Nuclear Policy: USA

The Nuclear Energy Institute provides lots of handy statistics regarding the nuclear situation in the United States. There are facts and figures on more subcategories of nuclear power information than you could ever want to know, but I will touch on a few key facts.

In 2010, the US generated over four billion milliwatt hours, about 800 million of which were due to nuclear energy. This means that the nuclear fuel share percentage for the US was about 19.6%.

Over the past 20 years in the US, plants have increased their output of nuclear power while maintaining similar levels of safety. The graphic from this link tells the story:

Accordingly, US suppliers face very strict safety regulations to start nuclear energy production from a new plant (click for larger image).

Storytelling

This post from the Daily Yomiuri Shimbun details the harrowing stories of several survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The amalgamation of several short anecdotes detail the survival of Yuko Ono, a 39-year-old mother;  Junnosuke Oikawa, a 56-year-old firefighter; a 62-year-old fisherman, Yoshinori Yamazaki; 86-year-old wheelchair-bound Norie Kanno; and 41-year-old Norikichi Ichikawa.

Mother Yuko Ono was driving her son and a classmate home when the earthquake hit. However, her quick thinking saved them all: she backed her van into a narrow side street so that when the waters hit, the van floated straight upwards and did not tip over. While her son and his friend have Ono-san to thank for their lives, they may find it traumatic to drive in a car again. However, they should work to regain some sense of normalcy by taking short rides in the car before working up to longer trips. It is important not to avoid triggers altogether so that they do not grow up with severe mental handicaps if put in certain situations.

Firefighter Junnosuke Oikawa survived by pulling two wooden planks under his chest and using them as a makeshift surfboard. He actually used to play in a similar way as a child. Oikawa-san can deal with the possible trauma he would face if confronted with surfing again by reflecting on the positive experiences he had as a child playing those games where no danger was involved.

Norikichi Ichikawa survived by allowing his body to float up to the ceiling of a submerged room and breathing in air when gaps became available. However, Ichikawa-san faces particularly traumatizing side effects as his mother, whose hand he was clutching for the majority of the tsunami, did not make it. Ichikawa-san can rely on the support of his surviving family, friends, and community to work together to move forward and build a stronger future. Ichikawa-san said, "I will live the rest of my life thinking of my mother, whose life was extinguished without mercy." Ichikawa-san can actually draw on this touching sentiment in order to deal with his trauma--he can work to have a very fulfilling life in honor of his mother.

Fisherman Yoshinori Yamazaki was submerged several times but each time found the surface again by swimming towards sunlight. Since Yamazaki-san is a fisherman he will probably return to the sea to continue his trade, and consequently he may face traumatic flashbacks when dealing with his boat. However, like Ichikawa-san Yamazaki-san should also rely on the support of those around him and make sure he finds outlets to express his feelings if he finds it necessary.

Wheelchair-bound Norie Kanno was one of the lucky ones to survive from her nursing home. Her chair floated up to the top of the room where she was unable to breathe for several minutes before the waters began to recede just in time. Kanno-san afterwards expressed "I'd like to live a healthy life for my friends." It is feelings exactly like these that will help all of these survivors find positives in their daily lives going forward and work to deal with their traumatic experiences.

From Eco to Setsuden

While it is hard for me to chronicle the shift from eco to setsuden since I was not in Japan when eco was the main focus, I will instead reflect on the setsuden practices I have seen (and not seen). The major thing that jumps out in everyday life in Japan is the escalators that are on or not on. My home station (Nishikawaguchi, Keihin-Tohoku line) recently started running it's up escalator in the mornings, which surprised me -- if it wasn't necessary before, why is it needed now? Walking around the Tokyo Dome today I was confronted with a pair of escalators -- the up one was running while the down was not. I took a picture, then realized it was kind of silly since you can't tell that one of the escalators was actually moving. But, you can see the explanatory sign they have posted -- I can't read the Japanese but I could see the Kanji for setsuden.

