Damage from the earthquake

5 months have passed since 3.11 Earthquake.

I got a fax from the owner of our Fukushima branch school buiding. It said the city found out the damage of the building is getting bigger due to the aftershocks and is very dangerous.  I must close the office by the end of August.
I was of course surprised to hear this. But I cannot complain when I think of people who had to suddenly stop their business after the earthquake. It just means it was that big.
One of our staff members found a big crack on the third floor of the building in April and took  a picture. He again went to the same floor and found it was much bigger. Well, we'd better get out of this place!!

Tono Watanabe is an artist in Date-city. He asked us to translate his poem into English. He has a message for the people all over the world.
Please check his page!
http://ateliertono.blogspot.com/2011/07/from-all-of-us-in-fukushima.html

Children need to evacuate!

I know some places in Europe are offering projects to accept children from Fukushima. But think of the number of children. We need more and more projects. If you know any project that is to accept people from Fukushima to be away from radiation, please let us know!

Police Cars

While driving, I realize I often see police cars from other prefectures. It usually doesn’t happen in Japan because they have territories and never encroach on each other’s. However, after the earthquake, many police cars came into Tohoku area to help us out. It’s very encouraging.

I also find my feeling toward the sound of helicopters got changed. Actually I didn’t like the sound of helicopters. It reminded me of a war movie, “Apocalypse Now” every time I heard it. But now it’s a symbol of someone’s rescue to me. Maybe they are carrying some food or medicine for those who lost their homes. Maybe they’re hurrying for someone who is sick and waiting for a rescue. I look up, find the helicopter and pray!!

Green Hope!

A farmer whose greenhouses were damaged by tsunami spoke about his experience on TV.

He lives in Soma City near the coast. On March 11, Tsunami came into his greenhouses, where he grew asparagus. Tsunami left sand from the sea and mud from the nearby paddy fields in his greenhouses. The damage looked too big and he almost gave up. However, volunteers came to his farm. He didn’t expect a lot because they are not farmers and from far away cities. But to his surprise, they worked VERY hard. They were all wet with sweat. They shoveled out the mud and were even running when they went and dumped the mud. He felt very encouraged to see all those people. At the same time he was ashamed that he wanted to give it up. Now he is working on his farm taking care of his asparagus again. He wants those volunteers to see that now the asparagus is growing thanks to their work.

I was also surprised to see the asparagus is growing normally because many times I heard experts say the land was damaged by salt water and it wouldn’t be used for farming.

Anyway, it was really great scene to see—green asparagus coming out of brown ground. It looked very bright to me, just like a hope for recovery.

I went to the art musium in Fukushima City.  I enjoyed the peaceful space and time there.

Big Crack!

My husband and I went shopping in Nasu Garden Mall on May 4th. We used the Tohoku Express Way. The road was very bumpy. We can tell it was fixed quickly but not in the best way. It will take a long time to have the smooth express way as before.

Some people think we should not go out too much only for our own pleasure when we think of those who are living in shelters. But actually people in suffered area say, "Please go out and enjoy yourselves and buy things from Tohoku. That will help us a lot." 

When the cherry blossom viewing season came to Tokyo, the governor of Tokyo asked people to refrain from having drinking parties outside. But it caused an economical damage to businesses not only in Tohoku but other places throughout Japan. The whole society is really closely connected!

On our way back home, we found a big crack on the road!!  Even after 2 months, it is still left undone. The road is of course closed. It is nearby place, maybe about 15 minutes from my house. We also found a big crack in the paddy field.

Good Song!!

Inawashirokos is a rock group made after March 11 Earthquake by 4 members who are all from Fukushima. Its name was taken from a famous lake in the center of Fukushima, Lake Inawashiro.
Now it's like a theme song for poeple in Fukushima. It sends out the message that we all love Fukushima.
Try it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CQJuAN2BEY

Today I went for jogging along Abukuma River. We saw the snow rabbit on the side of Mt. Azuma. When spring comes, the snow starts melting and it looks just like a rabbit. We call it "Snow Rabbit". It tells us the time for sowing.

The white part on the left is the Snow Rabbit.

It's also a season of peach blossoms. Fukushima's peaches are very sweet. But this year can we really enjoy them?

I also went to a bridge called "Showa Ohashi". It's unpassable after the earth quake. I saw a gap at the end of the bridge. Maybe part of the road sank about 20 cm.

