Today marks the second anniversary of the terrible magnitude 9 earthquake that struck northern Japan and triggered deadly tsunamis, transforming the coastal regions into a sea of sadness as the waters pushed up to 10 km inland. Though earthquakes are fairly common in Japan, we knew immediately that this one was different from the way the ground jerked beneath us, “surging” at an odd angle, and Twitter immediately lit up as people shared news and emergency information. Though Wikipedia tells me the initial quake lasted six minutes, we had little awareness of any ending, as aftershocks were felt every minute or two for hours afterwards. In the end, 15,881 people would be confirmed dead and another 2668 as “missing” (even worse than being dead, from the viewpoint of many survivors). It was a time of unbelievable sadness, yes, but also a time when the world came forward to help Japan, from the U.S. military’s much-appreciated “Operation Tomodachi” relief efforts to the great help everyone through the charitable organizations. I was personally in awe of the Japanese around me, how they calmly followed official instructions with no looting or hoarding; J-List didn’t even miss a day of shipping, as the post office came to pick up outgoing packages the following Monday as if nothing had happened. Two years on, most of the debris has been removed and things are recovering slowly, though many rural areas are still largely deserted. In the end, the disaster was a reminder that we should all be a little nicer to each other every day, since you never know what life holds in store.
The healing of Tohoku continues slowly.
