Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

On August 7, 2011, I have the honor of sharing my experience in Japan with a broader audience.  Here is the unabridged version of what I will share with the audience:

Speech Draft 7/30/11 (revised 8/5/11)

Good afternoon.

My name is Sean Egusa and recently I had the honor of sharing an amazing experience with 87 brothers and sisters on Azumano Travel's Flight of Friendhip as we traveled to northeastern Japan to lend a hand to the recovery efforts after the devastating events there of March 11, 2011.

At 2:45 local time, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred 43 miles of the coast of northeast Japan. The earthquake was so powerful that it shifted the main island of Japan 8 feet and shifted the earth on its axis.  The earthquake also sent a series of tsunami waves towards the Japanese coastline and it was for just such an eventuality that the Japanese had extensively trained and prepared.  The coastline was even fortified with man-made seawalls, designed to withstand the power of Poseidon.

Take for example, a section of the coastline just 140 miles north of Tokyo, where a 15 foot seawall protected the reactors of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.  That is, the seawall was built to protect against waves 15 feet and lower.  47 minutes after the 9.0 earthquake, Mother Nature delivered a 47 foot tidal wave and that's when things started to go wrong.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, one of the most powerful marketing campaigns ever developed that is a particularly natural human reaction in natural disasters.  The ironic thing to me though is that the events following March 11 around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant created more fear, uncertainty and doubt than the double whammy Mother Nature delivered, and it continues to this day.

But let me take you back to what I witnessed with my own eyes...

8 weeks ago I slogged through piles of mud mixed with fish, squid, children's toys, tatami mats, family heirlooms with 20 strangers who are now some of my favorite people I know. I saw people from age 13 to 75 not care who they were, how much they made or what lot in life they came from pull ampan man story books, silverware, tatami mats, trees, sinks from the same pile of foul-smelling slime-ridden rotting mud, the mud that lent a particular stench to the atmosphere and is still present on both my boots and in my nostrils every time I close my eyes and remember standing there. One of those unexpected but very tangible memories of the trip.  And it is in those moments, as I stood where, 3 months earlier, a 10-15 foot wall of water had plowed through the town of Ishinomaki in northeastern Japan. 

I stood in the midst of surreal devastation.  (reading of a haiku written by a colleague)

Earthquake, tsunami
Sight and smell I can't forget
I am not the same

I would actually take pictures of the baytown of Rikuzentakata and compare them side by side with photos of Hiroshima's ground zero.  In Hiroshima, one lone building was left standing amidst what once was a bustling city center, while in Rikuzentakata, a lone pine stood where a forest once dominated the skyline.

I find it interesting that humanity can be so intent on creating that which could destroy us – as if we were trying our best to play our role in some self-fulfilling prophecy.  But while we gawk in our infantile understanding of what power is, Mother Nature reminds us of who is in control.  Not us…

To put this in perspective, the tsunami generated by the earthquake, in less than an hour, delivered devastation along 420 miles of Japanese coastline.  To put that in perspective, think about the entire coastline from Astoria, Oregon to Eureka, California hit by at least a 10 foot wall of water, more likely 20-30 feet, but in some places up to 80 feet.

I make this case not to provide any security or sense that what we do, what we create doesn’t matter, but my case is simply why complicate things more when we can’t even protect against the natural disasters of floods, tornados, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, that already plague this planet?

But while Japan has already come far along the road to recovery from the impacts of the earthquake and tsunami, it still struggles with grasping the entirety of the impacts from the meltdowns at Fukushima.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

In the early 1990s I had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima and have dinner with relatives who had survived the great war.  On August 6, 1945 my uncle was stationed on some lonely island fortress in the south Pacific while my aunt, a junior in high school, was helping reinforce fortifications along the coastline as Japan prepared for the naval assault it knew had to come to end the war.  But most of her classmates were still back in school…  in Hiroshima.

I am not sure if it is that I feel some modicum of personal guilt for what I have seen through my relative’s eyes or whether it is just the natural guilt any living soul might feel as they stroll through the Hiroshima Peace Park.  We all have our own demons, but I may have a few more than you folks before me.

For you see, in the early hours of December 7, 1941, my great uncle Takashige Egusa led a task force of 88 dive bombers into an enemy harbor creating a chain of events that, 44 months later, ended in the mushroom clouds of nuclear devastation.

