Nearly one month after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku region of Japan, many Japanese families are beginning to get their lives back in order as increased international relief begins to pour in from all over the world.
To contribute to the relief efforts, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies sponsored a panel discussion Wednesday regarding Japan’s response to the disaster, as well as a benefit concert from local performer Mitsuki Dazai, who played several melodic pieces on a koto, a 13-stringed, traditional Japanese musical instrument.
“There is much suffering in Japan right now, and we worry daily for our citizens and loved ones back home,” Takamichi Okabe, the consul-general of Japan in Portland, said in a letter to the audience. “We are confident that with the help and friendship of good people like you, we will persevere and recover even stronger than before — strengthened by your support and all of your warm feelings, we will move forward with determination and great hope.”
From a geological standpoint, University physics professor Gregory Bothun explained that Japan is especially susceptible to earthquakes because it lies near the juncture of five separate tectonic plates — the North American, Eurasian, Philippine and Pacific plates — that shift constantly beneath the earth’s crust. As a result, Bothun said, Japan is the “most statistically likely place on the planet to have the strongest earthquakes.”
“This is not an unexpected event, just an unlucky event for it to happen now,” Bothun said. “Within a century time frame, one expects these kinds of events to occur. I think that the disaster that happened in Japan will happen again in our lifetime somewhere in a populated area.”
Nevertheless, Bothun said several factors may have ultimately contributed to the “disaster that was waiting to happen.” Bothun explained Japan is the fourth largest nuclear power producer in the world and currently has 54 nuclear reactors on the small island nation — the largest land density of nuclear plants in the world.
“The long-term goal of Japan was to reduce their carbon footprint by increasing nuclear energy production rather than investing in renewable energy ­— a move that any other country in the world would regard as unwise and unsupportable, because you would eventually run out of raw nuclear fuel,” Bothun said. “Japan was totally committed to the nuclear route as of the mid-1980s, so this is sort of a disaster that was waiting to happen.”
Bothun said rolling blackouts continue to plague the region because there is no way to replace or substitute for the energy that has been lost. However, Bothun said many people have been able to readily adapt to power outages because of the advisory resources that government provides to its citizens, including a website that lets people know where the blackouts are going to take place.
Beyond the infrastructure effects of the disaster, the human toll has began to take shape, as well. Karen Kelsky, a cultural anthropologist and University advisor for the McNair Scholars Program, said the elderly accounted for a large number of the survivors, because of decreasing birth rates and increasing age rates among older Japanese citizens. However, immediately after the quake, Kelsky said citizens immediately mobilized their efforts and resources to take care of other people in their community in the best way possible by searching for survivors, cooking food, and offering clothes, bedding and resources to those who needed it the most.
“As an anthropologist, I was struck by what I have to call the durability of Japanese cultural values even at a time of intense crisis, and foremost among them a love for orderliness ­— it was the survivors themselves who organized themselves,” Kelsky said. “I was amazed at the stories of people instantly organizing themselves into kitchen brigades and taking whatever food they could find … to make food for the survivors.”
For many Japanese people, this adherence to traditional cultural values goes much deeper. Mark Unno, a University associate professor of religious studies, said the nuclear power plant workers who have been working around the clock to avert a large-scale nuclear disaster are a prime example. Unno explained that all of these workers — who have been dubbed the Fukushima Fifty — are aware of the health risks, including the possibility of death, but they are willing to make the sacrifice to save others.
“We live, arguably, in a very difficult point in human history in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and all of the interlocking puzzles that are involved … but not only this person’s response to his local situation but the overwhelmingly helpful response around the world I think shows the human capacity and impulse to reach out to help and work together,” Unno said as he fought back tears. “The human species is very unique. No other species in the history of the planet has dominated the environment and the resources of the planet as our species has done, but I think this event clearly shows that this is now the case and that the real power of our species is not technological but human.”
As news of relief efforts and the nuclear crisis pours out from Japan, many harrowing stories of survival are beginning to surface from the affected areas, while at the same time many families in the United States with members in Japan are trying grapple with the impact of the disaster several thousand miles away.
When Nobuto Ohtsu heard about the earthquake and powerful tsunami that inundated his hometown of Fukushima, he immediately called his mother in Tokyo after unsuccessfully trying to reach his grandparents, who were in Fukushima at the time. Ohtsu, a third-year international student from Japan, said he was finally able to reach his grandparents by Skype the next day and urged to them to evacuate to Tokyo. Even though they did not want to leave their home in Fukushima, Ohtsu said they reluctantly moved to Tokyo but have recently returned home.
Ohtsu considers his family to be particularly fortunate, because many are unable to leave the region, as natural resources are extremely scarce. In fact, Ohtsu said many of the affected areas still experiencing sporadic aftershocks lack clean drinking water, electricity and gasoline. Although he plans to return to Fukushima once this term is over, Ohtsu said he is primarily concerned about the economic impact that the disaster will have on the small island country.
“I feel a little bit worried, but I decided to go because I want to see what is happening there,” Ohtsu said. “So, even if a problem does happen, I will go back there.”
However, others are concerned and unsure of what the future holds for them.
Saki Shibata, a third-year international student from Fukushima, said she has not bought her ticket to return back to Japan because her parents are particularly concerned about the disaster’s aftermath.
“I’m really worried about that, so I haven’t decided when I should go back,” Shibata said. “My parents don’t want me to come back and told me that it may be better for me to stay in the United States.”
Nevertheless, some are optimistic that the Japanese will continue to persevere as they have done for many years.
“One thing that I do know from having done quite a bit of research and traveling in Japan’s rural areas is that although there is decline, there is great determination,” Kelsky said. “Japanese people who insisted on living in the countryside have great perseverance, and they don’t give up easily, especially the elderly.”
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