On 3/11

The one-year anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan passed a couple weeks ago. 

It's very weird, once again, to be hearing conflicting news from both sides of the Pacific. Over here, I watch grave news reports about the Japan's governments failure to help the region recover economically. The survivors aren't doing well and aren't getting the help they need. I've heard the term "wasted year" a couple times. On 3/11 itself, the height of solemnity, I went to a very solemn bell-ringing ceremony at my old university. People cried. The homestay students from Saitama I took with me (two highschool girls) cried. I cried.

On the other side of the Pacific...well, I haven't seriously been following Japanese news (I see a few headlines here and there, but that it), but I occasionally get emails from friends in my town in Fukushima (not on the coast, but 64km from the reactors) and in Sendai city (not the gravely affected part of the city)...and here's the thing: they barely mention the quake. They talk about their daily lives, job promotions and making dango and looking forward to spring. One friend from my town told me he went to a big festival in the biggest city in Fukushima on 3/11. I'll  translate what he wrote:

"There was a celebration in front of the station called 'Sending Koriyama's Lively Spirit to the Country, to the World!' There were soldiers there who sang and played instruments, dancing cheerleaders, Ultraman, a show with bells, and comedians and singers, including anime singers."

And he put all his usual smiley emoticons in the message too.

I think the underlying message of the festival must have been "We want to revive this prefecture, not drown it in sorrows!" It's a distinctly Japanese way of dealing with disaster and sorrow, I think. "Move on, move on." Or maybe it's just a natural thing for people who have been cast as victims to say "Stop making us victims! Let us be people again!"

When I visited my town in August last year (did I mention that in my journal?) it was the same thing; the majority of my friends said, "We're fine! We're fine! The outside world is overreacting!" And for my town it is mostly true that they're fine, because they're not on the coast, no one died in the disaster, and the damage was not extensive. I didn't even see any of it by the time I visited in August; it was almost completely fixed by then. And they were much less afraid of radiation than I was. Even my farmer friends. They showed me maps and figures and pointed out how the fish in the supermarket was from places like Chile and Canada. I have to wonder how my friends' cucumbers are selling this year though...

There were exceptions, of course--people who did not just bravely carry on. One friend, who has children in elementary school, moved to Hokkaido because of the radiation. She's now involved in an organization that is protesting against the government for failing to adequately protect people from radiation. She occasionally sends me emails from her organization. 

But, overall, the message from my friends has been a casual "We're okay. It's been hard, but we're okay."