My mother still cries when she sees footage of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it has made me realize that, natural disasters aside, it is a bit sadder for all of us when we see a tragedy that we have bestowed upon ourselves. 

Thank you.

 

Rikuzentakata - Guest Blog Entry

Blogger's Note: In an effort to capture as many perspectives of the experience as possible I have asked friends and colleagues from the trip to offer a narrative of their own experience.  While I might have pared down the narrative a bit in places, what you read next are the words, the thoughts, the memories of others who I worked with, rode with, sang with, side by side.  My personal thanks to those who took the time to share.  Sean

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE WORDS AND THOUGHTS OF MR. JOHN BAUMGARDNER:

We were going to Kesennuma. I was originally scheduled to work in Kessenuma, but switched to the second group which was going to be at a school in another town.  I had switched because I was trying to deliver some letters written by kids in the Elementary portion of our Japanese Immersion Program to kids who were still in shelters.  I am very glad I switched as the experiences I had with them would have a huge impact on me.

After dropping off the first group in Kessenuma (がんばって！), we continued on to the town of Rikuzentakata.   We left Kesennuma and continued to see the same kind of damage we had seen earlier that day and the day before.  After winding through the beautiful scenery of this area, the road dropped back down onto the coastal area and things started to feel different.  All my colleagues could feel that something was different because the bus got steadily quieter and slowly I began to realize that it was because the devastation here was complete. 

There was nothing left.  You could see the roads and where the neighborhoods were, but there were no buildings at all, just debris or in many places just emptiness.  As we wound our way through what was once Rikuzentakata (population 25,000) we took in the view - a beautiful bay surrounded by sheer devastation.  We drove mile after mile without seeing a single building.  During the quiet bus ride we noticed a lone tall pine tree where once a famous forest of 70,000 pine trees once stood - and the one surviving tree was in danger from the salinity of the salt water from the tsunami. 

We arrived at a Junior High School where our moods picked up.  Some of the town had indeed survived on a small hill that overlooked the bay.  As the bus pulled in, there were adults lined up for what we learned was “free shopping”.  A clothing company (we think it was Uniclo) had donated lots of clothes and people could come and select what they wanted.  While we waited for Peace Winds to arrive, Koh and I started walking around.  We would go up to people who were living there at the shelter and temporary housing units and Koh (日本人) would introduce us and start talking to them.  I don’t know much but simply by watching the interaction I could understand what was going on.  The caring and compassion that we shared seemed to make a small, but very real, difference in their difficult lives.  We would go from person to person and talk with them and then she would let me know what gifts I should pull from my backpack to give to them.  I reflected back on the briefing we had received at our reception with the US Ambassador, that we may think our job here was to clean or to hand out stuff at shelters, but our real job was to listen to the people if the opportunity came up. In this moment I felt so very privileged to be a part of all this and especially to be a witness to and a small part of such touching exchanges between people.

After a while it was the kids’ turn for “free shopping” and we watched as they selected new clothes to wear.  The Principal of the school came out as well and Koh talked to him and introduced us.  I presented to him some letters from our kids and a book on Oregon.  The kids quickly started passing the book around and looking through it.  After a nice chat, the Peace Winds people arrived and we started to finally get to work and the task we had come to do.

On some flat land at the Junior High a joint project between Mercy Corps and Peace Winds had built almost 100 temporary housing units and were busy building about 75 more.  There were about 20 or so that were already fully furnished and people had already moved into them.  Our job was to finish the process of furnishing the rest of the units so that more people could move in soon.  We worked very quickly giving each unit the correct number of futons, sets of sheets, sets of dishes, etc.  When we got to the last set of units, they were next to the ones where people had already moved into.  While loading up the last few units I noticed a lady waving to me from the window of one of the units where people had already moved into.  She was one of the people that Koh and I had met earlier and talked to and given gifts to.  I remembered she had told us that she had 3 grandkids and I had given her stuff for them including a letter from the kids in our program.  I waved back to her and then she started talking to me in a very excited manner.  Koh explained that she was so happy because she had just got news from her daughter that she and her family were moving into one of the units we had just furnished that very night.  She was so glad that her family was getting this opportunity and so grateful to us for helping to make it happen.

We finished preparing 83 units that day so that 232 people could move in.  That was a nice accomplishment by our team, but could not come even close to the feeling that we had also touched several hearts that day and seeing it in their faces.