Children Cannot Play Outside.

Now Prefecture office says children shouldn't play at some parks in Fukushima city over 1 hour a day since the radiation level is higher. At some schools in Date city and Fukushima city, students shouldn't have outside activities. So they are now taking turns in using their gym.

I found the radiation map in the paper as of April 24th. The radiation is coming toward Date city obviously.

I don't like this!



Petals on the ground.

 It rained a few days ago. I was worried about it. I thought the rain includes radiation and it gives us a bad effect. But I was relieved when I heard what Professor Yamashita said.  He came to Date city and spoke about radiation. He says rain cleans the air and washes away radiation on the ground. According to his speech, the radiation level now we have is very low and we don’t have to worry about it. It really eased my feeling.

I was feeling ok until I heard some stories from my husband last night.

One story is about a boy who evacuated with his family from Fukushima to Chiba Prefecture. The family asked an elementary school in Chiba to accept their son. The school asked the family if they want to tell everyone that they are from Fukushima or hide it. The family didn’t understand its meaning. But anyway, the son was introduced to the class and he found his seat was right in front of the teacher and nobody was taking the seats around him. He couldn’t stand it and moved back to Fukushima.

Another story is about cars. Every car has a number plate. It shows where it comes from. So people easily find cars from Fukushima. Some people write graffiti on the car from Fukushima. Some tell the driver to go away.

These stories made me feel down. Those people who had to evacuate did nothing wrong. They are victims. They lost their houses, family members and even their hometown. I was thinking that Japanese people can unite as one and go forth for recovery. But now I doubt it.

I can hear every day some famous people appear on TV and give messages to work together. They say “You are not alone. We will walk together.” Hey, is it true? Are you walking with people in Fukushima? Maybe only with people in Miyagi and Iwate, you mean?

We are not germs. Please don’t treat us like this.

Cherry Blossoms in Fukushima

I went to Hanamiyama on April 14th. Hanamiyama is a very popular sightseeing spot. Until last year too many people came to see the cherry blossoms. It was so crowded that I didn’t want to go. But this year, there were fewer people because of the radiation problem. In this critical problem, cherry blossoms started to bloom. I hope we can also bloom even in this hardship and give some inspiration to people around the world.

Japanese government now says people in Iitate should evacuate because the integrated radiation quantity is going to reach a certain level. And there was a sad story. One family talked about evacuation. They had an old man who was 102 years old. And he was found dead. He killed himself. The news didn’t say the reason. I guess he didn’t want to be a burden to his family. What do you think about his decision?

One month

One month has passed. And today after 17:00, we had a big aftershock. Its level was 5 in Date-city and 6 in Iwaki-city. Then the quake keeps coming back every few minutes. I decided to cancel today’s class and came back home. There occurred a land slide in Iwaki. 3 or 4 houses were damaged. The rescue members are now trying to save people trapped in the rubble.

What a day!

Bad News

I found that Taeko, the girl in my last blog, had to move to another shelter. Oh, no!
The ceiling of the gym she was staying fell last Thursday due to the big aftershock. I heard most of the people went to Date gym. But I don't know if she really went to Date gym.  And that day, some children in the shelter started going to Toryo Junior High School. Now they have to move to Date Junior High School.
They cannot feel settled yet. I feel very sorry for them.

Aftershock!

We had a big earthquake again about 23:30 last night. The level was over 5! I went downstairs. I heard something broke. It was a vase. Until today, we have had over 450 aftershocks. They count only level 3 and over. So if we include small ones, the number should be so big. We got used to the tremor. But last night’s was big. Mt heart pounded. About 100 people were injured, the news said.



Taeko is speaking on skype.



David, our English teacher, is from America. A university in Illinois held a fundraising event. On the evening of April 4th Amrican time, about 50 students gathered and made 1,000 paper cranes. As part of the event, they invited us to talk about the earthquake on Skype. A 16 year-old girl, who evacuated from Minami Soma city, came to our school and talked about her experience. She said she wants “hope” that she can go back to her hometown.

It appeared on the local newspaper on the 7th.

April 4th

Mr. Shunichi Yamashita, a professor at Nagasaki University, visited Fukushima and gave speeches about radiation. His speech is very easy to understand. He also gave us hope, while most of the media was giving us only dreadful facts.

