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.