Okay, in the picture the kanji for setsuden are actually cut out >.< but my camera wasn't working so I had to use my phone! Gomen ne. But, situations like this are a microcosm of the larger setsuden shift happening in Japan. "Non-necessary" electrical equipment like down escalators and extraneous lights are being cut out. It seems to be enough, as the informational signs in the train routinely display percentages that are well under the 80% mark -- today I actually saw 56% at one point in my commute.

We discussed in class whether people are only tolerating these small inconveniences because they view them as temporary. I had thought that to be the case, but the other day I was talking to a Japanese friend who was discussing matter-of-factly that "this summer we have to save energy, but next summer we'll have to save even more." She wasn't claiming to be an expert on the subject; she was just relaying her perspective on the situation that these measures were in place to stay. I find that viewpoint interesting: on the one hand it's better for long-term environmental health if people stress electricity conservation, but on the other hand it is perhaps impractical for businesses and consumers to continue to employ these measures when an "eco friendly" alternative does not really exist. (It is one thing for businesses to practice electricity conservation if there is an alternative that will allow them to maintain similar economic output, but another thing entirely to expect businesses to continue to practice inconvenient tasks if it hurts their bottom line.) As an economics major , I am very interested to watch and see where Japan moves in the future.

Disaster Preparation

I found several things from our disaster preparation discussion very interesting, but towards the end of the discussion one thing in particular stood out to me. When we were discussing the different types of drills we do in our home institutions, lockdown or "code red" drills came up. We had these drills in my own high school, where we had to act as if an intruder was on the premises and all hide on one side of the classroom, while the teacher locked the door and put a colored piece of paper in the door window (green for the all clear, red for we need help). These drills became standard in my high school after the Virgina Tech shootings on April 16th, 2007 -- perhaps because of North Carolina's relative proximity to Virginia. However, I was surprised to learn that several of my American classmates did not have similar drills in their schools. Even in my town which is very safe and has a low crime rate, a few schools have had to go into lockdown in the past due to a bank robbery or something similar around their premises. It seems to me that, especially after 9/11 and the increase in students bringing/using guns in school, these drills would be practiced at least yearly in most schools.

Most universities have adopted some sort of emergency notification system over text message, which is tested at least twice a year at my university. This is a step in the right direction, but American schools' relative lack of preparedness could be taken as a sign of the notion "this wouldn't happen here, only in another area." We have discussed how that mindset partially contributed to the immense of human loss in Japan after people were unprepared, unaware what to do, or assumed they had enough time to escape the tsunami or that the waters wouldn't get very high. To me, it seems that people in general need to reevaluate their priorities and make sure they are prepared for any type of disaster situation that were to arise.

Nihonjinron

After reading this blog assignment the term "flyjin" immediately came to mind. Even though it's not related to the Japanese identity specifically, I am not Japanese and therefore am more comfortable writing about changes to the foreigner's identity in Japan rather than making haphazard judgements of and comments on the Japanese identity. These changes in the foreigner's identity actually give us some insight into the Japanese identity, which I will discuss later.

A quick Google search brought up a surprising fact -- there is now a flyjin.com! From what I can discern, the first post was on March 21, 2011, and the blog is related to all things flyjin. (The term itself is a pun on the Japanese word for foreigner, "gaijin", and highlights how many foreigners fled from Japan after the disaster.) The term was apparently coined by Twitter users (who else), and this blog features ranging from factual information about the nuclear radiation levels to personal accounts from foreigners who left and why.

