Japan: United Japan Tsumani Relief, Tohoku

We have just spent a week in the Miyagi Prefecture in Northern Japan, in an area around Sendai City, helping with the tsunami relief effort as a part of the United Japan team from Jesus Lifehouse church. We teamed up with a group from Samaritan's Purse, who provided a lot of the resources we needed to help the local residents get on with their lives following the disaster.

On 11 March 2011 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan, its epicentre 72km east of the Oshika Peninsula. It was the most powerful earthquake to have hit Japan, and one of the top 5 most powerful since records began in 1900. 10-30 minutes later, a tsunami wave of heights reported up to 8m hit the coast of Japan. To date, there have been 15,457 confirmed deaths.

Overlooking Ishinomaki Bay, Miyagi Prefecture, an area on the coast that was swamped by the tsunami. The peak height of the tsunami wave observed here was more than 7.6m

 The same view before the tsunami

 After

 

These flowers and paper cranes on the hill overlooking the bay mark 100 days since the tsunami struck.

Our work with United Japan focused on the village of Shindate in the Miyagi prefecture. Here, many of the homes were destroyed, and many of the residents were without insurance. We were able to hear firsthand their incredible stories of survival. 3 months since the tsunami, many of the houses that were destroyed beyond repair have been bulldozed into piles of twisted metal and rubble. What remains is an enormous clean up job - which seemed overwhelming to us as visitors, and must seem even more so to the people living there. Some are still living in refuge shelters, whilst others have chosen to return to live in their homes and help with the clean up effort.

It is difficult to grasp the level of devastation. Around every corner, there is a mangled wreck of a building, an overturned car, piles of rubbish, oil, broken glass an other debris washed up by the tsunami. The dominant colour palate is greys and browns - everything the tsunami touched, it left a coat of contaminated dirt. In some areas, the clean up effort is yet to begin. We certainly felt that we were a very small part of what is going to be a very long process.

 Luke and Matt next to a pile of bags, which we had shoveled full of contaminated soil and rubbish.

View from the Yoko's house

Jill, with Yoko the hairdresser (Right) and her daughter. Yoko and her husband had worked hard to clean up her hair salon, which is across the road from her house, so that she could get back to work as soon as she could. Unfortunately, most of her clients died in the tsunami. She cut both of our hair, and wanted to do so for free as a way of saying thank you for helping with the clean up effort (though we insisted on paying her what we would in NZ). Since the tsunami, she has been having great difficulty sleeping.

Our United Japan team: Luke (NZ + Tokyo), Hiroko (Tokyo), Andrew (Canada + Tokyo), Jeff (USA + Tokyo), Matt and Jill, along with Yoko and her husband.

We formed a bond with Yoko and her family, after she cut both of our hair. (Matt: it is scary having someone cut your hair who doesn't speak English! Thanks to iphones and google images, I showed her what I wanted, hoped for the best, and she did an amazing job!). She invited the team to her place, and was very generous feeding us a meal (which she said people in rural Japan loved to do). Hearing their story first hand was emotional and humbling. Yoko was at work, when the earthquake hit. The tsunami warning was for a 1m tsunami, which the residents didn't think was too bad, so she hurried back and forth from her salon trying to save what she could. Soon she heard people running and yelling about a 3m tsunami, and she ran for it. She saw people in cars swept away by the force of the water. She was lucky to survive the torrent, and was trapped inside a car for 3 days. Her husband, who is a carpenter, recalls how he thought she was dead during those 3 days.

Now they have, with the help of relief teams, cleaned up the salon and are in the process of repairing their own house. Her husband helps to repair the other houses in the village, whilst Yoko cuts hair when she can - most of her clients however are no longer around. Jill had the opportunity to pray for Yoko and her family, which they accepted gratefully. This is certainly an area in need of a lot of prayer, as both buildings, and lives, are fixed.

 

 

Jill, in protective gear, demonstrates the water line left by the tsunami.

We were sad to leave Shindate village, as it is obvious that there is much, much more work to do. United Japan have teams going up every week, and will continue to help as much as they can. If you are the praying kind, send a few up for these guys, as they certainly need it.

As an aside: we felt a couple of reasonable good sized earthquakes whilst we were up north, and apparently there was a warning for a tsunami after one of them. We were in the hills where we were staying during both of them, so quite safe. In fact, we felt quite safe during our entire time in Miyagi. We drove through Fukushima (perhaps a little unnerving to know there is a crippled nuclear plant nearby), but the word on the street was that if you remained outside of the red zone which is 30km or so, then you were ok, and I think we were at least 100km away from the plant itself. Luke was a little worried after he had some milk and later discovered it originated in the Fukushima region.

Another 'experience' we had was of traditional onsen (hot springs) after each days work. Separate guys and girls, naked, hot spas. An experience, actually very relaxing, but as Jeff from Philly said as he was sitting in the spa with 10 other guys, "Yeah, not sure this will ever take off in the States". Or anywhere else for that matter.