He said:

  "In the area between 10 – 20km from the nuclear plant, those who have already been evacuated might have been exposed to about 1mSv of radiation. However, there is no difference between several micro-SV and 100mSV in terms of their effect in causing cancer.

  "It should also be noted that the effect of radiation of exposure, 100 times of 1mSv and 100mSv at a time, is very different. The people we should be worrying about in regards to radiation exposure are those working at the site of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. We need to think about how to secure their health.  Otherwise people do not need to worry about radiation exposure.

  "It is argued that the effect of low-level radiation exposure on health conditions cannot be demonstrated. However, 'no evidence of no effect', does not necessarily mean we should worry about the effect. It is understandable that people fear the radiation exposure because it is invisible, but radiation can be measured in scientific ways. That is, we have a means to prevent harm from radiation. We should not panic. I would ask you to behave in a rational manner as a member of the society."

http://smc-japan.sakura.ne.jp/eng/archives/1364

But he also referred Fukushima as the third radiation exposed area in Japan following Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He encouraged us to be the symbol of the recovery from the radiation accident.

Tomorrow, some of us will talk with a professor and students in America on skype about the earthquake.
I heard they are now raising fund for Japan and making paper cranes. I hope it goes well.

April 1



My house has no fence now.



The fence at my house was taken down yesterday. It became unstable after the earthquake. So we decided to take it down. Maybe this is the biggest damage we got. We have to wait for the new fence for a while because of the lack of materials.

Today, I went to the gym in Yanagawa, Date-city for a volunteer work. There are 230 evacuees. 4 volunteers got together. We waited in a room, where we were supposed to take care of 15 children. We saw children playing outside. We thought they would come in soon. But nobody came in. What’s the matter with this? After 1 hour, we were just dismissed. I heard the connection obetween needs and helps is messed up.

I know people are working hard. But maybe the way is not efficient. Hey, somebody help!!

Today is April 1. In Japan, usually the new school or business year starts today. I saw on TV that some major companies had initiation ceremonies. They accepted new workers. Great! But we have to remember the companies which were planning to hire new workers had to cancel their offers. Those who lost jobs are 18 after high school or 22 after university. Just sad!

Happy Island

地震以来、毎日インターネットや新聞、テレビなどで情報を収集しています。

でも情報だけ集めても、気持ちが落ち着かなくなるばかり。

最近連絡のなかった友達からの久しぶりのメールも、「福島県外に避難しました」というものばかり。

私は１９９４年１月にアメリカ西海岸のノースリッジというところで、大地震に遭いました。地震から１ヶ月後、私は帰国しました。

今は帰るところは他にないので、避難できるところもありません。

ラジオからこんな曲↓が頻繁に流れました。歌手は毎日ラジオ局に来てライブで歌っていました。こんな非常事態の中、毎日どこかに通って仕事をする人がいることに、少し心が落ち着いたことを思い出しました。たった２週間前だけれど。

福島は、（幸）福の島です。さぁ、がんばっぺ！  Mariko. S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_U1WB7fq7o&feature=youtu.be

Since the earthquake, I’ve been trying to gather information through Internet, newspapers and TV news.  I get emails from my old friends telling me they have evacuated from Fukushima prefecture. The more information I get, the more restless I feel.

I experienced another big earthquake in Northridge in America in January, 1994. One month later I came back to Japan. But now, I have nowhere to go back for safety.

I heard a certain song on the radio very often. (check the address above) The singer came to the radio station and sang the same song over and over again. I remember feeling a little easier when I came to think about this man coming to his workplace and doing his job daily even in this emergency. Only 2 weeks have passed since then.

The Chinese characters of Fukushima literally mean “a happy island”.  All right, let’s try our best to make it a happy island again!  Gambappe! (In dialect)

Mariko. S

 

Nobody knows?

Hi, I got this link from a friend of mine. I'm sharing it with you here.

http://www.dariennewsonline.com/news/article/Japanese-nuke-utility-apologizes-again-and-again-1310295.php

As one of the people who are actually living here, I'm kind of tired of listening to all the press releases. I cannot tell which is right or wrong. I decided to check the information once a day!  Unless, I cannot do anything other than watching TV or checking all the informative sites online. And I would be even more confused.
I don't know if this attitude is good or bad. But maybe to be stable, I'm trying to ignore something that seems to be inconvenient for me. What do you think?  A. Suzuki

About Hobara Elementary School

The building of Hobara elementary school has been damaged. Nobody is allowed to enter the building. So elementary school students will go to Toryo Junior High School starting in April.
The new school building has been under construction since last year. It was supposed to be completed next January. But it seems to be hard to finish it by that time due to the lack of materials.
For about a year, Hobara Elementary School and Toryo Junior High School have to share the building. Is it possible?