The ride back through the devastated town was very different for me.  As I looked at the massive cleanup operation continuing to go on there I thought about a new phrase I had learned on the trip, “shikata ga nai”, which roughly means ‘nothing can be done’ or as I like to say, ‘it is what it is’.  We couldn’t do anything about the devastation that had happened, but we could certainly do something about the recovery that was very clearly going on.

--John Baumgardner

Accomplishments and Frustrations...

Sean in Kesennuma

Earthquake, tsunami
Sight and smell I can't forget
I am not the same

I sit with my family, in my home and sip a local beer.  They are distractions for now to keep me from thinking, from remembering…

We were warned.  One of the dangers of going is to know what it feels like to help and to want to stay, to want to do more than the opportunity allows.  Knowing creates an emotional battlefield that, while may have been expected, most of us were unprepared to deal with.  I was unprepared. 

But in the end, what personal and emotional struggles the alumni of the Flight of Friendship to Sendai, Japan might have, it pales in comparison to the struggle in every aspect of life and living that the people of northeastern Japan must cope with now and for the foreseeable future.  We had a unique opportunity to enter a world that few outside of the area will ever experience first-hand. 

Teamwork!

For a few moments we realized a bit of accomplishment that would then settle into a melancholy we came to expect as we hauled a tree stump down to an impromptu dump that was once a playground, as we cleared signs identifying evacuation points out of streams, as we pulled a child’s toy from piles of debris, as neighbors watched us clean up a house and then asked when we could start on theirs.

When people ask about the scope of devastation resulting from the double-whammy Mother Nature provided, my general response has been to ask people to think about the entire 300+ mile coastline of Oregon and all the towns and small communities.  Think about every one of those locations having significant loss and damage and then the logistical challenge of accessing every one of those communities because honestly, right now, every one of those communities is in desperate need.

But it’s just not possible.  This is the reality in northeastern Japan. 

There are supplies sitting in warehouses… but they can’t get the supplies north.  There are people around the world wanting to lend a hand… but they can’t get to Ground Zero.  Not to say that absolutely nothing is happening, a lot is, but a lot more is needed.  This disaster happened to one of the most patient and proud civilizations ever to exist, but even their patience has its limits when no progress is perceived and sometimes pride needs to be swallowed to avoid an even further fall.

For the Children

However, in spite of any defeatist sentiment I may have conveyed, there are smiles and hope in the heart of it all.  There are children attending school in the only building left standing in a community, there are families being reunited, there is new housing being built, there is an ingrained mentality in the people that life moves on and so they must look forward, not back. 

While there, I was asked how we would carry the message of what we did, what we saw, back to the United States, back to the world.  It was tough to respond because their fear is that they might already be forgotten, and for most, that is close to the truth.  But they have us now, to help share the struggles that they continue to face in the hopes that we will remember.  We will.

Japanese and Americans working together!

We were warned, but it was a warning we all embraced.  It was hard to be there, but harder yet to come home when so many still have nothing to come home to.

All's Quiet on the Northeastern Front

As we drove into Ishinomaki we sort of honestly questioned what we could do to help this town that obviously didn't seem to have been impacted much by the...

An empty foundation against the 

backdrop of homes still standing

The transition into the devastation was slow.  It snuck up on us.  That wasn't nice.  Observing with wild abandon, cameras, iPhones, iPads all clicking away or rolling with video, capturing the change in landscape that we had been waiting to witness.  Not knowing that we had not seen anything yet.  It is hard to gauge and to put in perspective that which you have not witnessed first hand.  To this point we had no idea, no perspective of the diversity of the wreckage we were about to see just from this town and its surroundings.

A building still standing, serves as a backdrop to a house or business (we could not tell) completely demolished.  How did one stand and the other literally wash away?  But that building that still stands...  It provides still a symbol of civilization, of society, of economy, that we will not be washed away in totality.

And we see images and witness carnage most of us have never seen before (outside of the CNN or a YouTube video) and roll through streets, over bridges, through tunnels, up winding mountain roads - perilous from the earthquake damage - and down into a town built into a small bay...

No, it used to be a town.  I know now why such experiences haunt people for a lifetime.

