Report on Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

as of September 28th, 2011

It has been over 6 months since the earthquake and tsunami occurred on Friday, March 11th in Japan. Regarding the current situation of the victims and affected areas, they are even now still suffering in their daily lives from the results of the disaster and the many events that happened after that.

Relief funds were donated from around the world through many channels such as the Red Cross, but it is said that the distribution to the victims was delayed. One of the reasons I heard was that some local government offices were much affected by the disaster. For instance, in Otsuchi-cho, a maritime town I visited once, all of the members of the town council were swept away by the tsunami. Also, it seems that the distribution system of the relief funds had some problems. According to the statement of the president of the Japan Red Cross in September, they are going to call for national and local governments to have discussions about improvements to the distribution system after this autumn. They also decided to extend the period for acceptance of the donation of relief funds for 6 more months, that is to say until the end of next March. In their first official report issued on August 5th, the National government said that the allocation policy for the first distribution was decided in April and that the funds were sent to the victims already. Their recent report issued on September 16th said that 90% of the total amount of the relief funds were sent to each the prefectures. As a point of reference, Japan has a distribution system and committee for the relief funds. The Japan Red Cross is a part of it. In accordance with the system, the money is allocated and sent to the prefectures, and then the prefectures send it to local governments such as city, town, or village. According to a recent report, the total amount received so far amounts to JPY 324.5 billion.

Mika, a friend of ours who lives in Tome-shi, a city neighboring Ishinomaki-shi, one of the most devastated maritime cities, who has been giving support to victims in an affected area as a counselor and as a neighbor, along with Setsuko, a member of Subud Japan and also a counselor/therapist living near Tokyo, said that the victims don’t use the relief money, but rather save it because of their feeling of a discouraging outlook. Setsuko and Mika said that just a promise of long-run support itself can be a support for them. In some shelters, some of refugees moved back from temporary houses because the shelters are better in some respects, such as meals for free. They feel isolated in the temporary houses too. It was said far in advance that keeping their community together should be considered in moving to the houses. There are various situations in the devastated areas. A case in Otsuchi-cho was that their temporary houses were built in a remote and inconvenient location for some reason, discouraging them from moving, while in the next town their temporary houses were built in a convenient place.

What makes the situation more difficult for the country as a whole is radiation, as you know. According to the authorities, the progress is now in the 2nd stage of the roadmap toward cold shutdown of the plant, and inhibition and decontamination of the radiation. Meanwhile, many people are sensitive to everything that comes from the areas, not only surrounding the power plant, but also the prefectures adjacent to them, fearful that it might contain the risk of radiation. While many programs are held in festivals around the country to encourage the people of the devastated areas, in some cases, residents of the place of the festivals made protests against using products or something from the areas due to the possibility of spreading radiation. A mayor who was criticized from around the country when he accepted the protests said “I don’t know even now which decision was right”, and also “…Responsible officials should understand that safety and peace of mind are different…”

In Subud, a family who lived in a city of the prefecture “Fukushima” moved to Kyoto with their aged parents, even though their city was far enough from the affected area. But after a while, their parents moved back to their home city. It is generally said that aged people wish to stay in their home town while mothers with children wish to evacuate to other prefectures to avoid the radiation. While many people were evacuating from the prefecture, I asked our local administrative office if our Subud House would be useful to them. At that time, many others were offering the same too. According to the office, there were in fact few responses from the evacuees to the offers. Meanwhile, our city provided the evacuees with the use of an arena as a big shelter that can accommodate quite a large number of families until the end of July, while gradually providing temporary houses for them. During the above, many volunteers were involved. My sister, non-Subud, was one of them. As a piano teacher, she gave a performance with her friends for the evacuees. According to her, so many musicians and entertainers were there that they gave their performance one by one like a TV program. In her eyes, the audience appeared tired. She also offered the use of her grand piano as, from the viewpoint of her own experience, she thought there must be some students who would wish to continue daily practice, especially for entrance exams of universities of music. (She had a hard time when she was a high school student).

When I visited Tome-shi with Setsuko and Mitsuyoshi, a member of Susila Dharma Japan, Yasuko, another friend of ours there, accommodated us in her old folk house. While she works as a school teacher in the city, she cultivates crops in her vegetable garden. On the second day of our stay, she said “Now I remember, I didn’t get a chance to let you know that radioactive cesium may have been contained in the crops we ate here as it was detected in this city.” Referring to the information from the city, the level was far below the permissible amount. Since the power plant accident, information exchanges like this, and reports have been shared publicly and privately. Maybe a case of the Indy car race in Motegi, a place just over 100km from the power plant, can serve as a useful reference to grasp the situation. The international car race was held successfully in September as planned. Their decision to go ahead was based on an independent report provided  by request from the International Motorcycling Federation.* Some news media reported that Independent Report Concludes Radiation Risk at Motegi “Negligible”, and also that the likely radiation dose for all those attending the event over a one-week period could be "considered normal'', and would be in line with major cities such as Rome and Madrid (http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2011/07/independent-report-concludes-radiation-risk-at-motegi-negligible/, http://www.wcti12.com/sports/28744512/detail.html). At a breakfast at the Zone 4 meeting in Greece which was held with Susila Dharma International Association AGM in July, I remember Andrey Gerzhyna from Subud Kiev, Ukraine, saying “When the nuclear meltdown occurred at Chernobyl, the US said one thing and another about radiation effects, but we are now ok.”

