Summer of 2011 radiation (3)

There isn’t a lot of faith in the food chain security. Given the repeated history of food substitution scandals, it’s not surprising.[i] While I was in Akita, Hiro’s parents’ neighbour was saying that contaminated rice would be mixed with non contaminated rice and sold as safe.   She had no evidence that it was actually happening, just based on previous experience of food safety cover ups it was a foregone conclusion. My guess is her sentiments are typical.  But she also didn’t feel empowered to take any kind of action against it. It’s not surprising since contaminated soil was being shipped in on railway trucks… Assuming this is true, and it seems to be, the stupidity of the powers that be in staggering…. Why settle for one area with contamination when you can spread it across the country….  In the supermarkets, though vegetables are mostly clearly identified by origin, meat is now simply labelled as “kokusan”   - domestic.  The decision isn’t coming from the government level.  People can’t have faith in food chain if information is obviously being withheld. People have the right to make their own decisions.   It seems like a great pity for farmers from southern prefectures whose meat is being lumped in with the rest of Japan.  The lack of information pushes many people to buy imported – despite the fact that US beef will almost certainly have been fed  Hormone Growth Promotants… but that’s not on people’s radar.

Concern about radiation is quite rational but there is a lot of inconsistency in people’s concern about perceived risks.  Peter Sandman has written extensively on the way that people perceive risk. His arguments hold true for Fukushima.[ii] On the one hand you get people fastidious about avoiding food from contaminated areas notably Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Tochigi,  Gunma, Ibaragi. Some people go as far as excluding Saitama and all of Tohoku.   But at the same time people are still buying pre-cooked food from the supermarket and eating out where there are usually no labels for identifying where food comes from.  People engage willingly in many kinds of risky habits – but as Peter Sandman would say – the fact that it’s voluntary makes a big difference.  People smoke, eat tuna that hasn’t been tested for heavy metal residue,  ride without bicycle helmets,  talk on mobile phones, (do both at the same time), rush to get on the doors closing on trains, go rock fishing without life jackets, opt out of polio and other vaccinations,  go skiing, allow themselves to become obese, don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet, drive cars, drink bicycle-ride ad infinitum.    Obviously none of this changes the danger of radiation, but the point is people don’t act with the same attitude to risk, even with radiation.

Hiro & I are actually taking a pretty relaxed attitude to radiation and we haven’t changed our consumption habits at all. (something that will get approving nods of agreement from some and incredulous shaking of heads from others)  Since I’ve lived in Japan I’ve had a preference for rice from Akita (Hiro's home prefecture which is one of the major rice producing areas), vegies from Tohoku – where possible (because Tohoku is by and large poor and needs the support),  Japanese pork, Australian or Japanese beef (almost always Australian because of the price, never US beef which has hormone growth promotants in it).  None of this has changed.  It’s something I can justify with no sense that I am playing Russian roulette.  The rationalisation is essentially twofold: I don’t see the risk as being particularly dangerous, and I want to support the local economies.

---

[i] http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071029a7.html

[ii] http://www.psandman.com/articles/risk.htm

Summer of 2011 - radiation p.2

Anxiety surged when Tokyo water was listed as too contaminated for children to drink. Over the summer doubts regained momentum and anxiety levels intensified.  Contaminated beef reached the market. Food that had been declared “safe” was found in fact to be contaminated; the cattle had eaten contaminated feed.  The cattle had been tested for external radiation, but not internal radiation and the meat, sold in supermarkets and butchers made its way to the consumer. There has been an outcry, understandably,  that checking feedstuffs for radiation was not on the radar of agricultural co-ops, or the government.  Interestingly the criticism has focused almost exclusively on the safety of the food chain – a very legitimate concern – but if the feed stuffs in the area had been contaminated by atmospheric radiation to the point where it made radiation levels in feedstuff unacceptably high… what about the people living in the area? The amount of radiation a consumer will get from eating beef that has eaten contaminated feedstuffs, is presumably a tiny fraction of the level of exposure that local people have received. At the same time people in the region are victims of radiation, there is also suspicion of them being expressed – are the farmers victims or are “they” complicit in “our” irradiation?  Are the victims also the enemy?

Information often conflicts. Academic studies about the extent of damage are contradicted in other papers. It’s hard to know what or who to believe, which is part of the reason people are so sceptical.  It seems that people are talking about it less and have little stomach for argument, not because the situation has changed much, but ultimately because people  have to come to their own understandings and develop their own framework to slot in new information. The “authoritative” sources have got it wrong too many times – why would people believe them.  Ultimately people have to reach their own understanding of the situation, abut who to believe and what constitutes acceptable risk. People seem to gravitate to others with a similar perspective and become defensive if their opinion is challenged. It’s understandable.

