Report from Japan
Professor Mark Warschauer is spending the year on sabbatical in Tokyo as a visiting scholar at Waseda University. He filed this report:
I was in the U.S. on a short visit when the 9.0 earthquake struck. Fortunately, my wife and three children in Tokyo, and our relatives elsewhere in Japan, all emerged unscathed. I arrived back in Tokyo a few days later.
Due to high building standards and excellent emergency preparation, Japan suffered very little direct damage from the earthquake itself. However, there is very little that can be done in the face of a 50-foot tsunami. As I write this, 11,000 are confirmed dead, and the total death toll is expected to go over 20,000, an amount four times greater than the U.S. experienced in September 11 and Katrina combined. Hundreds of thousands more have faced dislocation from their homes and other forms of deprivation.
The combination of earthquake and tsunami also proved too much for the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant located directly on the coast right near the epicenter. The reactors are proving extremely difficult to bring under control, causing the biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, bringing additional hardship to those in the Fukushima region. People in the vicinity of the reactor have been forced to flee their homes and abandon their farms.
Here in Tokyo, the situation is much different than in Fukushima. Airborne radiation has been largely confined to the 20-mile radius around the nuclear plant, whereas Tokyo is 175 miles away. Radiation levels in the air and water at Tokyo remain at normal levels. Produce and milk from the affected regions have been removed from distribution. While everyone in Tokyo, as in the rest of the world, wants the nuclear crisis resolved as quickly as possible, there is no evidence of a radiation threat to people in the capital.
Aftershocks have gradually decreased in frequency and magnitude, to everyone’s relief.
Power rationing has been implemented throughout the region to save energy, but, as the center of the Japanese economy and government, Tokyo has largely been spared. Almost all items are available in stores in Tokyo, though sometimes in limited amounts. Most trains are running, but on a somewhat reduced schedule to save energy.
Most people who temporarily left Tokyo have now returned, and schools, universities, and embassies are re-opening. There is a subdued mood in the city, as businesses and families limit the use of lighting to save electricity and people voluntarily restrict other forms of celebration out of respect for those who have lost their lives or are still struggling.
The cultural resilience of the Japanese people in the face of this triple-tragedy has been remarkable. I will just share one small story, perhaps not as heroic or tragic as others that have been reported, but indicative of the many small acts of grace under pressure that occur daily. We belong to a food co-op and every Friday a delivery person brings several boxes of produce and groceries up the elevator to our sixth floor apartment. On the Friday the earthquake occurred, rather than abandoning his route and going back to his office or home, he proceeded to finish deliveries to the ten remaining households on his list, even though elevators were completely shut down in the city and he had to haul several boxes of groceries up many flights of stairs to each customer.
It has been an honor and a privilege to witness this kind of quiet strength in the face of disaster. I feel that I have learned more about Japanese culture in the last month than in my entire life. Indeed, I told my wife, who was born and raised in Japan, that I now understand her better than ever before.
We plan to stay in Tokyo two more months and then return to California in June, though we also have the option if ever needed of departing to my wife’s family’s home in western Japan, which is hundreds of miles further from the disaster zone.
I want to thank all colleagues and friends in the U.S. and around the world who have expressed your concerns for us and for the people of Japan. I encourage those of you who can to continue donating to relief efforts for the country, as large numbers of people are still in dire circumstances.
March 30, 2011
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