First of all I want to clarify from my last email, the full summary of our Ohio flood relief trip can be found on our website,
www.ReliefMinistriesCCSarasota.com, the email was not the summary. You can also find links in the summary to the Wapakoneta, OH Daily News article written about us and a copy of the Dayton, OH Channel 7 news video who interviewed us while in Ohio.
The situation in Japan continues to worsen with more bodies being found, more reported missing and the rise of nuclear issues. There are still many places in Japan that have yet to be reached and the outlook continues to get worse.
I received an email from the FL VOAD that we are members of. It contains an email from the president of Japan’s VOAD and some of the issues that are going on over there.
I thought some of you might want to read what he is seeing and they are doing. Please continue to keep the Japanese people in your prayers and pray for all those who are trying to provide relief to them. Pray that they would turn to the Lord for help and comfort during this huge crisis that continues to worsen. Pray that those God wants to help the people would safely find their way and provide the relief that they need including Jesus.
Here is his email:
Dear my friends and colleagues in the US, China, Iran, Korea, Nepal, New Zealand, and Taiwan.
Thank you very much for keeping your concerns for the Earthquake Japan. I have received so many warm heartful messages from many of you that I have had no time to reply each of you. Could you please accept my apology?
I have worked at a disaster NPO (NVNAD:Nippon Volunteer Network Active in Disaster, located in Nishinomiya city, est. 1995, a small NPO, I am its president). Because it is THE MAJOR disaster, I have never had dinner at home and spent only a few hours at my office at university since I came back to Japan. Now I am in Shinkansen Superexpress train to Niigata (I will tell you why below) via Tokyo where I will talk about disaster volunteer activities through a national TV. While being in (on?) Shinkansen, it is a good (and only) chance for me to write e-mail.
Let me report you what we have done so far. Since you may be able to update some objective issues such as death toll (as of March 18, 5,694), missing (17,607), nuclear plants (very serious situarion) and so on through media in your country in your languages, I would like to share what we (NVNAD) have done since last message and what we will do from now (I would also like to add some possible research agenda for future).
<OVERVIEW>
This is the major disaster, which consists of earthquake plus tsunami plus nuclear damage. It also damaged not only urban areas, but also rural, seashore-fishermen, seashore-oil plant, snowy mountainous villages.
There are many prefectures severely hit by the earthquake/Tsunami: Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaragi, and Chiba.
Aomori: Northern end. Eastern towns and villages were severely damaged. There are a few nuclear plants which have, reportedly, no damage.
Iwate: Some villages were completely wiped out. 1905 death and 4276 missing. Hanamaki local airport has recently re-opened.
Miyagi: Sendai is not only its capital city, but also the biggest city in this region, which was severely damaged. Some villages were completely gone. At least 3158 were killed and at least 9819 missing.
Sendai International Airport also received Tsunami and has been closed.
Fukushima: It is like Iwate and Miyagi, but it has the nuclear plants.
Ibaragi: It itself received severe damages, and it is close to the nuclear plants of Fukushima.
Chiba: Narita International Airport is located. Not only metropolitan
area but also rural areas were damaged.
The biggest problem is the nuclear plants in Fukushima. It has almost occupied
media coverage. It is THE emergency of our nation as a whole. However, I think that it is difficult for ordinary people to understand the situation correctly through media because of its invisible influence, technical terms by researchers, complicated explanations, and so on. It is in very serious and dangerous situation, anyway.
According to media (mass and mini), there are many situations we should pay attention to. There was no route to reach the most severly damaged villages (getting better, but only for search and rescue). Also, there is very limited amount of gas in this region, so they can't drive. Even if we brought something, there would be no gas to return. No one knows how many residents survived and where they are...Shelters have little drinkable water, few foods, few blankets, but it was impossible to bring sufficient amount of water/food/blankets to the shelters due to the road damage (sea ports were also damaged, train rails were cut, and airports were closed). There are now 407,066 survivors at shelters. It was reported that one old person died at a shelter because there was no
blanket... However, most survivors can't leave the area partly because many of them lost some members of their family and want to find them. Even if they are dead, they need to have a chance to say good-bye. Then, the nuclear plants were getting worse. Survivors of the area were forced to evacuate to other cities/towns in Fukushima prefecture. As
the nuclear plants became worse and worse, and as conditions of shelters were getting worse, many survivors started to evacuate from their communities, if possible. Many local governments outside of the region declared that they accepted as many survivors as possible. As of yesterday, 15,000 survivors evacuated to other prefectures, including Niigata prefecture which is next to Fukushima.
Some disaster NPOs dispatched advance parties and shared information among other NPOs and people. Of course, they shouldn't and can't go into the nuclear affected areas. According to their information, many NPOs got together and formed nationwide networks at least in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe. Also, as routes to the areas started to re-open, some disaster volunteer centers began to open in each area to receive volunteers and donation goods. So, from now on, many volunteers will join the relief work in many damaged areas, I hope.
According to these pieces of informaiton, the NVNAD has made the following plan for survivors.
＜NVNAD's activity>
(1) In the area
The NVNAD will dispatch an advance team (including me) to Aomori prefecture next week. Aomori was severely damaged but not well covered by media. So, we are not sure what's going on there. Children in Aomori helped kids in Nishinomiya in 1995 Kobe earthquake. We may set up (or join an already established) a volunteer center there and send groups of volunteers from Nishinomiya/Kobe later.