Personally I don’t ascribe to the view that the government is all lies.   There have been some noble efforts among major government failings. Former PM Kan’s unilateral decision to order Hamaoka nuclear plant to close was brave, defying the power nuclear lobby who also judged Fukushima to be safe.   Hamaoka, like Fukushima, is built on a fault line next to the ocean in a place overdue for a major earthquake.  I  can’t say I trust the government, but I also don’t really know what people mean when they accuse the government of major covering up and not telling the full story.  General accusations are harder to prove or disprove than specific examples.  In a way this point of view reminds me of being in China when people would not believe that the US could have made a mistake with the coordinates  when they bombed the Chinese embassy.  Science makes mistakes and is full of uncertainties.  Any attempt to arrive at a definitive safe level of radioactive elements is just guessing.

Comparisons are sometimes made with the government's cover up of  Minimata mecury poisoning in the 1950s and 60s. But times have changed...there are so many individuals and groups out with radiation measures, there is simply not the capacity to lie for any length of time about information that can be scrutinised by outsiders.   It’s ironic that positive tests for caesium in beef make people more suspicious of beef rather than more willing to accept that the food chain is being monitored effectively. But given the history of food scandals, assurances are being given to a sceptical audience.

Summer of 2011 - radiation p.1

The typhoon season has started and the summer recedes a little further with each down pour of rain. The 6pm chime that rings out around the neighbourhood to remind children to go home is now chiming in the darkness, and soon will begin ringing at 5pm for the winter.  Along with electricity and power savings, the summer  summer of 2011 has been characterized by fear and uncertainty.  With the approach of autumn the energy crisis is waning, JR will resume ordinary train schedules soon, the "setsuden" power saving measures are also winding down.  The matter of radiation however is a problem that is not going away.   

It's a difficult topic to write about, high stress and easily emotive and I have waxed and waned about writing about it for the past few months.  I don't  have an agenda on the matter,  though for transparency I should say Hiro is involved in subsidy payments to beef farmers in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Tochigi prefectures who have been affected by radiation. It probably doesn't alter my perspective though it may heighten consciousness about / empathy for their situation.

After the quake,many people who didn't flee Tokyo and surrounds took smug comfort in not being "flyjin" (a pejorative for foreigners who escaped the threat of nuclear catastrophe).  Foreigners slunk back to Tokyo attempting to justify to the smug why they left in the first place. Both sets took comfort in being 200km from Fukushima - even if we rejected the Japanese govt's 30km exclusion zone, the US 80km was still somewhere up in Ibaragi - far from Tokyoites.  Assurances from the UK nuclear experts that there was no possible way that it could be worse than Chernobyl comforted the doubters.  People took comfort in the fact that food was being tested and the commonsensical rationale that radioactive discharges into the water would be dispersed, the way that the British dumping of radioactive waste water in the Irish Sea dispersed, though I don’t recall British dumping into the Irish Sea ever making it into the news. No wonder the British government was so eager to stand beside the Japanese govt. and TEPCO…

Sense making and changing opinions

The term paper I did on sensemaking as evidenced by social media exchanges has changed the way I look at internet interactions. Exchanges taken literally, miss the process that is happening and the reasons why people write.
I haven't formed definite opinions, but it seems that internet exchanges are intrinsically linked to making sense of unsettling situations. Online newspaper's "comment spaces" after articles are part of the same genre of exchange. I didn't follow the exchanges after the incident in Norway, but the English riots are also instructive in seeing how people make sense of situations.

Something that is increasingly apparent is that new information goes into an existing framework, but overwhelmingly the framework itself doesn't seem to change much.  People who harbour deep suspicion towards the Japanese government tend not to distinguish between the LDP and the DPJ  and  are inclined to see anything that the govt. says or does  in the light of misinformation and coverups.  
People who are sceptical of "expert" scientists tend not to be persuaded by figures that say small amounts of radiation are safe.     People who evaluate based on "expert" advice tend to be comforted in their decision to remain in Japan.

Many western foreigners are incredulous at the "shouganai" mentality they perceive in Japan, which serves to reinforce their existing cultural stereotype of Japanese as being  passive  and docile.  Grass roots campaigns are overlooked, as is the fact that most Japanese have no option but to live in Japan.

