Amid the Fear of Radiation and Massive Migration after the Quake, My Desire to Help out in the Disaster Areas...
The media is trying hard to not let any of us loosen up our nerves even one tiny bit. After reporting explosions at the Unit 1 and 3 of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, it made sure to scare the people even more with news on the most recent explosion, this time at Unit 2. There is rumors (reported ones, unfortunately), that the radiation level, even here in Tokyo, is going to reach 25 times the normal level.
Heeding the cautions about staying in Japan issued by various embassies, the foreigners are starting to put into practice their plans for departing the country for a short period of time. Even those with no plans (or tickets, most likely) to leave the country are prompted by the fearful news to head west toward Kansai and Kyushu areas. And with some (actually, most) companies reducing the number of workers temporarily to deal with the power cuts, the mass movement of people is officially under way.
But as for myself, I am seriously feeling that my conscience would not allow myself to really enjoy travelling somewhere else safe when the number of dead bodies is piling up and the number of missing increases without a stop in the disaster zone. Especially since I had such a good time travelling in Sendai in the summer of 2009, I feel that to ignore the suffering of a place I know is simply intolerable at any level.
In fact, even as the threat of radiation grows by the day in the Northeast, I am still seriously considering spending a few days up in the disaster zone seeing if I can help out with anything, whether it be distributing food to the now homeless (reported to be around quarter of a million) or digging up dead bodies in the debris of what remains in the coastal towns. I bet witnessing the disaster firsthand will be nothing like what I saw on TV in the past few days.
Of course, there will be physical and mental risks. But with my past experiences, they should pose little obstacle. As I wrote in a couple of emails before, as for radiation 26 times the normal safety level, I have experienced living in China where air pollution is usually a bigger multiple than that. And as for feeling "weak" after seeing all the dead people, I have transported dead animals and walked through a hospital morgue in previous volunteers. I would not be scared by any of those.
Honestly, at this magnitude of destruction, anyone without any formal training in rescue should be able to do something to help. Professionals can find live people stuck in various places, but with so many hours already passed from the big tsunami, unfortunately the likeliness of those newsworthy rescues have already dwindled down to a tiny minority. Before reconstruction, a large number of people is needed to clear away all the remains of the disaster whether it be wooden pieces from a house, an overturned car, or a human corpse...
If people are unwilling to help, they can come up with a thousands reasons not to do anything: yes, there probably is no way that public transportation can get people up to the disaster zones, and yes, there is no food or lodging up there for any more people...but since civil society has not collapsed here in Tokyo (not to mention further west in Kansai and Kyushu) and there is still steady supplies of food and other needed resources for survival, for us to get to the disaster areas is only a matter of extra effort but nowhere near an impossibility.
Fortunately, I am not the only one with these sorts of thoughts. When I called up the newly-opened Disaster Volunteer Center in Sendai, the line was busy...and it stayed busy all the way until the volunteer sign-up hotline shut down at 3pm. I will keep trying tomorrow to see if any more volunteers are needed. If I can get up there, it will surely be one of the most memorable and unforgettable trip I will ever have.
Heeding the cautions about staying in Japan issued by various embassies, the foreigners are starting to put into practice their plans for departing the country for a short period of time. Even those with no plans (or tickets, most likely) to leave the country are prompted by the fearful news to head west toward Kansai and Kyushu areas. And with some (actually, most) companies reducing the number of workers temporarily to deal with the power cuts, the mass movement of people is officially under way.
But as for myself, I am seriously feeling that my conscience would not allow myself to really enjoy travelling somewhere else safe when the number of dead bodies is piling up and the number of missing increases without a stop in the disaster zone. Especially since I had such a good time travelling in Sendai in the summer of 2009, I feel that to ignore the suffering of a place I know is simply intolerable at any level.
In fact, even as the threat of radiation grows by the day in the Northeast, I am still seriously considering spending a few days up in the disaster zone seeing if I can help out with anything, whether it be distributing food to the now homeless (reported to be around quarter of a million) or digging up dead bodies in the debris of what remains in the coastal towns. I bet witnessing the disaster firsthand will be nothing like what I saw on TV in the past few days.
Of course, there will be physical and mental risks. But with my past experiences, they should pose little obstacle. As I wrote in a couple of emails before, as for radiation 26 times the normal safety level, I have experienced living in China where air pollution is usually a bigger multiple than that. And as for feeling "weak" after seeing all the dead people, I have transported dead animals and walked through a hospital morgue in previous volunteers. I would not be scared by any of those.
Honestly, at this magnitude of destruction, anyone without any formal training in rescue should be able to do something to help. Professionals can find live people stuck in various places, but with so many hours already passed from the big tsunami, unfortunately the likeliness of those newsworthy rescues have already dwindled down to a tiny minority. Before reconstruction, a large number of people is needed to clear away all the remains of the disaster whether it be wooden pieces from a house, an overturned car, or a human corpse...
If people are unwilling to help, they can come up with a thousands reasons not to do anything: yes, there probably is no way that public transportation can get people up to the disaster zones, and yes, there is no food or lodging up there for any more people...but since civil society has not collapsed here in Tokyo (not to mention further west in Kansai and Kyushu) and there is still steady supplies of food and other needed resources for survival, for us to get to the disaster areas is only a matter of extra effort but nowhere near an impossibility.
Fortunately, I am not the only one with these sorts of thoughts. When I called up the newly-opened Disaster Volunteer Center in Sendai, the line was busy...and it stayed busy all the way until the volunteer sign-up hotline shut down at 3pm. I will keep trying tomorrow to see if any more volunteers are needed. If I can get up there, it will surely be one of the most memorable and unforgettable trip I will ever have.
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