(2) Around the area
Many survivors are moving from Fukushima to Niigata prefecture, which are next to each other. The NVNAD has been helping small villages in Ojiya City, Niigata prefecture since the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake, and a small village called Kariwa since the 2007 Niigata Chuetsu-Oki earthquake. Ojiya City welcomed more than 600, while Kariwa village welcomed about 200 survivors from Fukushima prefecture. They escaped
from nuclear power plants without any belongings. Ojiya and Kariwa opened shelters for them. As soon as we received this news, the NVNAD decided to help those people at the shelters via Ojiya city and Kariwa Village. Our activity had been called "Relay of Disaster Survivors.”
From Kobe to Niigata." The NVNAD extended this relay this time, "From Kobe, Niigata, to Fukushima". We have already donated underwears, shirts, ladies sanitary goods, and mattress (and whatever a survivor wants to start his/her life at the shelter). We will send volunteers by bus to Niigata. I am now in Shinkansen to Niigata to make this arrangement.
(3) In Nishinomiya
The NVNAD is a small NPO and very limited budget. So, we started to collect cash donation in Nishinomiya city. Since residents in Nishinomiya know how sad it is to experience disaster and how difficult it is to live at shelters, they have kindly donated much. Some people came to donate with tears in their eyes, while others left words for
survivors. Also, many people donated through bank and post office.
It is not a good idea to send donation goods, unless they are perfectly organized. So, the NVNAD, City of Nishinomiya, and Social Welfare Council of Nishinomiya have had a series of meetings and will soon take action. If we agree to collect and send donation goods, the NVNAD will coordinate volunteers for this work, too.
The NVNAD is always "survivor-oriented" and keeps long-term perspective. As for (1) and (2), we will support them for a long time, say, 10 to 20 years. For example, we will support survivors from Fukushima not only in Niigata, but also in Fukushima when they finally come back to their hometown for its revovery. To do so, we will spend cash donation in effective ways - So, cash donation directly to the NVNAD is most welcome at this point of time (In Japan, cash donated to Red Cross and other public administrations will be converged and "donation committee" distributes the total amount to each and every survivor according to his/her damage. Donation to an NPO is different.
<For (future) research>
I am not ready and the situation is not ready for our social science studies, but let me self-brain-storm:
- Many people seem to have little knowledge about nuclear plant. Science communication is a big issue. How can we communicate what a specialist says to lay people? Some people are emotional against anything nuclear because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while others are just indifferent to such a historical, political issue. Some concerns about environmental issue (regardless of supporting nuclear power or not), while others just don't care. How can we develop more effective ways of communication
about science?
- Effects of displacement and resettlement should be practically studied. How can they (we help) keep their original culture, how can they make sense of life, how can we form a new community between old/original residents and newcomers (i.e., survivors)? We, Japan, have similar experience during WWII. Many children were forced to evacuate from city area to avoid US bombers. We can use records and studies of this historical event. Anthropology and development study have accumulated research on this issue. I will follow the survivors in Kariwa/Ojiya for a long time and would like to think about this issue.
- Emotional aspects of disaster: I have experienced that when my shirt shows "Kobe", survivors in disaster area, say, Niigata, cry and say, "I am sorry, but I had no time to help people in Kobe. Nontheless, you come to help me far away from Kobe...(tears and tears)." When survivors of 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake visited Kariwa village after its 2007 earthquake, they had no words with each other, but emotionally understood with each other in tears. There are social and emotional representations of disaster/experiencing disaster. It may be examined by comparing those living in a community experiencing disaster with those people without any disaster experiences in the following items: how they represent/imagine survivors' lives, how they try to help/support survivors, how they perceive other people.
- This earthquake consists of Kobe, Niigata Chuetsu, and Nuclear power. It also consists of urban disaster and rural disaster. When we go to the urban earthquake area, we would examine how lessons from Kobe had been learned. When we go to the rural earthquake area, we would examine how lessons from 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake had been learned. When we visit Tsunami area, we may apply our knowledge of historical tsunami
disasters and recent tsunami in Chili and Indonesia.
- It is time to re-think about modernaization in Japan. Philosophy (not only Western, but Eastern), history, religion, literature, sociology, psychology....numerous perspectives should be taken into account.
- We can re-examine how volunteerism has grown up in Japanese society. Some people try to institutionalize disaster volunteers, others (including NVNAD) try to stay with each individual survivor. The latter group don't care whether it is nationwide or not. In other words, organized volunteer activities versus grass-roots volunteer activities. Which is better for response, for recovery, for preparedness? How can
we make use of both system for survivors?
Shinkansen will soon arrive at the station. Let me go. Thank you very much for reading this long message. We will try to live with the survivors!
Tomo
Tomohide ATSUMI, Ph.D.
Professor, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka Univ., Japan
http://cdv.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/ President, Nippon Volunteer Network Active in Disaster
http://www.nvnad.or.jp/ Fulbright Visitng Scholar at UCLA from Oct. 2010 to June 2011
Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Proclaiming the Lord in all we do,
In season and out of season.
Lord Bless,
Curt & Mary Jo Hencye
Relief Ministries Calvary Chapel Sarasota
Website:
www.ReliefMinistriesCCSarasota.com Contact info:
Curt:
941-915-9560
Email:
Curt@ReliefMinistriesCCSarasota.com Skype-Hencye
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