I have mixed feelings about the term flyjin. In the days immediately following the earthquake it was not clear how serious the Fukushima situation was going to become, so to me it makes sense that people left -- the age old adage "better safe than sorry" holds true. I think the issue lies in the foreigners who left cities like Osaka or Tokyo even though they were under virtually no threat from radiation, and in the fact that most people have not yet returned to Japan. Yesterday, however, I was walking around Harajuku and my friend and I actually discussed how we were starting to see more foreigners in touristy areas such as that one. So, that is a promising observation but I hope it continues to improve. I also have a serious problem with all of the American universities who canceled their study abroad programs or forced their students to come home - it shows a lack of trust in the Japanese system and the Japanese universities' abilities to make decisions regarding their programs, and it caused most students to miss out on a whole semester of credit. But, I do understand the liability issue, and once one big university announced their plans to withdraw their students, the dominoes started to fall.

As I mentioned, I think the fact that the term "flyjin" even emerged reveals something inherent in Japanese identity: a strong sense of pride in their country. The word "flyjin" is only catchy because it highlights that foreigners fled Japan, underscoring the opposite: the majority of Japanese citizens stayed. This may have been the case in most countries, where national citizens stay put after a disaster due to a sense of loyalty, but I have found this sentiment particularly strong in Japan. All of the ads saying "ganbarou nihon" and "ganbarou tohoku" highlight that the citizens of Japan and Tohoku are all in this together, working to rebuild and overcome. Hopefully in the coming months more and more foreigners will return to join in that effort.

Global Media Coverage

My hometown newspaper, The News & Observer, recently published this article detailing some of Japan's attmpts to deal with the looming energy crisis. It was written by Mari Yamaguchi, a member of the Associated Press, and was published on June 6th in English in the United States. The N&O is published in North Carolina.

The article talks about the efforts being made in Tokyo to conserve electricity: some government employees are now working from 7:30am to around 4:15pm (as compared to 8:30am-5:15pm).  Interesting to me was the discussion of daylight savings time: how Japan has historically been against it but some people have been making a push to adopt DST so that the day would get an "extra hour" of daylight, thus reducing the amount of time the lights need to be on at night. By shifting the work day an hour forward, the workers are essentially adopting DST without the actual clock changing.


I am interested to see how electricity conservation is going to happen as it continues to get hotter. The elevator going up from Yotsuya station to the street is almost always running now, whereas it was off for the first few weeks I was here, and then was turned on only during rush hour. It seems to me that electricity conservation is not at the forefront of everyone's minds -- for example, I have noticed lots of students taking the elevator up just one or two floors, and there is really no reason that anyone would need to take an elevator down at all. However, the article I read is enlightening because it shows that city workers are making an effort to conserve electricity, so perhaps if more people read articles like this one they will do the same.

3.11: Shock

Waking up to the news of 3.11 was a shock to all of us in America, and the earthquake's tremors have resonated into areas that will have impacts in society long after northern Japan has been rebuilt.  The nuclear reactors were labeled as "earthquake and tsunami proof," and I'm sure most people accepted that as fact. However, the ensuing nuclear crisis has all but destroyed people's faith in nuclear energy as a safe and viable means of providing electricity in an earthquake-prone nation--so much so that reactors in other parts of Japan have been temporarily shut down. While most of Japan may have been prepared for what to do in case of an earthquake or even a tsunami, many people may not have even considered what could happen in the case of an electricity shortage.

The trains shutting down, people having to walk 10 hours to get home, the shelves of convenient stores completely bare -- these are scenes straight out of a horror film about a natural disaster. Indeed, the Japanese media has been full of such images for decades -- films like Godzilla, TV series like Ultraman -- Tokyo is decimated time and time again only to appear new again in the next film or episode. An article in a Japanese version of "Newsweek" talks about these "Tokyo Disaster Fantasies" and how they have "obsessively imagined Japan's destruction, mirroring the country's real-world vulnerability." Indeed, Japan is so used to these images of destruction and reconstruction that some people feel they can not help but be stoic in the face of the current crisis. But, few may have imagined the wide-scale energy shortage what will descent on Tokyo as the mercury in the thermometer continues to climb... it will be interesting to see how energy consumers respond, and how Tokyo prepares itself for an electricity shortage going forward.

