TO ALL FRIENDS AN COLLEAGUES,
Our plan to make a field trip in the Palestine/Jordan region was suddenly cancelled, and we were asked to come to the Iwate Prefecture totally destroyed by the 9.0 earthquake and the monstrous tidal wave. After spending two days gathering needed supplies like food, dry batteries, portable toilet among others, but found out even in Northern Kyushu, these items were found in short supply. We loaded them on a light truck to the airport and boarded a JAL flight. The airline gave us volunteer’s free tickets, but these supplies weighing 330 KG cost us surcharge of 190,000 yen (ouch!).
After reaching Yamagata Prefecture by air, we took land route to Takada City in Iwate Prefecture to see the disaster with my own eyes, which was far beyond our imagination. Everything we saw had such a real-life impact on us, which is never conveyed by TV news, pictures. It is difficult to describe the scenes in so many spoken words！ It is truly impossible to do it in writing.
We have seen in the past such major disasters like the typhoon of 1954 and the ensuing wild fire, the sinking of the large passenger steamship DoyaMaru, the eruption of Shimabara volcano followed soon afterward by the Hanshin major quake, and finally the recent devastation by the Haiti quake. All these reminded us over and over of the fearfulness of major natural disasters, but this year's Eastern Japan earthquake destroyed our past conceptual image of natural disaster itself. It was, as it were, an experience of slipping into a totally different dimensional world when listening to the accounts of the victims' personal experiences, as if seeing the "hell itself" according to them.
Most shocking was the 50-meter high crest built by two tidal waves colliding one another with all the debris of homes and office buildings collapsing instantaneously to the side of the weaker wave flattening the whole community right before the survivors' eyes. It was unimaginable to me, while watching the thick layers of debris piling up in front as far as I could see, that Tsunami can ever rise so high up in the sky totally destroying your entire community. I have never seen such a thing on TV or still pictures.
One section of our group began distributing the generators donated by Fuji Heavy Industries in sections where power supply infrastructure was totally gone while other section began treating the injured.
At this point in time, most victims seemed still determined to fight back, which deeply touched our hearts. But, in another sense, they are acting as if to deny accepting the fact of life, that is, to live in a dream world by refusing to see the reality.
In the evening, we discussed this situation with the medical service members and agreed that once the victims will be forced, like it or not, to see the reality, many might suffer severe mental depression giving rise to suicide cases. Japan has always been known for a relatively smaller number of alienists, and the government must take some positive actions in anticipation of such problems.
This time around, however, a large number of countries and organizations around the world are offering their helping hands, however, what worries us is the fact that, in Haiti, the international support has tended to slow down.
It is hoped that the people of Japan should have compassion and understanding for the victims, while also coping with other domestic problems such as the issues confronting the people of Okinawa.
Lat but not the least problem for us is the lack of prospect of taking a shower or bath in the near future since it is becoming worse by the day. (For my pictures, access: http://www.sbpark.com/inn42e.html)
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