Sad...

Yesterday, I learned a 65-year-old man in Sukagawa killed himself. He was a farmer. As everyone knows some kinds of veges in Fukushima found to be contaminated by radioactive materials, the government announced it and prohibited to sell them. Now the market doesn't accept all the veges from Fukushima. Actually it is not only about Fukushima but Tochigi and Ibaraki.
The man lost his hope and killed himself.
It made me think about the weakness and the strength of humanbeings.
Over 190,000 people are in shelters, losing everything, literally everything. But they seem to be very strong. They are trying to stand up again. And all the kind helps go to them. I feel the warmth of humanbeings. I heard some young boys and girls are working as volunteers in shelters and they say they want to rebuild their community. Now they've got a motive to live forward. In this sense, I think we can help each other and live together.
The man who killed himself had his family and property. But he gave up. Why was it? Was it because of the upcoming fear? And is there any ways to help those people in despair?

I also learned a woman from Fukushima was not accepted into a facility because of a fear of radiation she might have.  Finally, it started. I worried about this. Maybe people or anything from Fukushima will be discriminated in some ways from now on. It's sad. But there should be a way for us to overcome this. I want to witness how Fukushima overcomes this problem however long it may take. I'm filled with love toward my own hometown. I'll never forsake this place.

March 28 Monday

Mt. Azuma from Hobara

Today is a lovely day with blue sky and bright sun, though the wind is a bit cold.

I start my cram school classes today. I hear people are coming back to their homes. In about 10 days or so, schools will start. Even though the radiation problem is still here, parents want their children to be back at school. I also think children need to be with their friends.

Fukushima Prefecture started accepting those children in shelters into public schools.

Measurement value of the environmental radioactivity

As of 9 a.m. March 28, 2011

2.87 (normal value 0.04)

 I picked up this information from the site below.

http://www.worldvillage.org/fia/kinkyu_english.php

I also picked up a frequently asked question. It's something I was concerned about, too.

Q. Is Well Water safe?

A. Generally speaking, well water is rainwater that is naturally filtered through many layers of soil before becoming ground water. Furthermore, various forms of cover (such as lids), which prevent rainwater or other foreign matters from contaminating the water, usually protect the well. Therefore, it is likely that well water is less affected by radioactivity in comparison to tap water, whose sources are open rivers and streams.

March 26

We didn’t have water for about a week. It was the hardest part. All the big shops, which are mostly branch shops, were closed the next day. But small local shops were open. Most of the shop owners said the same thing. “We'll keep this shop open. Don’t worry. Come tomorrow, too.” It was a big relief.

Now most of branch shops are also open. Restaurants are open, too. Normal days are coming back little by little, but it's still difficult to buy gasoline, and we still have the reactor problem.

Water in a part of Tsukidate, Date-city was contaminated by radioactive materials. The water in most of Date-city has no problem. But many people, including residents of Date-city, think all the water in this city is contaminated. They bought all the bottles of mineral water from the shops. Now I don’t see any bottled mineral water here. Information is very important. But sometimes it causes too much fear in people’s mind.

The earthquake

This is all the itsy-bitsy detail about a small community in Fukushima Prefecture, which is about 60 kilometers away from the nuclear power plant.

March 11th, 2011, the earthquake occurred at 14:46.

It was the largest earthquake I have ever experienced in my life.

(I am in my fifties, by the way.)



The cabinet I saved.
No glasses inside now.
We put the books back.



I was at our office in Date-city. The upper part of the cabinet behind me was shaking and moving forward. I tried my hardest to hold it back.

I was thinking it should end soon. But it just kept on.

The first one stopped. I managed to save the glasses and plates in the cabinet.

So silly! In this crisis, I was trying to keep this place tidy!

When I went outside, I saw roof tiles on the ground and cracks on the walls.

Then the second one came, and soon the next one. It went on and on.

Still I didn't realize how bad it was. I went home and watched TV.

Then I saw all the horrible things on the coast.

2 weeks have passed. We still have earthquakes every day.

Sometimes the tremor goes on for a long time.  (A.Suzuki)