Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster create personal repercussions for students with loved ones in Japan

By Victor Xu
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Following the earthquake and subsequent catastrophes of tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan, junior Youkow Homma said he was concerned for the status of his family and friends who live in Tokyo and in the badly-damaged city of

Sendai respectively. When the U.S. government advised that travelers cancel their visits, his family had to change its spring break travel plans to Japan as well.

“Going back to the normal way of life is going to take a long time, especially with the radiation,” Homma said. “Tokyo is going back to normal, but the affected areas like Sendai are going to be hard to adjust. I saw some video footage of the high school where my friend goes; it’s changed.”

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest ever in Japan and the fourth largest in recorded history, struck Japan’s Miyagi prefecture on its east coast in the afternoon of March 11, according to cnn.com. The temblor was exacerbated by a towering 30-foot tsunami on its heels  and a nuclear meltdown. Its effects were felt across the Pacific Ocean with tsunami alerts on faraway coasts in the United States, Chile and Canada.

Masako Kamano, chaperone of the Carmel-Seikyo exchange program and English teacher at Seikyo Gakuen, said the devastating earthquake is a defining moment of Japan and will remain in the minds of the Japanese for a long time to come.

“We know this was the biggest earthquake after the war, during this century, even in the world—not only in Japan, but all over the world,” Kamano said. “We just experienced the Kobe earthquake about 10 years ago, but this was much bigger than that one. This will remain in our people’s minds longer, I think.”

Although the Seikyo students were not directly affected by the earthquake, they began fundraisers at their school before leaving for Carmel in mid-March. Even while being immersed in and experiencing the culture of the United States, the exchange students still had the earthquake and its victims in their thoughts, according to Kamano.

“I heard that one of our students said that he would like to put money into the box if he found a charity box here,” she said. “We saw a charity box at the cashier at the supermarket yesterday, and I was very happy for that; it was at Marsh. We felt very happy that everyone in the world is thinking about us.”

Homma’s family had purchased plane tickets to travel to Tokyo and planned to visit some areas in the devastated northeastern part of Japan, but after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, the U.S. government enlisted a travel embargo that advised U.S. citizens not to travel to Japan. His family canceled its spring break plans, although their tickets were refunded and they plan to reschedule the visit to this summer.

Still, Homma said he has been able to speak with his family in Tokyo and his friend in Sendai several times since the catastrophes occurred. Sendai, which was the nearest major city to the epicenter, was one of the most severely damaged cities in Japan, due to its proximity. Although many buildings were destroyed by the disasters in Sendai, the house of Homma’s friend fortunately was not damaged. However, Homma said school and most likely work there were on an indefinite hiatus, and food and safe water were becoming harder to come by. Part of the reason why the U.S. government restricted travel to Japan is because Japan needs to conserve resources like food to partition to affected areas.

“They can’t really make food right now, and the emergency relief efforts are good, but sometimes they’re not enough,” he said. “I have a friend who lives in Sendai, where the earthquake was worse, and they had to split an emergency biscuit with a family next door for dinner, and that’s all they had.”

While Tokyo still experienced the earthquake, there was little direct damage to the city. Homma said his family there still felt repercussions from the catastrophes, though. Rolling blackouts are being used to preserve energy after the loss of power from the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, and food from the city is being partitioned to devastated areas.

According to Marcia Spaid, a Carmel-Seikyo exchange coordinator whose son lives in Tokyo, Japan faced some transportation issues following the earthquake. Her son, who works for Google’s Tokyo office, reported widespread train delays, which is unusual for the highly-stratified and organized society existing in Japan. Airports became crowded and bogged down in delays, posing a potential problem for the returning Seikyo exchange students; many travelers were crowding in Kansai airport in Osaka, where the students were heading, due to the closed airports elsewhere in the country. Fortunately, the Seikyo students remained on schedule.

“We knew that the trains were not on time, and our son said there would be some inconveniences,” Spaid said. “There are still the aftershocks—there was another 6.5 earthquake yesterday. He said ‘You’re not used to that, so you might not sleep well at night, and it would be inconvenient.’ So for a day we kind of debated if we shouldn’t go (for spring break), but he kept saying it’s okay, so after a day of questioning whether we should go, we decided we’re still going.”

Even with the continuing blackouts, transportation delays and radiation-tainted resources, Spaid said she and her son believe Japan will persevere through the ordeal.

“(My son) knows the people,” Spaid said. “They are a people who will just keep going, and they are about honor and respect. He knows they’ll rebuild and things will end up okay.”

Although many like Spaid are confident Japan will be able to fully recover from the disasters, Homma said there will be several lasting problems in Japan for years to come.

“The economic problems will probably be the most detrimental,” he said. “Obviously the nuclear threat is still a big problem, and they’re really low on technicians right now…Hopefully Japan can return to its normal daily life in the near future.”