As you all know Japan experienced one of the largest earthquakes and tsunami last year on March 11. The damage to the coastal area of Sendai and Fukushima was catastrophic. In partnership with a local volunteer organization based in Sendai, Akita International University’s AIU Supporter Club organized a volunteer bus trip to the coastal area of Sendai, where the tsunami had a severe impact.
The area of Tohoku is very grateful for all of the donations and support from around the world. The donations have helped support the funding of organizations such as the one we worked with in Sendai. Please continue to show your support.
Our work there was to contribute to the restoration of the farmable fields in the area. The tsunami carried debris, sediment, and salt water into the fields destroying the farmable land, while the relief efforts have worked to remove the large debris, there is a need to sift through the remaining upper layers of soil for dangerous wreckage or meaningful items that have the possibility of reaching their owner. One such item was found on a previous trip, a family picture, when an item is found that has the possibility of being given back to its owners the volunteer group of the area does its best to make it happen.
We worked in line with shovels, tilling and digging picking out broken pieces of pottery, glass, wood, metal, and roof tiles. All pieces of the once thriving community that had stood in the area.
Lunch break came, and I walked. The vast flatness of the area is stunning. It is filled with the concrete foundations of thousands of homes. Already grass, weeds, and trees have started to work their way through the soil and emptiness. There are very few buildings that were left standing, save for a bent and twisted gas station with a steal frame, and a large concrete building, perhaps a school. The tsunami destroyed the houses and livelihoods of thousands of people in the area and the magnitude of the wave is truly unimaginable.
I sat to rest near the foundation of a home and noticed two sake cups half buried in the dirt that had been caught at the corner of the foundation. Remarkably the cups had remained whole. They seemed to represent the spirit of the Tohoku area, the spirit of Japan. After the disaster of March 11 Japan has emerged scathed, but whole, in the process of rebuilding, working together to revitalize and rebuild Tohoku.
We all pray for Japan.