Blame

A recent simple Google search for "Japan disaster blame" returned 11,600,000 results, so it is safe to say that plenty of blame has been going around regarding the recent disaster in Japan. I was struck by a short opinion in the Los Angeles Times with the headline "Who's to blame for Fukushima?", which bypasses the question of whether or not blame should be assigned at all and instead immediately begins looking for someone to lay the blame on.

The article brought up an interesting point of which I was not aware: "Japanese law ... limits liability to the operator, not the designer, of a nuclear power plant." This is interesting to me, because in an area prone to earthquakes and tsunamis it seems like it should be the designer's responsibility to ensure that all of the bases are in covered. Indeed, it was the designer who initially built the "tsunami-proof" reactors and safety system, which obviously has some major flaws. So, based on these laws, the shares for General Electric have fluctuated by less than $1 since the disaster, while prices for shares of TEPCO have fallen by more than 70%. Not much incentive for General Electric to rethink their plant designs.

The article also brought up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which I have discussed briefly in an earlier post. In the states it was very important to the public and media that BP accept "blame" for the incident, and then give restitution to all affected parties. In the US a massive media campaign was launched (and I believe commercials still air sometimes) saying "we are BP, we are here [in the Gulf], and we are working to help those affected and fix our mistake." In the US, it was the operator's fault, not the designer who initially designed the "emergency shut-off valve." This article does not make any comment regarding the restitution the author believes should come out of the Fukushima disaster, but they mention the $20-billion fund set up by BP "to help those whose livelihoods were destroyed by the disaster." It will be interesting to compare this fund to any restitution that comes out of Fukushima.

Decompressing after Tohoku

I spent last week in the Iwate prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan. I was doing relief work in Rikuzen-Takata with the Japan Association for Refugees (JAR). A group of about 30 people from all different backgrounds came together for what was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I am still working to decompress and process everything that I have done and seen in the past five days, but I have tried to share my experience below. It's a long post and definitely jumps around, but I think it gets the main points across.

I hadn't done much background research before starting my trip, but upon getting back to Tokyo I have been reading more about the city of Rikuzen-Takata. It is a coastal town in the Iwate prefecture of Japan, and was hit hard by the tsunami. A city of 24,000 residents, 18,000 were reported dead or missing in the few days following the tsunami, according to AlJazeera. An estimated 5,000 of 8,000 total homes were submerged. The low-lying areas of the town were completely wiped out -- in the volunteer center there was an aerial picture that shows that devastation, which is below. You can see most of the main roads have been cleared, but there is still tons (literally) of debris that needs to be removed.

An aerial photo of Rikuzen-Takata, taken April 10th 2011

Not really knowing what to expect, I left Tokyo at 10pm on Monday night and arrived to the campground in Hanamaki around 6:30am Tuesday morning. We were traveling by charter bus and I had my own row of two seats, so I slept pretty much the whole way. Upon arriving to the campground, we had a few minutes to drop of our stuff and change if we needed to, then we got on another bus that would take us to the worksite in Rikuzen-Takata. From the campsite to the worksite was about a two-hour bus ride each way. Each morning we stopped at the convenient store to get food for breakfast and lunch, and we then went to the volunteer center to pick up our tools before continuing to whatever we were working on that day.

On Tuesday, after stopping at the volunteer center, we continued driving towards the worksite. I was looking out of the window on my side of the bus when I heard someone mention something about “now we are in the disaster-hit area.” I looked out the other side of the bus and caught my breath – the tsunami waters had made it that far inland (official reports say the water made it almost 10km inland in some areas of Rikuzen-Takata), and everything was leveled. The riverbed and valley on the other side of the bus were full of debris and trash. I remember seeing a bunch of wood and clothing hanging from trees, but it was a lot to take in, and I mostly just remember wondering how there could be so much destruction. While many onboard the bus had been in Tokyo or Japan during the actual earthquake, it was the first trip to the tsunami-affected area for most of us, so the mood on the bus immediately changed as we started to realize what we are about to see.

