Life after the earthquake

A multi-dimensional national disaster – an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear threat from a damaged power plant – that is the situation Japan found itself in on March 11th 2011. Since then, how have the affected areas been recovering? What is the situation like today, in both infrastructure and the lives of ordinary people living in the aftermath?

This September, seven Imperial College students (Ryan Browne, James Li, Emilien Dupont, Colin Say, Yingkun Hou, Dolan Miu and Faizi Freemantle) travelled to Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Tohoku Region, on the Eastern coast of Japan to conduct a recovery support project. We aimed to impact the area on three separate levels – the community, public, and educational sectors. We wanted to find out the reality of life during and following a disaster of this scale.

On arrival in Rikuzentakata, we toured the city with a local guide. Our first impressions were of shock and horror – ruined buildings, half-stood as empty shells, only the foundations of houses remained to litter flat expanses of ground, and the roads were still being laid as we drove. The piles of debris that had been collected immediately after the disaster still remained, half-covered in grass. We were able to see the key symbol of hope for the region, the ‘Miracle Pine Tree’, a single pine tree on the coastline that had withstood the force of tsunami whilst 70,000 other trees around it perished. The City Hall lost a third of its employees to the tsunami, and currently operates from a temporary site. We visited Mr Toba and Mr Kubota, the Mayor and Vice-Mayor, to hear their experience of the disaster and to discuss the future of the city. The recovery will take decades, owing not just to the scale of the clear-up operation, but also to the slow process of governmental approval.

The following days, we visited primary schools to talk to the children there, as well as cleaning the school windows, and holding English activities for the children affected by the disaster. It was amazing to see the children so full of life and spirit despite their hardship. We worked at Hirota Harbour on the coastline for two days, helping the scallop fishermen there with cleaning activities. The scallop industry in Rikuzentakata used to be renowned, but following the disaster, their business had been severely affected, through loss of equipment, and also a fear in the people to eat scallops from the surrounding waters. We hoped that our visit may boost the profile of the fishermen again, and our activities there were filmed by the NHK.

On our last day in Rikuzentakata, we travelled to temporary housing sites for people who had lost their homes, to set up an English style café. The people who live in these homes suffered not just the loss of their possessions and family members, but a complete upheaval of their community. The temporary housing took months to be built, and has cramped living conditions and poor insulation for the winter. We wanted to bring together the people who live there and offer them enjoyment outside of their daily routine.

Following our time in Rikuzentakata, we travelled to Tokyo to meet with representatives from professional organisations such as the Ministry of Defence, The Japanese Committee for UNICEF, and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency; as well as student-led groups such as Tokyo University of Foreign Studies For Tohoku, Waseda University Volunteer Centre, and Youth For 3.11. The purpose of these discussions was to find out how they had separately dealt with the Earthquake, and to put forward ideas for how International volunteers can contribute to the recovery effort.

I believe our project was a life-changing experience for those involved, and we successfully fulfilled our aim of positively impacting the different social levels. In any case, I would certainly encourage anyone to travel to Tohoku region, away from the immediate coastline large cities like Sendai continue on relatively unscathed, there are countless areas of natural beauty such as Matsushima Bay, and the entire area can feel the benefit of tourism and international interest.

Our project was organised by Action for Japan UK, an organisation founded by UK graduate students following the disaster, and now co-run by Imperial College students. If you would like to get involved in Action for Japan UK’s activities, please speak to any of those involved, email actionforjapanuk@gmail.com, or visit actionforjapan-uk.net for more information.