March 11 Magnitude 9.0 earthquake hits off Sanriku coast, massive tsunami wreaks havoc in coastal areas in northeastern, eastern Japan.
March 12 Prime Minister Kan surveys tsunami-ravaged region from air.
March 13 Kan calls disaster postwar Japan's "most severe crisis" and mobilizes 100,000 Self-Defense Forces members for relief efforts.
March 15 National Police Agency announces over 10,000 dead or missing.
March 18 Number of victims surpasses those killed in 1995 Hanshin quake, making it worst postwar natural disaster.
March 20 NPA tally shows more than 20,000 dead or missing. In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson are rescued.
April 1 Disaster officially named Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災 Higashi Nihon Daishinsai)
. Kan declares plan to establish Reconstruction Design Council involving experts, local stakeholders.
April 3 SDF, U.S. military end three-day search operation in tsunami-struck region, retrieving 78 bodies.
April 7 Government envisions first extra budget worth ¥4 trillion for reconstruction. Worst aftershock of magnitude 7.1 strikes Miyagi Prefecture, elsewhere, causes widespread blackouts.
April 10 Kan visits Miyagi to inspect disaster-stricken areas.
April 11 Tally shows over 13,100 dead, over 14,300 missing.
Japan Times Online
April 12, 2011
"Across the northeast, some 160,000 people are still sleeping, eating and waiting in makeshift evacuation centers." (TIME). It's hard to imagine where to go from here, with more aftershocks and the situation at the Nuclear Plant still not stabilizing, however through all this there's something my students and coworkers all mentioned, while watching the Japanese news on FNN, I realized what they were talking about: the people in the Tohoku region, after having lost so much, are all so patient and calm. Maybe it's the innate quality that Japanese people have; patience, strength, and thankfulness.
These qualities make me think about words that exist only in the Japanese language, it's difficult to translate these words over to English; the first word, as mentioned in TIME Magazine March 28th Special Edition: がまん (gamann), almost a mix of patience, strength, endurance, and stoicism. I think Japanese people have a strong sense of がまん, it's something we've been taught from when we were children from our parents who told us to "hold it in" when we had to go to the bathroom on a road-trip to enduring something we didn't enjoy; like eating vegetables as a child. The second is がんばろう (ganbarou) which could translate over to "we can overcome this" or "we will do our best." It's a sort of mentality for stepping forward, but also a way of providing strength for another. The last word is 感謝 (kansha), which is "giving thanks," "thankfulness," and "showing deep gratitude," 感謝 has been felt by everyone in Japan in these difficult times.
I have seen so much がまん in the people at the evacuation centers. A couple weeks agoFNN visited an evacuation center in the Tohoku region. First they interviewed an older lady in her late 70's, she simply stated "we are all in this together."They also interviewed an older couple in their 70's. During the interview, the camera focused on some children who were staying at the evacuation center, playing and chasing each other, and the older man said "We put our trust in the younger generation to rebuild Japan..." It's true, the younger generation will rebuild Japan...so がんばろう.
As for the Send愛Project; since the last time I updated, the amount of clothes has pretty much doubled! :-)
as of April 11, 2011
shirts: 105 189
pants: 26 49
outer wear: 23 41
KIDS
gloves/mittens: 8 pairs
sweatshirts: 2 9
shirts: 5
hats/caps: 10
socks: 4 pairs 14 pairs
MISCELLANEOUS
scarves: 6 12
gloves: 1 pair
hats: 10 12
socks/legwarmers: 15 pairs 63 pairs
shoes: 6 pairs 11 pairs
