Japan: International journalists impressed by resilience of Tohoku disaster survivors (Part 2 of 2)

16 visiting mainly from Asia and Latin America report on the recovery as part of a JICA program

In February, 16 journalists from mainly Asia and Latin America visited areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

They were in Japan as part of the “Invitation Program of Media Representatives to Japan“ conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency from Feb. 15 to 28.

After visiting areas affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 in the Kansai area, on Feb. 22, they arrived in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.

Impressed by the independence of disaster-affected people in Tohoku

The journalists visited the city of Ishinomaki and the town of Minamisanriku, which were affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. They heard from people who experienced the disaster. They also visited temporary housing still remaining and a reconstructed oyster farm.

In the Okatsu area of Ishinomaki, Maki Sato explained about the day of the disaster. She asked a teacher lead students from the neighborhood elementary school to a hilltop and saved many lives. However, a hospital where her grandmother was staying was engulfed by the tsunami and she lost both her grandmother and her mother who went there to help the grandmother.

“Real reconstruction is to rebuild our minds, not to rely too much on governmental or municipal assistance,” Sato said firmly.

The attitude of the affected people trying to be independent became deeply etched in the journalists’ minds.

In Minamisanriku, the journalists visited the hotel Kanyo, which provided a free temporary shelter for two months after the disaster, then accommodated 600 affected people until August 2011 as a secondary temporary shelter, and has been offering study space for children who live in temporary housing.

When Karim Madad of The Associated Press of Pakistan asked why a private company would provide support, Noriko Abe, the proprietress replied, “If people disappear, the town will break up. Vitalization of the town is the most important thing.”

Madad was impressed and said, “Residents are making up for what the government should do.”

'I would like to write a story about the bonds between Chile and Minamisanriku'

“I would like to write a story about the bonds between Chili and Minamisanriku when I return to my country,” said Benjamín Blanco of the newspaper La Tercera in Chile, when he heard of Maki Sato's visit to Chile in 2014, to talk about the disaster. In 1960, a tsunami occurred soon after an earthquake in Chile. Twenty-two hours later, the tsunami reached the distant Pacific coast of Japan and 142 people were killed. A Moai statue was sent to Minamisanriku by the Government of Chile and their relationship has been continuing since.

Like Japan, Chile frequently experiences earthquakes and tsunamis. JICA has been conducting many technical projects in Chile on disaster risk reduction such as an ongoing project called “Research Project on Enhancement of Technology to Develop Tsunami-resilient Community.” Using that experience, the International Cooperation Agency of Chile (AGCI) has signed a memorandum with JICA, and as a leader of the Latin American region, Chile started a project to foster human resource development in the disaster risk reduction sector.

Blanco had heard of this project from AGCI before coming to Japan and he visited the Latin America and the Caribbean department of JICA in Tokyo. He wrote an article reporting that the earthquake-proofing research and tsunami observation of Chile are recognized as excellent in Latin America and that they were chosen to form the core of the project.

Sympathy for the role of media at the outbreak of a disaster

Some journalists had articles published during their stay in Japan. Lucinda Margarita Quintanilla Ayala of the newspaper El Diario de Hoy in El Salvador wrote a special edition on disaster reduction during her stay. Waisea Vukinmalua Nasokia of the Fiji Sun also published four articles, mainly on the sites he visited and what he saw and heard, for the newspaper's website.

At the completion of the program, Kobra Akish of the Iran Newspaper talked about what she got out of her time in Japan: “It was precious experience to compare Kobe, which is a city fully reconstructed without any trace of disaster, and Tohoku, where traces of the disaster of four years ago still remain.”

Many participants felt sympathy when they listened to Shinichi Takeda, director of the Disaster Prevention and Reduction Project and vice-chairman of the editorial committee at the Kahoku Shimpo* in Sendai. When the disaster occurred, Takeda was on the front lines of disaster coverage as director of coverage. Soon after the disaster, the Kahoku Shimpo published a special edition. Every day reporters visited the temporary shelters in the morning, delivered the newspaper, reported and then returned to the office at night to write articles.

“When a newspaper was delivered to the temporary shelter where I was, I felt I was not alone but connected to the world,” one of the refugees told.

Takeda said he realized from these words that a mission of local media is to give assurance to disaster-affected people.

All participants showed great interest in the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which begins on March 14 in Sendai. They said after returning home they will do stories about organizations related to disaster risk reduction in their own countries, and will report about the conference.

It is hoped that coverage of the experiences and lessons of the disasters by the participating journalists in their own countries will heighten awareness of disaster risk reduction, which will lead to less damage caused by a natural disasters.

*The Kahoku Shimpo is a newspaper published daily in six prefectures of the Tohoku region, mainly in Miyagi prefecture. It organized “Musubi-jyuku,” a circle to share the experiences all over Japan. “Musubi-jyuku” branches were organized in Indonesia and Chili as well, with JICA as a co-host.