Aid Worker Blogs from Tohoku

Thanks to Janina in Kobe who introduced me to a Japanese medical aid worker's online blog that has been translated into English. This volunteer nurse relates heart-breaking experiences from her work in  post-earthquake post-tsunami Tohoku. Here's the translated header to the blog:

JKTS: A Japanese medical aid worker's diary

The following is the first English translation of the entries in a weblog by a Japanese nurse who was dispatched to Rikuzentakata, Iwate, Japan as a member of one of the first disaster medical assistance teams to be sent from Tokyo just several days after the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We cannot forget how much suffering is still going on there.

Shakin' It Back: Fundraiser in Tokyo

This Sunday, May 1st, Sun and Moon Yoga is hosting a fundraiser in Tokyo called Shakin' It Back: Writers for Charity for Tohoku. It will feature readers including Sawako Nakayasu and Leza Lowitz, plus music and an open mic.

The event will run from 4:30 to 7:30 at What the Dickens in Ebisu. Admission is 2000 yen. Check out their Facebook event page for more details.

Four Stories Fundraiser for Japan

I'm not sure how many Boston readers visit this blog, but just in case, the famed Boston-area Four Stories reading series is holding a fundraiser on May 23rd for children orphaned by the earthquake/tsunami in Tohoku, Japan. Founder and host extraordinaire Tracy Slater has planned an auction in addition to a reading by internationally acclaimed writers. Click on the link for more details.

Tracy will also plan fundraising events in Tokyo and Osaka at later dates. Sign up to be emailed when more details are available by following the link above.

Bikes for Japan

Do you have a bicycle sitting around unused? Would you like to send it to Tohoku to help survivors of the earthquake/tsunami gain a mode of transportation to get to work, find work, get to school, whatever? With many cars disappearing in the tsunami, a gift of a bicycle can offer some independence to people with very little right now.

Check out this link: Bikes for Japan. Someone will actually come to your home and get the bikes you are willing to donate (looks like this program is for the Tokyo area only though).

This is a terrific grass-roots program organized by a bicycle mechanic. Please look into it if you have any bicycles to offer.

Go here for pictures of volunteers and a count of how many bikes have been gathered so far.

Thanks to Eucharia from MIJ for making me aware of this program.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Thanks to everybody who sent letters to the workers in Fukushima. They were handed over on Thursday to a representative worker who has probably already distributed them to the others. The rep was stunned to receive the good wishes of people from all over the world, truly moved by your concern and care.

Thank you all.

Cranes for Clothes: Oshkosh

For every origami crane Oshkosh receives, they will donate one article of clothing to a child in Japan who has lost everything in the recent disaster. This is a great way to contribute to the efforts and practice your origami skills at the same time. Oshkosh even provides directions for making origami cranes on its website. Give it a try!

Write to the Workers in Fukushima

If you write Japanese and would like to send a letter of encouragement to the workers who are at the Fukushima nuclear plant, risking their lives, I have a venue for you. A woman who belongs to an international group I also belong to is married to the man who runs Putzmeister Japan, the company supplying the huge pump that's pumping water into reactor #4. Two even larger Putzmeister pumps have been brought in very recently from Germany and the US, and when more workers transport this improved equipment into the plant later this week, they would very much like to bring letters of encouragement from the public to the workers currently in the plant who have not been able to leave since this whole event started.

These workers are suffering under poor conditions and great stress, and even a few words from the people of the world, showing their appreciation, are bound to do much for their morale. However, timing is of the essence, so you need to do this soon, and to prepare the Japanese yourself, if translation is required. If you are interested, please paste your message into the comments section below, and I will forward it. Otherwise, email me your message (in Japanese) by going to my website's contact page and I will pass your message along. Even a few sentences would be appreciated. Don't forget to include your name and where you are from, and don't forget, these letters will be handed directly to one of the 300 workers in Fukushima. And most importantly, get these messages to me by tomorrow evening at the latest (that's Tuesday evening in Japan time.)

Also, there is a Facebook page where you can post your encouragement in English, Fans of the 300 Silent Samurai in Fukushima. (I'm not sure what will be done with these messages in English though.)

And here's an article about the executive at Putzmeister I mentioned above, and about how his initiative is helping us all.