These observations lead me to the question - what does it take to change someone's mind? What does it take for a person's existing framework to be reshaped?  Can a science sceptic become a science believer?  Conversely can a science believer become a science sceptic?  Can a person who believes that riots in the UK are the result of poverty and social neglect be persuaded that the matter is simple criminality and vice versa?
What causes people to change their mind?  Is it "overwhelming evidence"? Is it personal experience? Is is the wise words of people in authority?   Is it economics?

Still trying to make sense of it.

The human tragedy

Below is an article from Asahi, that starkly shows the on going human cost of the situation in Fukushima.  Hiro has been going up to Fukushima for work - working with beef cattle co-operative to try and find options. From what I understand, most beef farmers want their cattle agisted in Yamagata, Iwate and other nearby prefectures until the nuclear situation is stabilized.

For dairy farmers the situation is much more grim - daily milkings, to throw away the milk. It takes time to wind down and wind back up dairy production.   There is also much more frequent financial transaction - milk going out, money coming in.  Beef cattle the amounts of money in any one transaction are much higher but their lower frequency is a buffer against market blips.  

For the farmer in the story below three and a half months of extreme uncertainty, with no indication of when things will improve, was too much.   TEPCO "consolation money"  would not be much consolation.... (assuming that they paid it....)

Dairy farmer's last words blame nuclear plant crisis

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107020199.html

Just before he took his own life, a desperate farmer scrawled a haunting 

message to those he left behind: "Remaining dairy farmers: Don't lose out to the nuclear accident, do your best."

A dairy farmer left this suicide note written in chalk
on the plywood
wall of the new compost shed he had build
just before the March 11 disaster. (Jun Kaneko)

The 54-year-old man, a dairy farmer from Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, wrote the message on the wall of the compost shed, beside the barn where he killed himself in June.  

For years, the man had operated the dairy farm he inherited from his father in a small village nestled in the mountains of Soma, about 50 kilometers from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The farm had about 40 head of cattle. The cattle barn and compost shed stood side by side in front of the main farmhouse, which sat at the bottom of a gentle slope.

"Earnest and hard-working" is how his friends and fellow dairy farmers described him. He rose at 3 a.m. every day, they said, to cut pasture grass to feed his cattle. Sometimes, he would later head out to cultivate his fields.

Late last year, he decided to make and sell compost. He built the new shed. He planned to slowly expand his variety of farming equipment and tools, and worked diligently to increase the scale of the family farm.

Then came March 11, and the ensuing nuclear meltdowns to the south.

On March 21, with radiation spreading, the farmer was forced to halt shipments of raw milk. After dumping the milk from his cattle every day for about a month, he complained to his friends, "I can't ship milk out, so no money comes in."

Of the 28 members of the dairy farmer section of the Soma Agricultural Cooperative Association (JA Soma) to which the man belonged, only 18 have been able to resume operations.

According to friends, the man lived with his 32-year-old Filipino wife and two sons, aged 5 and 6. Wearing the same type and color of work jacket as her husband, the wife also helped tend the cattle.

The man appeared to be looking forward to his eldest son's upcoming primary school entrance ceremony. Another dairy farmer, 52, a friend for 20 years, said the man seemed happy when he told him, "I went up to Koriyama (in central Fukushima Prefecture) and bought an expensive school knapsack (for my son)."

But in mid-April, just before his eldest son's entrance ceremony, the man's wife and children left Japan for the Philippines at the urging of the Philippine government. Toward the end of the month, the man followed.

"It's no good. I'm quitting the dairy business and going (to the Philippines). It's lonely without my children," he told those around him.

When a friend contacted him in the Philippines, the man asked that his "cattle be disposed of." It was decided that neighboring farmers and the man's friends would divide up his cattle and take over their care.

Then, at the beginning of May, the man returned to Japan alone.

"I didn't want to come back, but I couldn't speak the language," the man said of his time in the Philippines.

His barn was empty by then. "I'm sorry I caused you all so much trouble," the man told his dairy-farming friends.

On the morning of June 11, an agricultural cooperative worker came by to deliver the association's magazine. He found the man's body in the compost shed, and the message handwritten in white chalk on the shed's plywood wall.

To his older sister, the man wrote: "I am grateful for all that you've done for me. If only there hadn't been the nuclear power plant.

"To my wife and children, I am sorry. I was a father who could do nothing. To my deceased parents, I'm sorry."

His funeral was held in Soma on June 14. About 200 people, including family members and fellow dairy farmers, came to pay their respects. The man's wife and children, who had rushed back from the Philippines, were huddled together, crying.

