It will possibly come as a relief to the faithful few that read the blog I have been keeping for the past year and a half, that earthquake matters will be siphoned off to here.
I feel like a bit of a fraud reposting material that I have posted already... but at a personal level I don't really have that much more to say about the earthquake. I am looking forward to the change to contextualize it in academic frameworks.
I feel like a bit of a fraud reposting material that I have posted already... but at a personal level I don't really have that much more to say about the earthquake. I am looking forward to the change to contextualize it in academic frameworks.
This is the link to the article from my blog, (article pasted below) which in turn is a repost from an article that I wrote for the Guardian the night of the earthquake.
For anyone inclined to masochism, there are a series of posts that follow on from that blog post that relate to the earthquake. They were written in part to allay concerns of friends and family overseas, and let them have an idea how the situation was in my little part of Japan. I have been in Tokyo since the earthquake and never considered leaving, I had just got back to Japan after a month in Aus. and I didn't feel unsafe at any stage. My sister arrived with her family early Sunday morning after the quake - I advised them travel was safe, though there would be aftershocks. At the time they left Australia the situation in Fukushima was not known to be as bad as it was. Because she has three primary school aged children, I kept the television off for the week until the kids had gone to sleep. Despite the situation they enjoyed their holiday. I have a deep affection for Tohoku, but perhaps in part because of limited video media exposure, I don't feel traumatised the way that some people seem to be.
I traveled to the Sanriku about 4 years ago. It's a really beautiful part of Japan. I find it so hard to believe the death toll is so high. The night I wrote this article, I truly believed the high awareness of tsunami in the area would mean that people would be on high ground, and despite the devastation in the towns would survive. I didn't imagine that evacuation centres would be swept away....
I hope that out of the trauma and devastation, that the Sanriku will rise again as a place that is better equipped to meet the needs of the people there.
The earthquake
This is an article I wrote that was published in the Guardian today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/tokyo-earthquake-tsunami-japan#start-of-comments
Tokyo's sober calm
The aftershocks in Tokyo and eastern Japan continue into the night.
The quake struck at 2.46pm and seven hours later, there have been more than 70 aftershocks. In Tokyo it started off as barely perceptible movement, escalating to intense shaking that had me trying to push back plates that were falling out of the cupboard in the dining room. At the same time as I was grabbing plates, I watched the sugar bowl in the kitchen crash down from a shelf knocking cups on the bench to the floor. Without doubt it was the most serious shaking in the nine years I have been here.
Emergency mode. Most importantly gas off. In both the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and the 1995 Kobe earthquake, fires claimed many more lives than falling buildings. Next, turn on the television and internet to see where the earthquake's epicentre is. Japanese television begins to broadcast earthquake information within seconds. If the shaking is strong but the epicentre near, it may not be a serious earthquake.
But when the shaking is strong and the epicentre far you know the shaking is much worse in other places. This time, the epicentre was off the Sanriku coast in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, 300km from Tokyo. At Richter 8.8 it's reported to be the largest magnitude earthquake in Japan's history. The settled areas of the picturesque Sanriku coast have low-lying fishing villages with an acute awareness of tsunami. The tsunami flood gates and inundation zone warning signs along the coast are a stark reminder of the 1896 Sanriku tsunami in which more than 20,000 people died.
Television news showed the tsunami inundating the coastal towns. As the cars bobbed around like flotsam, it wasn't clear how many of them contained people or whether the high ground was high enough, or near enough.
The trains are still out of action in Tokyo, but there is a sober calm. Many Tokyoites have opted to spend the night at their workplace. Tonight my husband, along with many of his colleagues, are staying put in their central Tokyo office until tomorrow, by which stage the trains will probably be running again. Some of his co-workers chose to walk home: part of Japan's earthquake damage-minimisation strategy is ensuring people know how to walk home from work in the event of a mass transport failure. Public buildings have been opened in central Tokyo tonight to accommodate people stranded in the city.
There is an eeriness in the air, but a spirit of camaraderie as well. Three of my neighbours have dropped by to check things are OK, whether my husband was able to come home and whether I knew how to reactivate the emergency switch that cuts off the gas supply in a major earthquake. I appreciate it. In Tokyo most people are going to bed shaken and on edge but thankful. But living here there is always a lingering sense that one day, we are going to have a big one too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/tokyo-earthquake-tsunami-japan#start-of-comments
Tokyo's sober calm
The aftershocks in Tokyo and eastern Japan continue into the night.
The quake struck at 2.46pm and seven hours later, there have been more than 70 aftershocks. In Tokyo it started off as barely perceptible movement, escalating to intense shaking that had me trying to push back plates that were falling out of the cupboard in the dining room. At the same time as I was grabbing plates, I watched the sugar bowl in the kitchen crash down from a shelf knocking cups on the bench to the floor. Without doubt it was the most serious shaking in the nine years I have been here.
Emergency mode. Most importantly gas off. In both the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and the 1995 Kobe earthquake, fires claimed many more lives than falling buildings. Next, turn on the television and internet to see where the earthquake's epicentre is. Japanese television begins to broadcast earthquake information within seconds. If the shaking is strong but the epicentre near, it may not be a serious earthquake.
But when the shaking is strong and the epicentre far you know the shaking is much worse in other places. This time, the epicentre was off the Sanriku coast in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, 300km from Tokyo. At Richter 8.8 it's reported to be the largest magnitude earthquake in Japan's history. The settled areas of the picturesque Sanriku coast have low-lying fishing villages with an acute awareness of tsunami. The tsunami flood gates and inundation zone warning signs along the coast are a stark reminder of the 1896 Sanriku tsunami in which more than 20,000 people died.
Television news showed the tsunami inundating the coastal towns. As the cars bobbed around like flotsam, it wasn't clear how many of them contained people or whether the high ground was high enough, or near enough.
The trains are still out of action in Tokyo, but there is a sober calm. Many Tokyoites have opted to spend the night at their workplace. Tonight my husband, along with many of his colleagues, are staying put in their central Tokyo office until tomorrow, by which stage the trains will probably be running again. Some of his co-workers chose to walk home: part of Japan's earthquake damage-minimisation strategy is ensuring people know how to walk home from work in the event of a mass transport failure. Public buildings have been opened in central Tokyo tonight to accommodate people stranded in the city.
There is an eeriness in the air, but a spirit of camaraderie as well. Three of my neighbours have dropped by to check things are OK, whether my husband was able to come home and whether I knew how to reactivate the emergency switch that cuts off the gas supply in a major earthquake. I appreciate it. In Tokyo most people are going to bed shaken and on edge but thankful. But living here there is always a lingering sense that one day, we are going to have a big one too.
 |
| Warning signs for the inundation area |
 |
| Fishing nets along the coastline |
 |
| Tsunami gates |
Thanks for your posts. I noticed that you have been writing about your experience for quite some time now on your other blog. You've expressed reservation about re-posting them here, but don't worry. In fact, I feel free to do so. I imagine that in the next few months you will be linking between your two blogs quite a bit. That would be wonderful. Thanks for sharing your article in the Guardian!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback.
ReplyDeleteIf things seem relevant I will paste the old ones. Some things I will probably post here but not on the other... I guess it will take a little while to get it worked out smoothly.
The Guardian was pure fluke - a friend who writes for them but was out of Tokyo put them on to me. I tried to palm it of to a couple of people I know who write very well but couldn't .... so ended up writing something myself...