Socks for Japan

I haven't forgotten that this is supposed be a poetry blog. It's just that it's difficult right now to think of anything other than the disaster up north, and that's difficult to write about. It's always hard for me to write about something that is currently happening or has happened recently. Usually it's years after an event before I write about it, before I have any idea what I think or feel about it that might be useful to other people. Which is why when I sit down to write about the earthquake and tsunami of two and a half weeks ago, I end up writing about the earthquake in Kobe 16 years ago (which I wasn't in, but my then-boyfriend-now-husband was). Sixteen years, that's about the amount of time it takes for me to be ready to write. So that's why I keep just posting links to disaster-related sites, organizations, articles.

So bear with me while I post another one. This one is for Socks For Japan, a group, headed by Jason Kelly, which is gathering new pairs of socks to distribute to the hundreds of thousands of people in "temporary" shelters. I have been concerned about my elementary-aged sons who have watched the disasters unfolding on TV and who know about our family's monetary donations, but who may not be internalizing the events in a way that is healthy for them. I wanted them to have a chance to feel that they could respond as individuals, could DO something in the face of disaster, indeed that they have a responsibility to do something. So this week we went shopping together and picked out socks, bagged them according to the instructions given on the website above, and included with each pair of socks a message of encouragement and hope to the recipient.

My younger son, ever efficient, painstakingly wrote out a message and then copied it word-for-word for each of his pairs of socks. His older brother, the family sweetie, insisted on writing an original message to each recipient, writing about the earthquake in Kobe (which he was not born for but which every year his school dedicates an entire day to) and how our city has renewed itself, and how theirs will too, how someday their lives will be back to normal, but for now it is cold, so please wear these socks.

My sons saw an organization on TV which was bringing bicycles to our neighbors up north. We talked about what a great idea that was, what a start towards independence it would give people who have lost their homes and their cars. My sons wanted to get involved in that, but somehow we missed the information about what organization it was. So we gave socks. We can't do everything, but we should do everything we can.

Radiation Level Reporting Website

Environmental radiation reporting by MEXT (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, Technology and Chewing Gum.) By prefecture. Very useful data periodically updated, in many cases several times daily.

Thanks to Aurelie of MIJ who made me aware of this website.

(Just kidding about the chewing gum.)

Quakebook

Check out Quakebook, a book about surviving the earthquake up north, written by people who were on the ground at the time. The call for submissions went out through Twitter, and the pieces came pouring in. Now you can buy the book, and the proceeds will go the Red Cross Japan.

Thanks to Claire in Osaka for making me aware of this.

Ruminations

With the official death toll at over 18,000 last night, I turned off the television and climbed into bed with a book I hoped would comfort me. I chose Robert Hass's Human Wishes, as old favorite.

The second poem in the book, "Vintage," contained this line, quoting the Japanese haiku master Basho:

"Basho said: avoid adjectives of scale, you will love the world more and desire it less."

While excellent advice, it struck me as slightly ironic given all the measurements reported constantly here: the death toll, the emission of microsieverts of radiation, the circumference of the area of danger, etc. Naturally we need these measurements, and they aren't merely adjectives or judgements, but facts required for us to make prudent decisions.

But Basho's words are a reminder that given this disaster at the Fukushima plant, and the BP oil accident of not long ago, we must consider the demands we are making on this earth to provide us with convenient forms of energy. We must love the planet more, and desire less. And avoid adjectives of scale so that we might desire it (the planet and its resources) less.

A few pages later I read Hass's poem "Calm," or perhaps I should say, I misread it, as I so often do. The line which actually says, "It hums and stops, hums and stops" I misread as "It humans and stops, humans and stops."

Which is exactly what is. And then isn't.

What Harriet Thinks About the Japanese Crisis

You may already know about this, but Harriet, a blog of the Poetry Foundation, asked their Facebook fans for poems of sorrow and grieving that might be relevant to the crisis in Japan. Their stated aim is to "balance our feelings of helplessness with constructive or creative energy (derived from hope)" and to "allow us to begin speaking about what is happening, to cast off numbness, and to begin grieving."

You probably won't find any lines here that you haven't read before, but at times like these, the familiar is often what is comforting.

More Ways for Writers to Help Japan

Here are more ways for writers to help Japan by practicing their craft. Check out the Paper Tigers blog.

Thanks to writer Suzanne Kamata for passing along word of this link.