The man named two people in his will. The first was the carpenter who had built the man's compost shed. Payment for the work had yet to be completed. "Please collect what I owe you from the insurance money. I am sorry."

The other name was that of a neighbor, a 64-year-old dairy farmer.

"I can't express in words how indebted I feel to you," the man had written.

The neighbor said, "He was big in body but weak in heart, and a serious person who had no interests other than his work. We can't let any more people like him leave us."

According to National Police Agency figures, 151 people killed themselves in May in the three prefectures--Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima--hardest hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disasters. Of the three, Fukushima recorded the most suicides at 68, 19 more than in May of the previous year, and the only prefecture of the three that showed an increase.

After the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, some people who took their own lives from the shock of losing their jobs and loved ones were recognized as having died from "earthquake-related causes." The bereaved families were provided with condolence money, provided that certain conditions, such as the deceased having been medically diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were met.

Terumi Hironaka, director for the Kobe-based Cosmos, an NPO working to reduce suicides brought on by multiple debts, is providing telephone counseling for disaster victims.

Recalling her experiences after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, Hironaka pointed out, "After the Hanshin earthquake, suicides increased sharply after survivors started entering temporary housing. After some time has passed, a sense of hopelessness can attack people who have lost their homes and jobs. Providing care from here on is important."

Hisao Nakai, a psychiatrist who cared for disaster victims after the Hanshin quake, notes, "In Fukushima, along with being devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, people are also feeling pain from the uncertainty about the future due to the nuclear accident."

(This article was written by Takafumi Yabuki, Sho Tanji and Kenichi Hato)

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107020199.html

The aftermath and sense making

The original stimulus - a story

It (the prefectural office) has been unable to communicate with the mayor and officials in Otsuchi after the town office was swept away by a tsunami while the mayor and town officials were apparently inside the building…. Nikkei

Two interpretations

Interpretation 1.  www.japanprobe.com  13 March 2011

Why were the mayor and town officials inside the building at the time the tsunami struck? According to news reports, they were holding a meeting to discuss safety measures that should be taken. The town office was a two-story building only 1-kilometer from the shore, making it one of the worst imaginable places to sit down and have a discussion while a deadly tsunami was on its way. At the time this blog entry was posted, the mayor and town officials were still missing. It is possible that indecisiveness at a critical time resulted in their deaths, as well as the deaths of many town residents. 

Interpretation 2. www.guardian.com.uk 22 March 2011

Koki Kato's last official act as mayor was to set up a command centre for Otsuchi's disaster response team, outdoors, in front of the town hall and facing the sea.  The mayor in his usual hands-on style was helping workers haul out tables and chairs for the outdoor HQ when Japan's tsunami struck.  "All of us scattered to escape," said Kansei Sawadate, a local government official who was at the meeting. They all made it back into the town hall building – including the mayor. But then, to Sawadate's horror and disbelief, the waters surged as high as the clock face on the second floor.  "The people who went up on the roof were saved, and the people who stayed on the second floor were washed away," he said.

In the wake of the 11/3 earthquake, which caused tragedy on a massive scale, people are searching for explanations. Explanations are less for the earthquake itself, which to the modern mind can be understood satisfactorily by geophysics, rather for the manifold incidents that it precipitated. Questions abound.  Why did so many people die in the tsunami despite it being a high risk area with evacuation plans? Why was the failure at TEPCO so large? Why is the  Japanese evacuation zone so different to the evacuation proscribed by the US? Why did some foreign government’s order evacuations while others downplayed the risks?    To make sense of all the information connected to the earthquake the unknown has to be placed alongside the known in a framework so that you can ‘comprehend, explain, understand, attribute, extrapolate and predict.” (Starbuck and Milliken in Weick 1995).  For an event to make sense it has to fit inside ones ‘mental model’ of the world, when it doesn’t fit, the process of sensemaking becomes more intense.  We have all needed to “make sense” of events  that have occurred since the earthquake.  In this paper I am seeking patterns in the sense being created and the discourses being developed.

A reply

to		H-NET/KIAPS List for Japanese History <H-JAPAN@h-net.msu.edu>
date		Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:01 PM
subject		Re: H-JAPAN (E): The Great Fukushima Panic of 2011 / empirical evidence on "flyjin"
mailed-by		gmail.com

With respect, I am not sure how constructive it is to be adopting the term "flyjin".  Though the term may appear to be cute and clever, in reality in the Kanto area in particular it is a loaded word that in some circles has become  derisive and abusive.  The term flyjin trivialises the reality that there is an evacuation zone in place and that there is a serious radiation problem - the extent of which is still not clearly determined. It also fails to consider  that people who left were in many cases acting on embassy advice or company instructions.  I have been in Tokyo since the earthquake, except for a Golden Week sojourn in Tohoku, with no thought of leaving but have been dismayed at the macho vitriol around who stayed and who left. It's disappointing to see the term being picked up unproblematised  in academic circles.

