When a nation’s sense of security is washed away, can one feel safe again? A project by VOA Asia on Japan’s healing process.
What We Learned from March 11
Tokyo was a city that was always running—a few accidents here and there, true, but overall, Tokyo was a well-oiled machine, where everything was always running smoothly and right on schedule. All it took was a minute of violent shaking to disrupt that structure. For months afterwards, there was chaos like the city had never experienced. Everything had changed.
One day volunteer experience in northern Japan…
Found flower blooming out of the ground of disaster
- Mai
He has to live for them…
One of my friends I met in Tokyo lost his entire family - wife and son. He always cried to talk about his story. When the tsunami hit Fukushima, he was in Tokyo because of his business. He found his wife and son’s dead bodies three days after the tsunami, 10 miles away from the house. His wife was holding his son when he found them.
I believe Japan is a strong nation, and I really hope everyone could be strong as well
Wondering why some can’t “just move on”? Imagine living through this…
When you feel alone, a little love from the world can help.
- A submission from Students Rebuild
A stone statue of a mother holding a child, bundled up with knit scarves and a cap against the bitterly cold winter, stands near a special altar in front of the main gate of Okawa Elementary School where 74 of the 108 students went missing after the March 11 tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on March 6, 2012. On Tuesday, one year after the disaster, 40 police officers conducted another search operation for the bodies of four students still yet to be recovered, in response to their families’ request.(AP Photo/Koji Ueda)
Photography helps children filter their trauma through the camera’s lens. A collaboration of EYE SEE TOHOKU, UNICEF & Sony.
It was like something out of a horror film.
I was at home when everything happened. I had been living in Japan for a while, and having experienced an earthquake before, the one that struck at 2:46 pm began no differently.
From Tokyo
The earthquake, tsunami, and radiation were all really scary and my heart still stops for a second whenever I hear the earthquake alarm on my phone, but Japan is doing a really good job of moving on from the disaster and trying to rebuild the life everyone had before.
- Ashley, Temple University Japan
It is very hard when family and friends live apart when something happens.
On March 10th, it was almost midnight in Los Angeles. I was with my Japanese friends to study for the midterm in the coffee shop. We were almost done for studying and about to leave there.
