TOKYO — Japan fell quiet at 2:46 p.m. March 11 to mark the minute that an earthquake began 10 years ago, setting off a tsunami and nuclear crisis that devastated the country’s northeast coast in a disaster that one survivor said he fears people are beginning to forget. Carrying bouquets of flowers, many walked to […]
Ten years and still recovering
March 18, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Ten years have passed since the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The coastal towns are almost unrecognizable with new buildings, roads and bridges. When I visit these towns, I am in awe of how they have been rebuilt so quickly. I am again reminded of how beautiful this region and ocean are. Many […]
EXPLAINER: How dangerous is the Fukushima nuke plant today?
March 18, 2021 by Leave a Comment
OKUMA, Japan — A decade ago, a massive tsunami crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Three of its reactors melted down, leaving it looking like a bombed-out factory. Emergency workers risked their lives trying to keep one of history’s worst nuclear crises from spiraling out of control. Proper equipment has now replaced ragged […]
Many still struggling 6 years after quake, nuclear disaster
March 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
TOKYO — Survivors pledged to reconstruct their hometowns March 11 on the sixth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in northeastern Japan, with many still struggling to rebuild their lives. “I never imagined I would be living in temporary housing for six years,” said Hirotoshi Masukura, a 61-year-old evacuee from an off-limits […]
A journey to say goodbye in Tohoku
July 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
When the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye By Marie Mutsuki Mocket (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2016, 336 pp., $16.95, paperback) “Perhaps it is possible, then, to see through more than one set of eyes …” Expected to speak and behave as a Japanese once she boarded the plane from America, […]
Half of 2011 quake, tsunami evacuees say local recovery lagging
March 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
SENDAI — More than a half of evacuees from the March 2011 quake and tsunami feel local recovery from the disaster has been insufficient, according to results of a Kyodo News survey released Feb. 11. The rate of respondents who said recovery has not been substantial was 54 percent in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures […]
Int’l friendship born out of tsunami tragedy
January 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE OF KAMOME: A TSUNAMI BOAT COMES HOME By Lori Dengler and Amya Miller; designed and illustrated by Amy Uyeki (Arcata, Calif.: Humboldt State University Press, 2015, 46 pp., $9.99, paperback) This is a true story about an unlikely little fishing boat that brought high school students from Rikuzentakata, Japan and Crescent City, […]
THE HEART OF KANJI: Visiting Japan
December 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last October, Alice and I visited Japan. We left San Francisco on Oct. 21 via All Nippon Airways. An Australian stewardess who spoke fluent Japanese served us on the airplane. She tried to pour water into a plastic cup. I stopped her and asked if she could change from plastic to paper. I explained to […]
Ishinomaki nonprofit visits San Francisco
April 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami devastated Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture. More than 3,500 people are dead or missing in the city of 160,000. Rias No Mori (The Forest of Rias), a nonprofit founded in 2011 that has worked to help Ishinomaki’s people and economy recover, visited San Francisco for this year’s Cherry Blossom […]
Journalists use ‘restorative narrative’ to report on Fukushima
April 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The San Francisco State University’s Dilena Takeyama Center for the Study of Japan and Japanese Culture presented April 4 on the state of Fukushima, Japan at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California. The presentation, featuring the works of San Francisco State University students who visited Fukushima last year, included a series of […]
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