A spot count of conspicuous foreigners on the streets of Tokyo tells nothing about the numbers of people who have left Tokyo.  In particular it ignores a distinction between residents (short and long term) and tourists. It also ignores the fact that most foreigners (both resident and tourists) are Asian.    A spot count that has no control, defines foreigners in racial terms (which probably labels Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Singaporeans and many other SE Asians as Japanese)  and conflates people that have actively left with people that decided not come, is meaningless. 

For the dip (plunge) in foreign visitor numbers the Ministry of Justice data is much more useful.  http://www.tourism.jp/english/statistics/inbound.php 

Cecilia  Fujishima

Tokyo

A bizarre anecdote from an academic list

Below I have posted an email that  turned up on an academic email list that I subscribe to, from a professor at Berkley, who should know better.
I will post my reply in the next post.


 H-JAPAN (E)    June 19, 2011

For those of you who have not yet returned to Japan since 3/11, it may be helpful to understand how significant the absence of "gaijin" is in the capital, a point noted more than once on this list.

I am using the term "gaijin" here to refer to racially differentiated (non-Asian) individuals, including those who appear to be from the Indian subcontinent.  If mixed-race children were with a non-Asian parent, I counted them.  I also counted one woman in a version of the headscarf worn by Moslem women, seen from behind, and her child (in a stroller), because the attire was clearly non-Japanese in nature.  That is, I tended to err on the side of counting individuals as being foreign.

I did a casual count Friday, June 17 through Sunday, June 19.  The first two days, I went about normal activity, but the last day, I confess, I deliberately went to a tourist spot.  I included those seen within my hotel, a nice business hotel that maintains a reservations web site in English and often has foreign guests.
___

Friday count: 22. (8 a.m.-7:30 p.m.)  I went through 9 subway stations: Akasaka, Meijijungumae, KitaSando, Shinjuku (Oedo at Minami Shinjuku), Aoyama Itchome, Gaienmae, Akasaka-Mitsuke to Nagatacho, and Kojimachi.  I walked at least 6 kilometers: from my hotel to the first station (.6 km), from Kita Sando west for 1.2 km, from there to several floors, including the 6th, of the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Minami Shinjuku (1.8 km), from Aoyama Itchome to Gaienmae (.7 km) and from Kojimachi back to the Akasaka area (1.6 if done efficiently, which I did not).
----

Saturday count: 135.  About 15 under 5 years old.

I went through Roppongi twice, Hiro once, and Midtown twice.  I went through three crowded shopping areas--Ebisu, Midtown, and Roppongi HIlls, plus the Photography Museum.  I went to National Azabu (upstairs) on a Saturday.


I was out 8 and a half hours, and I went through Roppongi Station (10:30 a.m.), Ebisu (subway) Station, and HIro Station.  I walked 1.5 km around Ebisu, and from Hiro to Roppongi HIlls (another 1.5 km) to Gallery Ma (another 1.5 km) to Midtown (600 meters) and back to the hotel (1 km). About 6 kilometers.


----

Sunday count: 60.  I counted 13 women; 4 were children.

Out at 9 a.m., walked from Akasaka to near the foot of Tokyo Tower via Ark Hills (1.9 km), continued on to Daimon Station, boarded a monorail to Tenozu Isle (1.5 km), Walked a very short distance from there, then boarded a cab back to Akasaka.Afterward, walked to Kasumigaseki (2 km), continued to the Imperial Palace Gardens (3 km), walked from there to Otemachi Stn (1.5), direct line back to Akasaka, and back to hotel (.5 km) about 6:30 p.m.

21 men and 8 women were seen in the area of the Imperial Palace, including joggers and apparent tourists.  (Note: I attended an English-language church service, but did not count the congregants.  There were about 45 people in the church, and between half and two-thirds were non-Asian. The church would normally have at least 50% more congregants, and often double.)

Walked about 10.5 km, was in three not-particularly-busy subway stations, but lingered around the Imperial Palace.
_______________________
...............................

