The use of the word "anniversary" doesn't seem quite right - I'm more accustomed to the word relating to happy things such as a wedding anniversary, or even the anniversary of someone's death but of someone who made it to their older years, as a celebration of their long life.
3.11 is an anniversary for the deaths of 15,881people, likely another 2,668 as their bodies are still not found, and it certainly isn't something to celebrate about.
I was in Japan when the earthquake happened.
I don't have a blog entry of the day though my entries date back to 2010 as I went on a slight Blog hiatus, but I have an entry at my Japanese blog. I was still an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) then, and it was the day of one of my favourite school's graduation ceremonies (the school year ending in March here). I'd tweeted about how moved I was by the ceremony and how much I'd miss the graduating students when the ceremony had finished at 13:44...2 hours later, the tiny island of Japan shook heavily, and within minutes waves of horror swept away towns and vast numbers of its populations.
All this time, I was wondering quite pathetically, why my keitai phone wouldn't work.
Until I switched on TV. Before my eyes, all channels had been taken over by warnings and updates on what was happening in Japan, in this country, in my second home. There were images of the island of Japan with areas glowing in yellow and red, and unbelievable footage of what I'd only seen in films. Apparently the magnitude in my little town in Hokkaido of which I lived in at the time came up to about a 3, but perhaps because I'd been rushing around at the time as I had plans to meet up with a friend, I hadn't felt a thing.
Therefore, things remained as normal where I was. There was no shortage of food, no aftershocks, no deaths, no nuclear warnings, no public transport troubles with usual commuting to school and work.. The only difference was that of the TV, which didn't revert back to regular channels for a fair while. Even then, it was hard to believe all that I saw.
It was when I saw footage of Tokyo and other areas of Kanto being struck with a much higher shake of upper 5 that reality finally settled in. I have family in Tokyo, of which my relatives were all safe and unhurt, therefore I had often visited the Kanto area. Seeing the ground of some places I know and had stepped foot on cracking up shocked me, and from that shock, the footage of the tsunami and earthquake in the worse struck areas stabbed at me.
I found myself sobbing in front of the screen in pity.
In my heart and mind I wanted to do so much to help, yet when I look back I haven't done much. I donated to the Red Cross in the month of the disaster and went on a half marathon run in June 2011 to raise money for another charity, 'Make the Heaven - Megumi-Japan' which was recommended to me (I hate sports let alone running, so this was quite a big thing for me nonetheless). Since then, I took part in and donated to 'Charity Santa' at Christmas last year, along with some collected donations, as it gave some of its money to the kids of Touhoku, and at the weekend I donated to a charity concert which was held at the train station of my city. Yesterday, I did a little more shopping then usual and gave in my receipt at Aeon supermarket, which were holding a 3 day campaign where 1% of the amounts on the receipts that were handed in counted as a donation towards the affected areas.
Little things which hopefully have made some difference, but not enough. It's been all over the media that in these 2 years, though there has been change, things have been moving at an extremely slow pace. There are still hundreds of people homeless having to live in temporary housing, areas are still in ruins, many are still without stable jobs and children have nowhere to go outside to play.
In one of the interviews of the victims, an old lady cried, "I'm losing faith."
It's heartbreaking.
It's so easy to forget when we, as residents of the unaffected areas, busy ourselves in our daily lifestyles, moping about the little things that upset us. Because think about it - they really are little. I of course agree that we must consider our own misfortunes and continue to enjoy our lives as it is, but I urge you all to give an extra thought to these victims, or victims of any disaster struck or war-ridden country in the world, in fact.
I am guilty to this ignorance too, which is why I wish to be more active in Charity work this year, as I noted in my New Year Resolutions.
The one thing I most definitely want to do, which I kept saying but never succeeded in doing, is to visit one of the disaster struck areas. Volunteer there if I can research more into it.
Don't give up, Japan.
You are a dear second home to me now more than ever, and I owe you a lot.
Sending my love, best wishes and support to those affected.
As another victim in an interview stated, "We hope to see a more peaceful sea."
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