The vista of what was once Ooginohama

It took us Oregonians to snap out of the similar surroundings - "Gee, this looks a lot like the Oregon coast." Amongst the trees and at the foot of a rising forest in the flats of the bay's shoreline was nothing but broken, split, torn, ripped, shredded, twisted, ravaged construction strewn serenely across the landscape. 

Ooginohama, that was the name.  It takes a bit to learn, but once you do, you will never forget.  And so we laced our boots up a bit tighter, pulled the gloves on more firmly, and prepared to spend the day doing something, anything to help get this town, these people, back into a position where they can start to rebuild.  Looking out at the vista there was no ability to rebuild.  Three months after the event the scope of the recovery is still evident and a daunting task.  But every task must start somewhere, and ours started at a little creek and forest below the local elementary school.  And it would bring balance to us, it would be our Yin to the Yang that our eyes had just witnessed.

More to come, but for those who can't wait, here are more pictures of the day in Ishinomaki on Flickr

Itte Kimasu (いって きます) - I'll be Back

It is customary in Japan when you are leaving your home to let others know you are heading out with a simple "itte kimasu."  What you get back is a customary response of "itte rashai."  Sometimes I do feel like this is home and instead of saying sayonara (goodbye) or jaa, mata (until I see you again), I want to let them know that I'll be right back.

I sit in the airport with so many stories to share, not just of the experience of Toohoku, but the dynamics and personalities of the Flight of Friendship group where it seemed so many people shone and so many new friends were made.

I will share these stories, but not today, not now.  I am going to stew a little bit more on the flight and come up with more catchy titles such as "Wasuremono Nai De" that will draw the reader in a little deeper into our world.  So I will let Bob (see picture) send us all of with a kampai (cheers) and an otsukaresama deshita (let us reflect on the tiredness of our efforts of the day).

Visiting Ground Zero

There were many, many ground zeros during the tsunami. Most of us have seen footage of the tsunami from up and down the eastern Japanese seaboard.

See if you can find this in the video!

However, today our group went to Kesennuma, a small town about 2 1/2 hours North of Sendai (see the map).

This town is a bit famous thanks to YouTube and is actually the town in which the video I posted earlier.

Watch the video again. We drove down the roads since washed away. We passed by and looked up to where townfolk congregated wondering if this was the end. We arrived almost 3 months later and found this:

There is so much to do...

Japan is Watching!

Quick Update:
A camera crew followed us up to Ishinomaki, about an hour north-northeast of Sendai today and got us in the local and national news.  One of our colleagues got an email from his host family in Tokyo that they had seen the coverage so it was very cool to think of millions of Japanese hearing about Oregonians coming to help en masse.
See the video here on FNN (Fuji News Network).

So tired right now, but today was a day where the smiles got bigger and the spirits got higher.  We were finally able to roll up our sleeves and have at it.  We made lots of friends along the way and saw the bonds within our group grow even stronger.

More stories and pictures to come soon...



Looking for a harbor




Excitement was palpable as the rest of the group sent off the first wave in style.



Bless the Children

Sean

Miki Endo

As we boarded the bus this morning and set off for Sendai, our guide bade us good morning.  After a quick review of the day's plans, she paused to share with us a story.   Being so early in the morning and in the trip, I was expecting a story of hope, of bravery, of dedication, and it was...  but with a twist.  This is that story...

Ms. Miki Endo sat at her office on March 11, 2011 doing her daily work in her job in the emergency preparedness office.  This was no glamorous job and the Japanese had good warning systems in place, the coastline was well fortified with man-made sea walls and the towns people had practiced the tsunami warnings countless times.  So when the earthquake hit, and the tsunami warning went off, Miki moved into a role she was well prepared for.

Buddhist monk watches over Nishihon

Ganji Sendai Betsuin Temple

Her voice echoed over the town, helping guide people to the safety of the heights.  Her job was simple, but possibly the most important job of any time, of any place, and for anyone hearing her voice.  Townsfolk took heed of her warnings and moved to the heights, away from the coastline, the pending disaster that had still yet to materialize.  She was providing knowledge and time.  Both so precious at this moment.

The first of seven waves began to pound and overtake the coastline.  The man-made structures, weakened by the earthquake, toppled underneath the unyielding force of the tsunami.  And it kept coming.  And Miki's voice kept on, guiding stragglers to safety, to life.  There was no questioning Miki's dedication to her job and the responsibility of her town.