Associate Professor
Department of Architecture
University of California, Berkeley

Volunteering part 3

The article below is of Chinese students making donations to Japan.  I have a lot of affection for both China and Japan, and the state of relations between the two countries often upsets me at a deep and personal level. A lot has been made of the Chinese media delighting in the misery in Japan after the earthquake, but I think that is only one aspect of the Chinese media.  There has been a lot of effort made to transcend nationality and see the suffering and and need as being human.  I was amazed to read Chinese newspapers praising the character of Japanese after the quake - praising technology I could understand but character... that seemed like huge progress.  The story below seeks to show a common humanity.  A story I posted before shows the character being praised. (I haven't seen the truth of the story verified, but that is secondary in this context to the fact it was run as a true story in a Shanghai newspaper.)

http://ponkanchan.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-from-quake.html

In terms of organisations I know people involved with

http://hands.org/2011/05/15/gutting-flooded-homes-in-ofunato-japan/

http://jasonkelly.com/helpjapan/

Red Cross, Caritas, Peace Boat.

as well as people working unaffiliated.

Students move to donate to quake-hit Japan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-16 22:54

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BEIJING - Two donation boxes were set up in front of canteens in Beijing's Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in China, to collect money for earthquake victims.

One box was for victims of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake last Thursday in southwest China's Yunnan Province that left 25 dead and hundreds wounded. The other is for victims of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that wreaked havoc on Japan.

"We should care for and help each other since we are close neighbors," Meng Xiaoxiao, a 19-year-old freshman from the School of Humanities and Social Science of Tsinghua, said while donating money to Japan.

"Humanity always comes before nationality, and it is pointless to let historic problems deter relief work when natural disasters strike," Meng Xiaoxiao said.

"We talked a lot about the earthquake in Japan and it was really a catastrophe," said Li Keqian from the School of Information Science and Technology. "It is natural that we give them a hand."

Li said that the money collection was organized by the student union and the graduate student union of Tsinghua University. The campaign gained wide support from lecturers and students.

Some Japanese students who study in Tsinghua University helped with the donation. Each time a student comes and donates, they will bow deeply to express their thanks and appreciation.

Nakayama Chie has been in China for 10 years and is studying journalism at Tsinghua.

"Many of my classmates inquired and comforted me when they heard about the earthquake. I am so grateful for their kindness," Chie told reporters.

She said that she donated to the victims of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in southwestern Sichuan Province that killed tens of thousands of people. She also worked as a volunteer during the Beijing Olympic Games that same year.

Learning that Chinese rescue teams have arrived in Japan, Chie bowed a second time. "The disaster is not over yet, and I just hope that my country will recover soon," she said.

Similar donation collections were organized in other universities around the nation.

Starting Sunday, about 200 volunteers from seven universities in northeastern Changchun City took to the streets with 29 donation boxes to request donations for victims in Yunnan, as well as in Japan.

"All human beings are equal when it comes to life and death. We should not only aid those in Yunnan, but also send our assistance to the Japanese people," said Du Yumeng from the Changchun University of Technology.

In Shanghai's Fudan University, donations also attracted a crowd of students who opened their purses without hesitation.

Yang Yujia, a freshman who majored in economics, said she studied in Japan for a year with an exchange program when she was in middle school.

"I have a beautiful memory about Japan, and I hope my contribution could bring a little comfort to those heart-broken," Yang said, emptying her purse.

There are 454 Japanese students in Fudan University and 33 of them are from the most severely hit northeastern regions, said Yang Zengguo, a staff member with the foreign students department.

After the earthquake, the department contacted all Japanese students and offered psychological counseling to some of them, said Yang.

"We will never forget the aid provided by Japan during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and China will never hesitate to stretch out a helping hand to Japan's quake-hit zone," said Liu Jiangyong, a professor at the Institute of International Studies of Tsinghua University.

Not really anything to do with the earthquake but

it's the kind of story that might inspire "volunteer spirit".

Diplomatic relations

Blog assignment:Please, provide us with short answers to the following questions:

 1.    What country are you a national citizen of and how did you react to the outbreak of the nuclear meltdown?
  Australia
  I was in Tokyo and made no plans to leave. I gave the OK to my sister and her family in Australia to come  to Tokyo the day after the earthquake as they had planned.


2.    Did you consult your embassy for any kind of support following the crisis or did you fully rely on your own devices?
No.  I learned a long time ago the embassy is not here for people like me.  They are here to facilitate business links.  That said, I was pleasantly surprised that the gave out chocolate Fantales when I went in to vote last time. ;)


3.    What were the actions taken by your government towards their citizens and/or Japan at large, and how do you evaluate the way your embassy managed the crisis in the immediate aftermath? How about in the following weeks?


