over a year.  Becoming a volunteer is costly, and isn’t easy, because of the clothing requirements, i.e. steel toed boots, special gloves, etc.  The best way to help the recovery effort now is through donations.   Thanks Nancy.  Thanks Japan.