And the waters did not stop and so Miki continued her steadfast courage in the face of the unknown.  How much more would the waters rise?  How much more could her voice bring the guiding angels to the townspeople?  So she sat in her room on the third floor of the city building.  She sat there and repeated the words of life until it was no longer possible...

Three weeks later they found Miki's body.  It was not easy to recognize her body as the waters had rendered her naked and pure, save for one small bracelet.  Upon seeing the bracelet, her parents were able to identify their daughter and remember the day that she had been given the charm by her fiance.

Triton's spear awakes
From mother earth's fierce tremors
The spirit endures

Japan is Waiting...

"Flight of Friendship is the first large group to visit Japan since the disaster (大震災 - daishinsai)."

Smiles at Starbucks, Oregon loves Japan!

So that's why the girls at Starbucks were so happy to see us...

This was one of the boldest statements I had heard regarding the impact of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster that hit northern Japan.  This "three-headed monster" had taken a toll none of us had really expected to have our presence validate.  Seriously, tourism in Japan had taken that much of a hit???  Our guide patiently explained that the disaster did not just impact tourism in northern Japan, it affected tourism everywhere in Japan.

Imagine if the impacts of Katrina in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast had impacted everyone's image of the United States and all tourism to New York, California, Las Vegas had ground to a halt.  Tough to imagine, isn't it?  But that is what is happening here, and the lot of us could do nothing but shake our heads.  Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nagano...  We are sorry...

And so we woke up to our first full day in Japan.  85 travelers from the US received the following treatment which can only be described as: historic, never freaking happening again, momentous, heartfelt, すごい (sugoi):

Thanks you Commander Freeman
(resident of WA!)

• No Expectations: We stepped off the bus and climb the eight flights of stairs with no other thought than that we had woken up in Japan.  As we assembled in a well-monitored room, the US Ambassador to Japan (Ambassador John Roos) stepped up the podium and gave us a reality check, proceeding to share with us first hand accounts of ground zero.  Of hugs given, of tears shed, of the personal trauma of a major earthquake in Tokyo, of the mobilization of US forces (24,000 personnel, 24 ships, 189 aircraft), of partnership with the Security Defense Forces, of accomplishment, of devastation, of inspiration.  Further first-hand accounts by Mr. John Meed, Ms. Kambara and Commander Freeman gave the group a well-rounded briefing on what to expect from the logistical to the personal.  We learned that in the eyes of children there is hope, that recovery is an attitude and that despite the loss, Japan's preparedness had potentially saved thousands of lives.  From all of us, thank you.

Fuji TV Board Room transformed
into Lunch Room

• Starry Eyes: Imagine the President and CEO of ABC or Time Warner invited you to a personal visit.  Imagine that they opened up the board room (at Fuji TV) and that president (Mr. Hieda) personally sat with you and enjoyed one of the most luxurious and decadent bento boxes ever seen (confirmed by colleagues who had lived in Japan extensively).  This just doesn't happen.  It doesn't, but it did.  The Japanese are looking for signs of hope and recovery, not just internally, but externally as well.  We are a sign, hopefully a good one, but we have punctured the dam of perception that Japan is not yet ready.  It is, it has been, let the flood begin.

• Home Away From Home: In Shiodome, a business center next to Shinbashi station (JR line), on the 42nd floor of the City Center building sits the Oregon Bar & Grill.  Views abound, a replica of the Oregon governor's office welcomes guests as they enter, Rogue Ales pour freely, Oregon Pinot Noir is showcased and the menu does its best to represent the "Slow Life" values of Oregon cuisine and culinary habits.  A fitting end to an auspicious day with live and lyrical music from Nu Shooz.  But it ain't over.  Maybe the most well-known and well-respected American Nikkei in the world crashes the party.  Senator Daniel Inouye, on his own mission to Tohoku, swung by to provide a few words of inspiration...  From the US government, way to represent...

Fuji TV's homage to "From Oregon With Love" in 

honor of the Flight of Friendship

Surreal.  Simply surreal.  And lets put this in perspective, this is by far the easiest part of the journey we are on.  From tomorrow forward it will only get more difficult.  We have been warned.  We will be tested physically, emotionally, psychologically.  We may leave wishing we could have done more but we jump in knowing we will do all we can.