Everything is leveled.

In all, we were at the worksite from about 10am to 3pm each day. JAR was really good about ensuring we maintain our mental and physical health, so we got breaks every hour and about 45 minutes for lunch. We did about four hours of good work each day. On Tuesday, our task was to remove trash and debris from rice paddies. Some of the fields are so covered in debris that its hard to believe they were ever clean – they look like fields that have been untouched for years, when really the debris was swept onto them in a matter of minutes by the rushing water. Removing trash from the muddy fields was tedious but mostly simple work – the men handled the heavy stuff such as removing a vending machine from one field and a huge log from another, and I walked around picking up smaller trash and pieces of wood. We sorted everything we picked up into burnable wood, plastic items, and other trash. We made good progress and the fields looked (almost) recognizable when we were done.

A cleared rice paddy with piles of trash on the side

The hardest part about cleaning the fields, and really seeing the debris in person in general, was finding all of the personal items that you can relate to in some way. I sort of knew what to expect from videos on YouTube and pictures in the media, but seeing it in person was of course a different story. Most of the images I had seen previously focused on the wide-scale devastation as a whole, but picking up trash we found items such as stuffed animals, playing cards, nail polish, perfume, a year-old newspaper that someone had chosen to save, shirts, tatami mats, old school photos, handwritten notes… and that was just the beginning.

A mini-memorial on one of the fields

Friday we had the same task of clearing rice paddies in a different area. Wednesday and Thursday the group worked to clear sidewalks so that the children (and everyone) could walk safely down the main road, especially to get to school. There is about a two-foot thick layer of mud/dirt on everything that was underwater, so we had quite a bit of digging to do before we even found the sidewalk. Then, once we found the concrete we had to shovel off all the dirt and clear out the debris that was buried (blankets, books, a kitchen sink, etc). It was very physically demanding but also very rewarding as we made great progress and the sidewalk looked really good when we were done. It started to rain pretty heavily on Wednesday afternoon, so we took a break and found the nearest shelter, which was a house that had been submerged. Being in the house was one of the hardest parts – the fridge door was hanging open so you could see all the food that was left in there, and personal items were strewn everywhere. Looking out the back wall of the house, it was hard to imagine all of the debris ever getting all cleared away. There was also a wheelchair by the front wall that had flowers placed outside it on the ground. That part was really hard.

In the back of the house

Our hard work on the sidewalk paid off!

Thursday, while most people were working on the sidewalks, I was one of six volunteers to go to the asaichi, which is an outdoor market that was set up either just for the holiday week or was a more permanent fixture (not sure which). A soba (noodle) shop that had been swept away by the water had set up a makeshift shack and was selling their delicious food, and various other vendors were selling everything from books to socks to vegetables. I worked selling books in the morning and then for most of the day was outside selling various clothing items. It was good Japanese practice (I even bout Goodnight Moon in Japanese!) and  the market was very inspiring to see. Thursday was Children’s Day, so all of the koinobori (“koi streamers” – very colorful flags shaped like the koi fish) were hanging up and the atmosphere was very light-hearted. All of the children were given a bag of treats, and then around lunchtime they raised the koinobori that had been decorated by the local children. From the hill where the market was, you could look down the road and see the nothingness, but seeing the children so happy was incredible to take part in. The market itself was an incredible experience. I got to observe and interact with many of the local residents, and it was really inspiring to see them coming together to be happy and move forward even in the face of such tragedy. Several people asked me where I was from, and then thanked me (sometimes in English and sometimes in Japanese) for coming there. It really made everything feel worth it.

Koinobori

The children raising the koinoburi that they decorated

Working outside!