My sister and her husband had registered on the Aus Govt.  Smart Travel site http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/ which quite reasonably puts some of the responsibility of travel precautions onto the traveller. They received a phone call from the embassy. (I actually answered the phone and asked the embassy why I hadn't received a call... )  Even though I am registered with the embassy, I didn't get a call - I know other Australians here that did though.  Perhaps they had a policy of only calling landlines and I wasn't here to get it?  I'm not sure.
The  Aus. govt. gives detailed advice for travel to specific locations.  http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Japan  My sister and her husband paid close attention to it, and left Tokyo for Takayama when travel advice advised not being in Tokyo.  I eventually got an email from them - perhaps two.  I have posted one below.


4.    Would you have wanted your country to react differently? If so, how?
I don't really expect much of them. I don't pay tax in Aus due to reciprocal tax agreements so I can see why they might think long term residents should fend for themselves.  It shouldn't be hard to maintain a data base of Australian residents though for sending out emails. (which they eventually did)  It took a long time for them to remove the advise against travel to Tohoku generally - which irritated me because Akita, Aomori & Yamagata were never in any danger (except for a small area on the coast near Hachinohe.

5.    To the best of your knowledge, has the triple crisis affected your country’s diplomatic relationship with Japan in any way? If yes, how would you characterize the current state of bilateral relations between your country and Japan?
Aus PM Julia Gillard visited Minami Sanriku - the first foreign leader to do so. She wore black - as  you would in Japan at a site of mourning & was criticised for her gloomy fashion sense by Australian media - cringe.... Australia's relationship with Japan is good.  Japan has paranoid feelings of being a spurned lover -  that Australia now loves China more than Japan..... It's true up to a point - but the Aus. opinion is a bit more free love - we can be  friends with both.  In sections of Aus political circles there is a feeling that the Japan relationship is taken for granted on both sides and more should be done to promote it.


6.    In your opinion, and in the case of a highly-industrialized country like Japan, what specific impact do you see disasters having on diplomatic relationship with other countries?
Depends on the disaster, depends on the people, depends on the countries.. depends depends depends...
It created opportunities for improved and worsened relationships. For China there has been opportunism and glee that Japan can no longer be smug in terms  of food safety, but at the same time it seems  that there is awareness that there's a chance to recast relations more positively... I will believe it when I see it though....
 Relations with the US military have improved - though not in Okinawa probably.  I have heard comments personally and anecdotally  to the effect of  I hate the American military being in our country, but we couldn't have done without their help.    I think it's harsh to criticise Japan for not accepting all aid.   Taking rice as an example. There was complaint that Japan wasn't accepting rice - but actually there is plenty in national stores which should be used - the difficult was having the helicopters to fly in the quantities needed.  And without electricity or potable water as in the initial stages, raw rice was not appropriate to be taking in at all.  There were blankets rejected for being too thin - better than nothing surely, but better to get warm blankets for people when it's snowing outside.....
There has been a high level of international co-operation especially evident on the nuclear front.  I hope it continues.

  

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <Ecu.Manager@dfat.gov.au>
Date: Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Subject: Registration Confirmation [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
To: 



You have been forwarded this email as you have registered your presence in
Japan or you have registered your intention to travel to Japan on the
Online Register of Australians Overseas.

You may have already been contacted by Australian officials in Japan or
Australia and some of you may have already returned to Australia due to the
fluidity of the nuclear situation.

Our aim is to ensure we have accurate contact details for every Australian
(and their family members) registered, who may be in or near the earthquake
affected areas of Japan.  To that affect we would be grateful if you could:

 - Advise if your original registration remains valid.  If it has changed
please advise.  Some people listed their Australian address as their
Japanese address.  It is important that we have correct phone and email
details and a correct city name and address in Japan if possible.

 - What are your intentions eg are you intending to remain in Japan or
leave.  If leaving, grateful advice of your planned departure time.

 - Advise if you have delayed your travel to Japan.

We would be grateful if you respond by return email to
ecu.manager@dfat.gov.au

Can you please include the registrant name in the email heading eg Citizen,
John Smith, DOB (or passport number), Japan earthquake 2011.

When we receive your reply we will add your details to our contact list of
Australians in the affected areas of the earthquake / tsunami which will
ensure quicker contact (local conditions allowing) should this be required.