Who's Got Jisaboke When We've Got Yakitori?

時差惚け　(jisaboke) - the colloquial term for "jet lag" here in Japan

"Who wants tofu salad?"

Aftermath

Three of us sat there in wide-eyed confusion at Doug.  In front of us sat a small table laden with empty wooden, sticks of all shapes and sizes, some still showing the remnants of the delicacies that were once skewered.  You see, the entire essence of "yakitori" is skewered tidbits of meet, grilled to perfection.  Tofu?  Seriously?

Neither the many empty bottles of Asahi, nor the fact we should have been asleep nor the antagonizing group of friends was any excuse...  We (Jeff, Tim and I) roiled in laughter as Doug realized that we weren't in SE Portland any more.  Next to us, somehow Loen, Sho, Nancy and Chris had found us half a mile from the hotel in a small restaurant at Shinagawa station and bore witness to the revelry.  We are off to a good start.

 

 

Yakitori as it is served.  Yum!

Personal note:  It was with great fondness that I realized as we came upon Shinagawa station that we were staying exactly where the Egusa clan had spent the final days of its first trip to Japan over three years ago.  Memories of wheeling 6 month old Kelan around and Oweghn's incredulity at the "Japanese race car taxis" made my smile even bigger.

Departure

Press Conference for Flight of Friendship

The moment is here.  Pre-boarding has started, a small, intimate reception and press conference to share the where, what and why of this trip.  The cameras roll on.

Friendly faces, some with a dazed look as many of the group have actually never been to Japan before.   High school students, nuclear engineers, city officials (Let 'er Buck!), students, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, reporters, even an EMT and a bunch of other excited private citizens.  Getting to know people who were once strangers to me in a common venture that will create an unbreakable bond.  The anticipation we feel now will stay until we arrive in Sendai in a couple of days, and until then we will thrive on the energy of getting to know all the other personalities sitting, standing, squatting, sleeping next to each other.

Tiny origami cranes adorn everyone and everything that may help carry the message of hope in a form that the Japanese understand only too well.

There is no festive atmosphere, we realize we are doing something different, but then, that's what this region is known for and proud of.

We bring a little Portlandia, a little Vancouver, USA, a little cowboy and a lot of spirit and smiles.

And for those of you interested in the "where" I will endeavor to keep this interactive map up to date with our adventures and stories.

Final boarding now, see you in Japan.

Sean

Follow Me...

Here is a quick summary of some of the other channels of information on this expedition where you can follow along with the adventures, the experiences, the emotions.  Check back often as we may be adding some more bloggers and channels and such as the trip progresses.

Web Sites

• Flight of Friendship - Home base for those going and those interested in what they are missing.  Just the facts Jack, so if you want more, seek below...
• Map of Activities -  Interactive map of the adventures.  Do you know where Sendai is relative to Tokyo???

Facebook

• Flight of Friendship - Just getting started but watch it ramp up as the week rolls along.  Sharing the cumulative experience of the excursion's participants.
• NU SHOOZ Music - Follow John and his sketch diary of "Tiger Goes to Tokyo."
• SideStreet - Will share more in depth quips and such of the trip that are more than 140 characters but less than what the blog will cover.
• I Fly Nonstop - Dedicated to promoting the international non-stop flights out of PDX (Portland International Airport), an important partner in this excursion.

Twitter (#oregonkaraai) 

• @sidestreetmaps - Me again...
• @valerieday - "I can't wait" to hear the musical entertainment　she and John will be providing.  Wondering if Valerie will learn to play the shamisen (三味線)???
• @cinemacynic - Taking a break from sharing her perspective of the decline of cinema.

Blogs 

• Mary Loos - We have our own resident news professional!  Thank you KEX!
• Sean Egusa -  私　です！

Passport, Maps, Boots, Sports coat... Iodine???

It's amazing how things of minutia, of the most trivial detail, start to actually matter and actually provide some insight as to what the trip is all about.

1) Passport - I am going to test the bounds of the 6 month limitation of the "passport must be valid 6 months past date of entry" and am hoping I'm not left standing on the tarmac.  I will say that I've grown very fond of this particular passport as it has tracked me through my multiple visits to Japan, to China, to Europe for my 10th wedding anniversary...  Maybe its fitting that this is its last hurrah...