My trip was an incredible experience as a whole (I keep using that word but I don’t really know what else to say). I worked with a great group of people and got to see the Japanese countryside, in addition to another round of the sakura blooming (the blooms are gone here in Tokyo, but since we were further north the trees had bloomed later). The campground was clean and our only option for a shower was a nearby onsen (traditional Japanese-style bathhouse), so I got to end every day in an outdoor hot tub. I have been talking since the beginning of my blog about how I hoped to get the opportunity to do relief work, and I think I'm still kind of in shock that it worked out. I saw things that I will never forget and it is incredible that a natural disaster can produce so much damage. Many in the media have compared the destruction to the ruins left after the atomic bombs, and a few people echoed that sentiment on the first day we were clearing rubble. However, while I had expected it to be a very emotionally challenging trip, the mood wasn't as somber as I had anticipated -- I think we had all been processing the disaster emotionally since it happened in March, and while at first the destruction was hard to witness, we went into it with the mindset of "okay, this is here, it happened, now what are the steps we need to take to start the clean-up." We really came together as a group and everyone gave their best effort. We ended the trip on a positive note -- the shoreline of Rikuzen-Takata had around 70,000 trees before the tsunami hit, but the raging waters tore them all down -- except for one. One lone pine tree remains standing near the shoreline, and it has become a symbol of hope for the whole recovery effort. We were able to drive by the tree on our last day and someone on the trip got a great photo, which is below. 

The lone tree standing amidst the ruins

This post really lacks organization but it was really hard to put into words everything I saw and felt in just five days. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and check out the JAR website if you are in Japan and are interested in volunteering. Tohoku has an uphill battle ahead of them but the things I did and people I met leave no doubt in my mind that "the sun will rise again" in Japan. Please continue to follow the relief efforts online and donate what you can, whether it be time, money, or thoughts and prayers. Ganbatte!

Working with JAR this week

I am really excited to be going up to Hanamaki in the Iwate prefecture to volunteer with JAR this week. I went to their first information session after they came to our class a few weeks ago and signed up immediately, but as of a few days ago I had not heard back from them, so I had begun to make other plans for Golden Week. But, two nights ago a friend of mine and I were both notified that we have a spot on the bus to go volunteer from May 2nd to May 7th. In my very first post in my personal travel blog, I had mentioned that I hoped I would be able to do some relief work upon arriving in Japan, but I didn't know how feasible it would be. JAR seemed like the perfect opportunity for me since they provide the tent/work boots and gloves/etc, which I obviously wasn't able to bring over with me from the US, so I'm really glad that it worked out for me to go during Golden Week. I will definitely blog about my experience when I get back, although there are a number of privacy issues to keep in mind as we will be working with refugees. But, check back soon for another post regarding my experience, which I'm sure will be both emotionally and physically demanding.

Anthony Oliver-Smith Reading

Several points from Anthony Oliver-Smith’s Anthropological Research on Hazards and Disasters jumped out at me as applicable to the developing situation in Japan. First was his statement, "If a society cannot withstand without major damage and disruption a predictable feature of its environment, that society has not developed in a sustainable way" (304). I found this statement very interesting because, for Japan, earthquakes and tsunamis are a natural consequence of its landscape, so it would be expected that its society would be built to withstand them. After the 1995 Kobe earthquake which brought major damage to the region, we saw dramatic structural modifications and enhancements to buildings and structures that resulted in much greater safety during and less damage from the latest earthquake in developed cities such as Tokyo. On the other hand, the Fukushima nuclear reactor was supposed to be earthquake-proof, but the ensuing tsunami still managed to cripple the plant and lead to a very dangerous situation. It will be interesting to observe how Japan's nuclear plants evolve from this incident -- and if then, according to Oliver-Smith's definition, we can say they have "developed in a sustainable way."

Next I was intrigued by the statement "chronic technological disasters...provoke conflict particularly over interpretations of the event" (307). We have talked in class about whether or not the nuclear disaster is a "natural disaster" or "man made." I am interested to see how the debate in Japan and the international media progresses, and what compensation (if any) Fukushima will end up providing to affected parties. In the infamous BP oil spill in 2010, which was definitely man-made, BP ended up providing large amounts of compensation to affected businesses and households -- they ran a wide-scale media campaign in the US to try to clear their name and make people aware that they were working around the clock to "make things right" and get the Gulf Coast economy back on its feet again.