The National Committee held a meeting to discuss the earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in the beginning of May. I was called by Masayuki Nagamine, Chair of Subud Japan at that time, to join it as I have a role of Susila Dharma. In the meeting, I was asked to give some suggestions, and I suggested supporting Setsuko’s visit to the devastated areas. She had already planned to give mental health care in Tome-shi as a counselor and therapist, along with her old friends, whom I mentioned above, making use of their relationship with the communities there. Following this suggestion, Arisa Ooi, deputy committee councilor at that time and now committee councilor and Susila Dharma Japan vice-chair, expressed her wish to have a summer art camp for the children affected by the disaster - if it's too difficult this year then next year. In this meeting, Masayuki reported on his visit to Kesennuma-shi, one of the most devastated cities. And the following week Arisa also visited Sendai, the biggest city in the North East part of Japan. Their reports are available in WSA News No. 5 May 2011, and Subud Voice Number 3 April 2011, Number 4 May, Number 7 August.

A gathering, one of Setsuko’s activities in the Tome-shi area, has the name “Madeh-tomo Jikan”. “Madeh” in a dialect of a part of north-eastern Japan, means “considerate” or “careful”. “Jikan” means “time.” As she is running it with her old friends in the local area, because of their relations with the communities there, those gathered were school teachers, nursing teachers, health nurses, and naturally the parents of the children/students. When I visited it in August (it was the 3rd one, the 1st one was held in May just 2 days after the above National Committee meeting), the number of attendees was around 15, not only from neighboring areas, but also areas including an island half a day's travel away. At that time, some people from other walks of life such as an insurance agent or supermarket staff were there too. In the gathering, experiences in their daily life were shared. According to them, there are a lot of stresses, not only from the direct effect of the disaster, but also from something triggered in consequent events. As the attendees at that time were giving care to others, it seems there were shortages of care for themselves. The gathering was conducted by Setsuko with her technique of therapy. She also gives individual counseling for those who wish to have it after the gathering, using Bach Flower remedies[1]. In addition to the gathering, Setsuko gives counseling to the staff of a childcare center in Ishinomaki-shi using Bach. This connection was made by Mika, who had distributed supplies to victims there during a phase when it was needed after the disaster. At that time, she supplied Bach too, though nobody there had known what it is. She was not sure if they would take it, but was afraid it might cause confusion. But the responses from them were simply like “I got back my peace of mind, thank you.” and “Can I have more?”. It seems that not much explanation is required in real need. The childcare center knew of it from the earlier distribution. I was informed by her recently that another neighboring childcare center asked for the counseling support too. Setsuko is going to continue the above activities regularly.  In Subud Japan members/helpers, there are some objections towards Bach remedies based on the understanding that it might be "mixing" with the latihan. But it seems that Bach is working well in the devastated area. In accordance with my understanding, latihan rather may give some help in the use of Bach just like everything we do in daily life.

[1] An article by Maria Brockway is available in Subud Voice January 2011 that explains how Bach began in Japan.

Since the above National Committee meeting, Arisa has been seeking ways to make progress for the summer art camp. Subud Japan has a painter, who is also a councilor at one of the most major artists' associations in Japan, and who had conducted some programs for children to give them the experience and enjoyment of painting in various ways. Arisa is talking with him for practical advice, and trying to make a plan involving him. I joined a meeting with them when he came to Tokyo once. After consideration, she now thinks that workshops instead of a summer camp would be more reasonable in some respects. I think it’s fine in any form because it would better to have more than one.

We have received emergency funds of USD 5,000 (JPY397,700) from SDIA for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief on March 22nd (and also JPY 70,002 from 2 countries in total). As I mentioned above that the distribution of the funds was delayed, we didn’t send it to the Red Cross, but asked SDIA if it’s acceptable to use it for the relief activities by Setsuko and the summer art camp/workshop which I mentioned above. The reply was generous-hearted acceptance with encouragement. Currently, we used the amount of JPY 200,000 for the relief activities by Setsuko. The rest will be used for the same, or for the summer art workshop in accordance with their concrete needs.

In addition to the countries from which we have received support directly or through WSA, I know many members and countries around the world are behind the emergency relief fund in SDIA. I conclude this report with due acknowledgment for your support, confessing that I have always felt being with you, especially when I see people in the devastated areas, those who are still suffering.

While doing my best, some omissions must be there. Any questions, advice, suggestions, or offers are much appreciated.

Thank you.

Ichiro Nakamura
Chair of Susila Dharma Japan

*refer to http://www.fim-live.com/fileadmin/user_upload/medias/MotoGP/2011/Laguna_Seca/RelazionepreliminaremotoGP-translation.pdf