2) Maps - lots of maps, and I'll be turning one of them into an interactive guide of our experiences.  Seriously, for any of you who know me, would you expect any less?  For those who don't know me, I'm a map guy, love maps, think they are the coolest thing since Columbus (and am pretty sure he felt the same way).

3) Boots - The job I've volunteered for during the two full days we will be in the Sendai area require boots.  And that is exactly what I was hoping for.  I'll be out in the field with the Japanese Emergency NGO, specifically in Ishinomaki.  We had several options to choose from, including a tour that will allow some of our group to make a more immediate economic impact to the area (we hope).  Here is what we had the opportunity to choose from:

Please select the volunteer project you would prefer to participate in.
	Ishinomaki Junior High School - Cleaning of houses and drainages Approximate times 8am – 4:30pm (including one hour drive time each direction) In cooperation with JEN (Japanese Emergency NGO)
	Sendai AAR Location - Distribution of relief items Approximate times 9:30am – 6:00pm In cooperation with AAR (Association for Aid and Relief)
	Kesennuma - Assist in moving into temporary shelter Approximate times 8am – 7pm (including a couple hour drive time each direction) In cooperation with Peace Winds Japan

4) Sports coat - I'm still not sure of what the reaction is here in stateside as I've seen many who warmly and vigorously support what we are doing and others who question the motives and wonder if the timing isn't just quite right.  But if the activities on the other side of the pond are any indication, the world-renowned Japanese hospitality is going to be on overdrive.  From a welcome by the US Ambassador to Japan to a reception at Fuji TV (who originally produced the Oregon Kara Ai television series that made Oregon so well known to a generation of Japanese) to a more formal dinner and reception at the Oregon Bar and Grill (yes, you can get Rogue beer in Japan!) we are going to keep our jeans and boots packed away.  I should also mention that we will have some more formal moments in Sendai as well which I will relate later through this blog.

5) Iodine...  Oh yes, so there is this little problem with some nuclear reactors in the near vicinity...  And so one day, I look upon my desk, and sitting there is a bottle, complete with eye-dropper integrated top, of liquid iodine.  This was not something that I had thought of or had any real concern over.  And I still don't.  But I will pack this gift, an obvious manifestation of someone's concern for my well being, and for that I am grateful.  To be clear, our activity is clearly out of the zone and any volunteer activities actually take us further from the Fukushima nuclear plants.  Now if I had plans to visit Minamisoma, that might change things, but for now, I have a lot of faith in my personal safety and just want to focus on those who have lost a little faith.

I've Been There Before (A Little More History)

Minamisoma (Haramachi), Fukushima Prefecture (south of Sendai)

I've already mentioned the personal nature of this trip from a heritage perspective, but many years ago, I had the unique opportunity to help one of the larger, more renowned cities in Eastern Oregon create a sister-city relationship with an equally renowned city in northern Japan.  What did they have in common?  A rich history in horses.

Most everyone in the western US has heard of the Pendleton Round Up and recently they celebrated their 100th year, a remarkable milestone.  Haramachi (which a few years ago merged with two other townships to create the city of Minamisoma) similarly is the host of a celebrated festival of horse culture, but in place of cowboys, quarter horses and rodeos, Soma Nomaoi (wild horse riding) is a historic spectacle of the samurai culture that has been celebrated for over 1,000 years.

From chaperoning the royalty of the Pendleton Round Up court at Soma Nomaoi to watching samurai join the parade down the streets of Pendleton, the budding relationship between the two cities (facilitated by the enigmatic Mr. Uchiya) offered many memories of the people and events of the two very, very different cultures.

Riding American quarter horses in Haramachi

But that world seems so long ago when we imported quarter horses for show to Japan and had the pleasure of riding these majestic creatures on both sides of the Pacific.

I look at these old pictures now and wonder what happened to the riding corrals, what has happened to the many people I worked with.  Is Mr. Endo still leading the city council?  I certainly hope so.

But then I came across a picture that dragged me back to a memory of a chilly, overcast and windy day on the coast of Japan, standing atop a seawall that seemed to dominate the coastline in every direction.  It's like that picture of my wife and I standing on top of the World Trade Center so many years ago.   The imagination can not even fathom what reality wrought... and so I head west to the far east.