Finally, I was really interested in the mention of "the importance of pre-disaster cultural knowledge" (308). Prevalent among the American media stories have been reports (mostly of amazement) of how calm, organized, and "stoic" the Japanese people have seemed in the face of disaster -- patiently waiting for food, rationing fuel, no looting, maintaining orderly evacuation shelters, etc. Also, in my NGO Management class, we talked about an outside group that was trying to work with a local NGO to provide 300,000 meals of rice to affected areas -- but there were a few problems. First, the rice was not Japanese rice -- it was long-grain jasmine rice, and the well-meaning donors could not understand why the substitute would not be acceptable. Second, the rice packets came printed with a picture of an emaciated child holding their hands out to receive a bowl of rice -- an image that the Japanese would surely reject. The donating organization's lack of "cultural knowledge" prevented them from seeing the issues that would come with their donation (which did not end up working out) -- I think this will be a really important concept going forward as tons of aid continues to pour in to the Japanese community.

Other Perspectives

As I have mentioned in my blog description, I am a foreigner with the opportunity to observe Japan from the inside as they work to recover from one of their worst disasters in history. Being new to Tokyo, it is easy to forget what is going on in the north -- I notice very few abnormalities, save for most escalators being turned off for the "rail suspension due to earthquake" signs on the trains. However, I am told that Tokyo is very dark compared to normal, and every time I meet a Japanese adult I am reminded of just how unique of a time it is to be here. I am always asked "why did you come, aren't you worried" and then told "thank you for coming, thank you for supporting us". For example, before my walking tour of the Yotsuya area yesterday, my tour guide wanted to talk to everyone in my group about why we had chosen to follow through with our plan to stay in Japan, and if we had any major concerns. It is clear that the earthquake and developing situation are on the forefront of everyone's minds, even if it is not immediately apparent. 

However, reading other student`s blogs has given me yet another perspective on the situation. I am on a foreign exchange program through CIEE, and we had a Facebook group set up beforehand so once news of the earthquake and ensuing nuclear disaster broke the group message board was filled with inquiries into what our situation would be, who was still going, who was staying home, etc (as fellow-CIEE student Zack discussed in this blog post). Common themes on our message board were "what are we going to do," "is it safe," and eventually "I`m staying home". American university after American university canceled their study abroad programs in Japan and pulled all of their undergraduates out. However, my university and several others, such as Amanda's (another CIEE student), did not cancel their programs and allowed us to make the decision on our own. It eventually came clear that while the situation in Japan was very grave, the American media was sensationalizing several aspects (as usual), but my program, which was originally supposed to have upwards of 70 students, shrunk to just 26 brave souls by the time we arrived in Tokyo on April 8th. 

The news of the earthquake and ensuing decision to come were very difficult to deal with, but I cannot imagine what some of my fellow Japanese classmates went through. Reading their blog postings has given me some initial feeling to what it may have been like. My CIEE group went to a disaster preparedness center a few days ago, and we experienced a simulation of a 7.0 earthquake. It felt like shaking on a roller coaster, and I cannot believe a real building could actually shake that much. Earthquakes never happen where I am from in North Carolina, so it was interesting to read in several classmates’ blogs (such as this one) how initially they thought, "oh this is just another earthquake", but that it soon became clear this would not, in fact, be just another quake.

I found our trip to the disaster preparedness center really helpful, but it was also very informative to read what other classmates have posted about measures they had taken in their homes to prepare for earthquakes, and what they did the day of the quake. This particular classmate was especially prepared for the power outage, and it seems like all those living in a disaster-prone area should follow her lead and purchase a similar device. Overall, however, all of my Japanese classmates seem to have been very well prepared for the disaster, and it makes me feel safer and more secure about being here at this time.