Volunteering part 2

As I left China I had a meeting with the university president about the school fees and at the same time I asked him if I could entrust the collection of tapes and books I had accumulated to the university library.  I suggested that the uni might want to expand the selection as many students had improved so much using them.   I was so naive... According to my students, the books never made it to the library - they got put into boxes, collected and then disappeared....     In 20'20 hindsight I can see clearly that had I given them directly to individual students a month before I left and spent time encouraging them to swap with each other at their weekly English corner I could have established a self sustaining system...What was I thinking in passing responsibility to the uni? I was supposed to be empowering the students....  It was a lesson to avoid intermediaries wherever possible. Even where well intentioned, giving assistance directly to known quantities has more scope empower at the local level.

Back to Aus. back to teaching, this time history.  Back to a normal insular life. No students knocking on my door at random hours asking for help with something or wanting to practice English. As a year 10 home room tutor I was responsible for the students who had a chosen charity to support. It was hard to be enthusiastic. They had to do something to raise money - it was compulsory.  Rather than cultivating their hearts, as Confucius would have advocated, it had been set in their mind as a chore.  Volunteering works when it is from the heart. Compulsory volunteering breeds resentment, power struggles, passive aggression and insincerity....

When I came to Japan I was deeply troubled by so many homeless people.  Despite this, I couldn't find the interest or energy to become involved with the groups that feed them.  Perhaps it was an unwillingness to be tied down to anything... perhaps it was the effort involved in getting to Shibuya or the Sumida-gawa.  I wasn't interested in the preaching for food that happens at Ueno Park. Over time I realised I don't need to be a part of a volunteer organisation to be doing things that make society better / people happier.  Why go to the Sumida gawa to take onigiri and coffee to people when I can buy onigiri and coffee for the homeless man near my station? Why be worried that he smells bad when I  can leave a bag with a new change of socks and underwear by his trolley?  The idea behind volunteering is really just doing things to make life or society better.   Giving up a seat at train, baby sitting a friends childen overnight to let them go out as a couple, checking over essays and application letters that former students email, walking a block or two out of the way to show a tourists where  hotel is.... none of it is grand enough to be labelled volunteering, but it still makes some kind of social contribution. Much of volunteering is just being aware of others and acting on that where one can.

In the case of the recent tsunami,  the area will never recover if it's left to locals alone. Given that the university has made it so easy to go up there to help with the clean up, and facilitated a situation where students can help directly,  it seems a natural thing to do - if one can. I will wait till the summer to do so.  It's good for the local economies too to have people up there.  I hope there is an effort being made to source goods locally.  It was with mixed feelings that I sent a couple of boxes of gift set towels and sheets that had accumulated from weddings and funerals over the years via a friend in Morioka.  The goods were all new and would be useful to people moving into temporary accommodation.... but should I be sending money instead so they can be purchased locally & help revive the economy?  I sent them, because I know she is distributing them to people that need them and want them,   but at the same time I am conscious that there is not much of an economic multiplier effect. I  hope it cheers people's spirits as well as providing goods that are needed.    The multiplier effect is an important consideration - though it can apply to attitudes as well as economics.

In developing countries I don't give money to beggars usually but often buy food from nearby food stall to give them esp. for children. It starts the multiplier effect.  Even though it contradicts personal autonomy which is important, it gives the stall holders income,  children nutrition &  the pimps don't get a chance to take a cut of the childrens' takings... Efforts that build the local economy, and people's ability to be self sufficient are really important for sustainability and dignity.

I was talking to a friend the other day about volunteering - she has three small children and a husband that works crazy hours and difficulty finding occasional day care for the youngest.  She was telling me one of her neighbours goes to a day care centre several km away as a volunteer that holds babies in a day care centre....  I commented that was a nice thing for her to do. My friend agreed, but looked at me with her exhausted face and said... I just wish she wanted to come and volunteer here.....

So.... after a long and detailed meandering I'd say
* "volunteering" need not be anything formal or particularly onerous.
* compulsory "volunteering" may get people into a habit, but does not cultivate people's hearts.
* cultivating hearts (to quote Confucius) is where the power of "volunteering" lies
* "volunteering" ideally can be learned young, by example, close to home.
* "volunteering" is most rewarding when you see it inspiring others to do the same.
* ideally people should want to volunteer....

In charity type volunteering in particular
* respect and dignity are imperatives
* don't patronise by assuming you know best for other people
* money alone isn't a solution but
* given the right way, money can be very effective.
* deal with known quantities - people you trust
* formal volunteering & NGOs should avoid creating dependency and instead nurture self sustaining projects that empower people to make their own decisions.
* there is so much to be gained by taking time out to help other people.
* it's not just something for other people to do.