Standing on the eastern shores of northern Japan in Minamisoma (Haramachi)

Japan's Ground Zero

I'm going to take this opportunity to remind everyone of what happened and, to the extent possible, the immediate impacts to Japan and the local communities hit hardest.

Here is an excerpt from a report prepared by the Baptist Global Response days after the event (full report can be read here):

1. Major event – 9.0 magnitude earthquake (Fifth largest since 1900)
2. Secondary major event – Resulting tsunami
3. Tertiary major event – Radiation hazard from damaged nuclear power plants
4. Statistics/Numbers of interest as of 20 March, 2011:

• 8,199 people confirmed dead and 12,722 officially mission (total dead + missing = 20,921)
• Myagi prefecture hardest hit. Confirmed dead = 4,882 but authorities belief this number will rise above 15,000.
• There are currently 367,141 people living in 2,300 evacuation centers. About 10,000 per day are returning to their areas as power/water is being restored.
• Already 21,000 people have relocated to other areas of the country living in secondary places such as with family, friends, vacation houses, etc.
• Government has initiated rebuilding of 30,000 homes. Standard specs are 30 square meters and about $30,000 per house.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

To quickly restate what had just happened, two major natural disasters complicated by a man-made disaster combined to create a situation the world had never seen before.  The following picture shows the geographic scale of the area most impacted by these events.  (Download this map here).

The Japanese knew that such an event was imminent.  They had warning systems in place, sea walls designed to stave off the brunt of mother nature, engineering designs to mitigate the effects of a major earthquake.

Tsunami waves hit residences in Natori, Miyagi prefecture.

But you can't predict mother nature, and the combination of these two natural disasters demonstrated that for all humanities intelligence and capabilities, the raw power of mother nature is difficult to predict and contain. They had practiced and what little preparation and training had taken place allowed most of the area's population to react and evacuate within the 20 to 25 minutes between the earthquake and first waves of the tsunami.  Think about that...  You get rocked off your feet and 20 minutes later a 30-40 foot wall of sea water takes out your village.




So all of these leads to one of the most telling videos from this event.  A small town, somewhat prepared (see everyone at high ground, cameras rolling) as the first waves enter the city streets and townspeople witness a nightmare in the middle of their day.  Watch as the world that they knew ends...  is washed away in moments...  This is what we are heading into.  Obviously not the day after, but I was at ground zero for the World Trade Center in December 2011 and three months later the pile still smoldered and it was obvious that the recovery had only just begun.

I am hoping we can contribute to the recovery of this region in any way we can.

Sean

Is there something we can do???

As I start this first entry, there are a few things that I want to get out of the way.

I think most people who know me understand my love and appreciation of my Japanese heritage and a bit about the journey it has taken me to get to where I am today. I have had the good fortune of working in scenarios that have involved extensive travel to Japan where I have deepened those feelings and made many good friends along the way. And just as fortunately I have been able to become part of a community that values this heritage, through respect, through friendship and through blood.

And so it was that my heart and a bit of my soul sank on March 11, 2011.

Like everyone else, I'm sure the footage of the Pacific ocean surging 10 kilometers over the fertile, populated lands of northern Japan was surreal and something out of Hollywood. But we all soon realized that the "shock and awe" campaign Mother Nature provided, and the devastation she left behind was real.

It was real.

Since then, I've donated, I've joined fund raisers, encouraged our son to bring donations in the form of coins to his school, but in the back of my mind I kept waiting for something else, something a bit more personal to allow me to give back, if just only a little bit...


And so it was with a muted, tenuous joy that I received word of Sho Dozono and Azumano's Flight of Friendship. To me, the stars had aligned, the kharma wheel was spinning in askance and giving me the opportunity I had been silently longing for. To erase all doubts, a timely phone call from a well-respected leader of the community provided further inspiration and sealed the deal.

And so I head back to the homeland, to see if we can lift sodden and shaken spirits and replace some despair with a little hope.

The world moves so fast and it is so easy to forget what happened yesterday, so it is also my hope that we can help remind others that this fight is not yet over and to assure those in the greater Sendai area that they are not forgotten.

I will use this channel as an opportunity to share the experience as well as to respond to the many questions and comments I am hoping the group receives. I will entertain questions and comments on SideStreet's Facebook page and Twitter feed　 and try to respond to them here.

Wish us luck and if you have any hope or well wishes you would like us to take over, let us know.

Cheers,

Sean 江草