Writers Unite for Earthquake Relief

If you are a writer who wants to contribute to earthquake relief via your craft, this is your opportunity. Here's a call for submissions by a group of writers who are planning an ebook, the proceeds of which are to benefit earthquake victims. Themes about Japan are encouraged (perhaps required?), and the call for submissions states they are looking for work by writers and translators living in Japan. Check out Write For Tohoku for yourself and see what you can do to contribute.

Japanese Disaster Vocabulary

Here's a link to a list of helpful vocabulary if you are getting your earthquake/tsunami/radiation news in Japanese but are not a native speaker.

http://www.japannewbie.com/2011/03/13/japanese-news-earthquake-vocabulary/

Thanks to Hanna from the MIJ list who made me aware of it, and Harvey whose blog it is.

Sad

While watching the news obsessively for hours, I suddenly remembered something I had read a long time ago. I can't remember where I read it, but it went roughly like this: When you go to bed at night, if you know where everyone you love is, then you've had a good day.

The news anchors keep displaying pictures of Japan with dots marking all the aftershocks, or color-coded shading showing the measured levels of radioactivity in each region. Both of these maps are covered with symbols and colors up north. There is no map showing the levels of despair and sadness. Even if there was a way to quantify such a thing, how could there be a map big enough.

Update on the Inlaws in Sendai

I just wanted to let everybody know that my husband's relatives in Sendai, one of the cities hardest hit by the tsunami, have returned to their home. This is incredible news, as their home was thought to have been lost. In fact, their entire neighborhood was spared by the tsunami. Although there is some earthquake damage to their house, it is inhabitable. Asked about power and resources, we were told, "Things are getting better." The Japanese have an attitude called "Gaman," which means to endure without complaint. Thus I have no idea what the power and supply situation is for them; there will be no whining about it (no matter how justified it would be)from these folks.

Anyway, we are blessed and happy to report the relatives are okay and not homeless. Now if we could just get a handle on the radiation situation.

More Japan Disaster Relief Links

More links to places accepting donations, thanks to Wendy T. in Florida:

World Vision
MercyCorps
ChildFund International

How to Donate to Japan Disaster Relief

Here are some places to donate money for disaster relief in Japan. Thanks to Heather S. in Kobe for providing these links to US relief organizations.

The Salvation Army

The Red Cross
Shelter Box
Global Giving

Heather also provided a local link through Yahoo Japan:

Yahoo Japan giving link

Red Cross also has a link through Amazon.com if that's easier for some people:

Red Cross via Amazon.com

Disaster and Real Life

This weekend I had planned to write a post about rejection. But then the earthquake and tsunami happened, and it no longer seemed like it was appropriate to write about feeling bad after getting a letter of rejection from a literary journal. It feels somehow wrong to be thinking, let alone writing, about anything other than the disaster and the people up north who are suffering so terribly, including the family of my sister-in-law, who have lost their home, although they were lucky to be evacuated in time from their deluged city of Sendai.

But I haven’t got anything to write about the earthquake or its aftermath. You are likely getting your information the same way I am, from media outlets, and probably know as much as I do, if not more. (I usually get news from CNN or AP on the internet before (sometimes hours before) it is presented on Japanese news). And I am still in shock to the point of not having anything to add in way of reflections on the events. And so I feel rendered speechless.

For awhile I was rendered actionless too, unable to move away from the television. But trying to find ways to contact family and friends in the danger zones, to help, to donate, and to conserve energy (as the government here has asked us to do, so that they can divert as much energy from this area to up north as possible) has allowed me to feel like it I have activities that are morally defensible in the face of tragedy. But I must also somehow come to feel like living my life, affirming it by continuing with my usual activities, is also an appropriate response to tragedy. For the sake of my children, at least, I must find a way to believe this. And I will, with time.

Time, as always, will be the solution, although it is also almost always the problem. In this case I guess you would say the problem is more one of space-time. Or space-space. My sons asked me this morning why the earth hated people so much as to do this to them, so we talked about how the earth has always had earthquakes, even before there were people here to make records of them (though the planet makes her own records), and that there will be earthquakes long after people are gone. We concluded that earthquakes have nothing to do with people at all. They are just a fact of this planet’s construction, nothing to take personally. But sometimes it’s hard not to take it personally. Which is partly what I was going to say about rejection letters too. And so I have circled back to my originally intended topic, back to my usual life, and I feel about this both guilty and …… I’m not sure what.