After the Quake:
voices from Fukushima

By Bryce Tarling, Contributor

or some, the name Fukushima
Peres to mind images of men

in white hazmat suits, walking
through the debris of upturned
houses and mounds of broken
concrete. For me, until about six
months before the Great Tohoku
Earthquake, Fukushima was my
home.

In 2009 and 2010, I spent 12
months in the Japanese Exchange
and Teaching (JET) Programme,
working as an Assistant Language
Teacher (ALT) at five different
schools in Iwaki, Fukushima. I lived
in an apartment about 25 kilometres
south of the Dai-Ichi Nuclear
Power Plant, the site of the ongoing
level 7 meltdowns that resulted in
explosions at three of the nuclear
reactors on March 12 of last year.

The people in Fukushima have
been through much: demolished
homes, flooded schools, and a
20-kilometre evacuation zone that
still exists around the site of the Dai-
Ichi Nuclear Power Plant. They don’t
need to see the topographical maps
measuring the low-level radiation,
dubbed safe by the Japanese
government. These memories are
now a part of the community;
they come back every time the
ground moves, or whenever they
see construction teams that are still
at work demolishing condemned
buildings, or in the Geiger counters
installed around the city.

Here in Vancouver, a 16-hour flight
away from Japan, the enormity of the
disaster first came to me through the
numerous posts across my Facebook
wall.

“8 hours later, and the
quakes won't stop. Just got
home from helping out at
the school, which doubles

as an emergency evacuation
center. No water at my house
or Rachel’s, but we’re good -
plenty in bottles.” Evan Storer

“T was at school and just about
ready to go when the quake
hit. Stayed after to comfort
crying children. Finally got
home. No electricity, no water,
no gas. We are sitting in the
car and waiting and listening
to the news. We will feel
tremors for the next day and
half. Will keep you posted.
Soon no cell phone cause we
can’t recharge yet. God keep
us safe.” Sharon Minato

People posted photos, showing
the damage in their neighbourhoods.
Don Storslee, who volunteered in
Hisanohama, about a 20-minute
train ride north of Iwaki, during
the weeks following the disaster,
writes to me, “It was a wasteland of
upside down houses and fire-gutted
buildings with people’s possessions
strewn out all over the street.”

After finding several photo albums
amongst the wreckage, Storslee and
other volunteers spent one afternoon
at the non-functioning train station
laying the photographs on paper
towels to dry.

In another coastal town,
“the tsunami had ripped off the
reinforced concrete tsunami-blocking
wall and tossed it over the road,”
writes Storslee. “There were no
houses left, just piles of wood with
cars mixed in. A lot of people had
died there and the ones that hadn’t
were poking through the rubble,
trying to get some of their things out
before the bulldozers came.”

Still hours after the earthquake,
the shocks kept coming.

“FUCK! I’m still having to
run to the door jam every
once and a while....the quakes
won't end!!” Stephanie Savage

“It’s horrible. I left work with
some coworkers. We were in
Onahama, which has been hit
really bad, especially near the
port. I am now at Wakako’s
house and departed from
Matt. I have no idea where he
is. 1 asked him to leave our
apartment as it is soo close

to the beach. Matt sent me

a Facebook message saying
our apartment had water in
it from the tsunami. More are
expected to hit too! [...] All
trains and shinks have been
out of service. If any combinis
are still open, there is barely
any food in them and they
smell of whisky, which all fell
off the shelves... It’s soooo
scary right now. During this
text alone I have felt quakes.”
Lisa Fournier

“It’s a sleepless night for
many. Being alert for another
quake. Tsunamis are hitting
the eastern shores every hour.
Pray for those who have lost
homes and loved ones. The
casualties are heart breaking.
We are prepared to leave the
apartment if need be and
trying to keep warm without
any heat.” Sharon Minato

Feature.

@ Illustration by
Oliver McTavish Wisden

A year later, much in Iwaki
has returned to normal. Within a
few weeks after the earthquake,
Stephanie Savage, a Vancouverite
who replaced me in the program,
was back to school, teaching
students.

“These days there are lots of
construction vehicles to tear down
houses that were condemned and
repair roads and bridges that were
upset,” says Savage. At Kaisei
Secondary School, a coastal fishing
school that I used to teach at—where
there was one casualty among
its students—even this school is
holding classes. “The first floor has
essentially been boarded up,” writes
Savage, “and we use the second
through fourth floors. There is no
running water though, so we have to
use outhouses.”

Two other schools that I used
to teach at, Banno and Midori no
Mori, both await repairs. Savage also
reports that all of the schools had
the topsoil removed from the school
grounds for fear of radioactive
contamination. Also, “there are
several radiation monitors around
the city and in schools,” she says.

After interviewing several
experts, the Associated Press
reported in November that most
people in Japan have been exposed
to a low dose of radiation. “Cancers
caused by the radiation may be too
few to show up in large population
studies,” says the Associated Press.

Yet, the long-lasting economic
effects of the tsunami are as dire
as the fear around contamination.
James Foley, a previous ALT in

 

Iwaki, reports there is widespread
economic damage to the region.
“Even if they get the fish way out

in the deep ocean, bringing them

to port in Iwaki and getting that
Fukushima stamp on them will
ensure that no market or wholesaler
will buy them,” he says. Foley also
says that in Fukushima City another
ALT reported that farmers have been
killing themselves because their crop
is stigmatized and no one will buy it.

Ryan and Yuka Nagle are new
parents who have lived in Tokyo
since just before the earthquake.
Their daughter, Amelia, who
was born September 22 after
the earthquake, hasn’t seen her
mother’s hometown of Iwaki. Their
grandparents don’t want them
to visit because of their concern
for radiation—even though the
grandmother, who now owns her
own Geiger counter, has measured
their home in Tokyo, and it reads the
same radiation levels as her home in
Iwaki.

One year after the earthquake,

I have to feel lucky that I wasn’t
caught up in one of the worst
natural disasters that Japan has
ever seen; yet, as I reconnect with
friends, I can’t help but feel left out.
After living within the community,
connecting with the people, and
exploring the beautiful landscapes,
the images of broken cities and
broken homes over the past year
have been heart breaking.

For the people affected by the
disasters, there will be no forgetting
it. We can only hope that they
continue to live safe and healthy lives.

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