“I think there’s been an earthquake back in Tokyo”
“Duh. It’s Tokyo.”
“No, I mean, there’s been an Earthquake.”
“…Shit.”
I can’t remember the exact wording, but I will never forget the afternoon of March 11th, 2011. I was at work, I had no classes for the rest of the day, and I was sitting at my desk at my new GEPIK position at an elementary school. Suddenly, my facebook and twitter went nuts with responses to what ended up being the 4th strongest earthquake in recorded history, shortly followed by a devastating tsunami that killed over 15,000 people. One of my best friends was visiting from Japan, and when I saw what was unfolding online, I texted her the first text above.
The rest of the weekend was one that is burnt into my memory forever. We tried so hard to just go about our weekend, but it was impossible. All of my friends have really strong ties with Japan, so the entire weekend was made up of contacting every person we could to make sure they had all stayed in Tokyo, and making sure their family wasn’t from the coast.
This afternoon, someone tweeted and reminded me that it was March 11th (since I’m now in Canada, I’m 13 hours behind so I would have missed most the posts while sleeping) and it dragged all those memories back. Of course, many tend to think that the main problem is over. And yes, Japan has done fairly well in getting the wreckage cleaned up. The boats are removed from the inland, and the condemned buildings are mostly gone. However, over 200,000 people are still living in temporary housing that was built in a rush after the earthquake. These people are stuck in between, waiting for somewhere else to go, with new housing in the works but not being built fast enough, and with nowhere else to go since their houses are completely gone, or it’s too dangerous to return to it because the radiation from Fukushima.
Tohoku is far from being finished. Much like many other natural disaster areas are far from being repaired, and it will take years for it to look somewhat normal.
On this third anniversary, please take the time to see if there is something you can do to help out. Many of the people affected are elderly people stuck in temporary housing, who want nothing more than to return home.
東北復興プログラム / Tohoku Rebuilding Program from the Open Architecture Network
Volunteer Tourism in Tohoku (Through the Embassy of Japan in the UK)