A Note on Donations

I had an interesting discussion in my NGO Management seminar last night that I wanted to share regarding donations to the relief efforts. We were discussing the concept of capacity and the fact that it is possible for a specific organization to take in more money (in the form of donations, etc) than they are capable of redistributing, so the excess money actually gets wasted in the form of innefficiency, corruption, etc. It was very interesting to me that someone brought up that the Red Cross in the US has actually reached this point -- they are not being very transparent about it, but they have as much money as they can handle for the relief efforts in Tohoku, and so they have not been asking for money specifically for Tohoku -- but people are donating anyways. These donations become "unrestricted funds" that the Red Cross can use for any purpose. Long story short, people who think they are giving money to aid Tohoku, actually may not be doing so.

I asked my professor where we should donate instead, and his recommendation was actually to hold off at this time until the situation stabilizes and needs can be evaluated. He compared the situation to someone fertilizing grass -- too much coming in too soon can actually be detrimental, while a measured but continuous amount over a longer period of time will have better results!

In summary, I found this discussion a very interesting juxtaposition to the messages coming out of the media saying Donate now! Aid now! While it is true that there are needs that should be met immediately, it seems that holding off some donations until the long-term needs become apparent may actually be a better long-term recovery strategy.

Tsunami Video

As my friend who shared this link with me on Facebook put it, "You don't need to understand Japanese to feel the horror from this video..."

March 11th

March 11th, the day I left my winter internship in Wellesley, Massachusetts, I was supposed to make the drive from Boston to Raleigh, North Carolina, spend a week at the beach, and then spend a week at home making my final preparations before departure. However, that all changed when I woke up to the devastating news of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit off the coast of Sendai, Japan. The world watched as entire towns were wiped out and the tsunami then knocked out power to the nuclear plant in Fukushima, leading to a massive scramble as Japanese workers have heroically worked around the clock to attempt to prevent a major nuclear crisis. Despite their best efforts, however, some radiation has leaked into the atmosphere, adding to the growing concerns surrounding the safety and efficacy of a study abroad program in Tokyo at the current time.

I spent the first week after the quake learning as much as I could through my phone's painfully slow internet and TV's basic cable, as I was at the beach without internet or a cable box. I watched as the toll of dead or missing climbed above 20,000, with estimates that as many as 15,000 bodies may eventually be found in the Miyagi prefecture alone. I read updates on my phone about how several U.S. universities (Duke included) have canceled their study abroad programs in Japan and pulled their undergraduates from the country. However, my study abroad partner, CIEE, sent me my first program update on the day the news of the earthquake broke in the U.S., and they have continued to communicate with us as we all work to make the best decision about our participation in the program.

I fielded many concerns from family and friends about whether it was safe to come to Japan at this moment. Tokyo suffered almost no structural damage, and it appears that the situation at the nuclear plant is stabilizing (even so, Tokyo is about 150 miles away from the nuclear facility). As my dad pointed out, if it were "any foreign country other than Japan" he would be really worried, but amid the continued reports of death and destruction have come stories and videos of the Japanese waiting calmly in long lines for food and fuel, and working together to assist any survivors they can find. Despite the tragedy the country has endured, it is by no means in a state of "chaos."

CIEE and Sophia University decided that my program would proceed as planned, with a two-week delay so I arrived in Tokyo on April 8th instead of March 28th. I had been looking forward to this trip since I decided in the fall of my sophomore year to go to Japan, instead of a Spanish-speaking country, but the earthquake and tsunami have really put things into perspective. I'm hoping to be involved in some relief work this semester. Please check out the Red Cross website for continued updates or to donate to the relief efforts. The estimates of direct damages range from 16-25 trillion yen, while donations as of March 30th, 2011 had reached only 0.05 trillion yen, so Japan still needs a lot of help. Please give what you can! 


Over the next semester, this blog will serve as a publication for what we are working on in my anthropology class (Nature Culture Technology, with a special topic on the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster). Check back soon for more information!