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Published: March 15th 2012
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"Smile for Fukushima" :)
One of the lanterns at the memorial service To be honest, it has been difficult for me to wrap my head around the Fukushima disaster that occurred on March 11, 2011. As someone who grew up in the southeastern United States, I have had very few personal experiences with earthquakes and even fewer (ie, "zero") with tsunamis and radiation spills. Thus, while I may not be the most qualified person to discuss the details of the Great Japan Earthquake, my experiences in Fukushima over the past four days have still (I hope) provided me with some insight into the event.
Before describing my experiences in Fukushima this past weekend, though, I would first like to try and explain some of the unique features of this disaster that make it so important from a geological, environmental, and human perspective. For starters, the earthquake was an extremely powerful megathrust earthquake, measuring 9.0mW on the Richter scale and causing tsunamis that reached up to 133 feet in height (footnote: megathrust earthquakes are caused when one tectonic plate is forced underneath another, and are the only quakes known to measure over 9.0+mW on the Richter scale). The earthquake is claimed to be the most powerful ever to hit Japan and the third
most powerful ever to be recorded. The earthquake and tsunami combined are said to have killed over 15,000 people, most of whom were drowned by tsunami waves that struck the northeastern coast of the country.
As harrowing as these numbers are, though, what makes this disaster so unique is not the strength of the earthquake and tsunami (the 2004 Indonesia earthquake/tsunami was actually stronger and killed many more people) but the additional, long-term impact of the nuclear meltdown that occurred in three of the reactors at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant. More specifically, the earthquake and tsunami disabled the reactors' cooling systems, leading to nuclear radiation leaks and triggering a 30 km evacuation zone around the plant. Immediately after the disaster, radiation levels near the plant were recorded at 400 millisieverts/hour (mSv/hr). By comparison, the residents of Chernobyl were exposed to levels around 350 mSv/hr. While the radiation spill in Fukushima seems to be under control now (levels in Fukushima are generally between 1-4 mSv/hr), nobody really knows what, if any, health effects will be seen among the exposed in five, ten, or twenty years down the road.
This past weekend, Aimee and I had the unenviable
(or enviable?) opportunity to visit Fukushima during the one-year anniversary of the disaster. Ostensibly, we were there to attend a two-day conference in the city of Koriyama about the mental health of children affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation leak; but since I did not understand much of what was said at the conference (it was all in Japanese), most of my learning occurred while people-watching on the streets of Koriyama. While taking a taxi from our hotel to the conference, for instance, what was most striking was how seemingly normal everything appeared. Because Koriyama is ~60km west of the coast, it was not directly affected by the tsunami waves, and most of the buildings that had been damaged by the earthquake had already been demolished or rebuilt. The only noticeable difference between Koriyama and my neighborhood in Tokyo seemed to be the presence of Geiger counters every few blocks indicating the current levels of radiation.
In terms of the people, I was similarly surprised at how 'unaffected' everyone seemed. Much of this, I'm sure, was merely a cultural difference between Japan and America. While in the United States we often have a tendency to wear our hearts
on our sleeves, in Japan 'gaman' (i.e. endurance) is a very important cultural value, and being emotional - particularly in public - is often seen as a sign of weakness. Three nights ago, for instance, the city held a memorial ceremony/vigil for those who had been lost during last year's disaster. The ceremony itself was beautiful, but I was shocked at how stoic, and even happy, many of the observers appeared (some were even taking pictures while smiling and making 'peace' signs in front of the camera). For an event that killed five times as many people as the 9-11 attacks and seven times as many people as Hurricane Katrina, I definitely expected to see some outpouring of sadness, even if it were somewhat restrained.
On March 12th, Aimee and I then returned to Tokyo, only to be reminded of one of the sad realities of life in post-disaster Japan. For the past year, small tremors have become a daily occurrence here, as the tectonic plates continue to release tension caused by last year's earthquake (you can even track them here: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/). When I first arrived in Japan two weeks ago, I would often feel these tremors late at
Koriyama Temple
Man praying at a temple on the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster night, assuming that they were caused by the subway running under my building. I was shocked (and horrified) to then learn that the subways in Tokyo actually stopped running at midnight!
In any event, on the night of March 13th, while getting ready for bed, I felt the largest tremor yet since my arrival - a 6.1mW. While I was slightly concerned only because of the poor construction of my building, the truth is that these 'earth-tremors' have become so common that neither I nor most of the people in Tokyo really thought twice about it. In all honesty, I cannot imagine how people in America would react if these 'earth-tremors' became a part of daily life there. My guess is that Obama would be blamed for them all and they would likely become the central issue in this year's election campaign. But in Japan, people just continue with their daily routine as though nothing had happened...which begs the obvious question: how long will these tremors last, and what, if anything, will cause them to stop?
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Dad
non-member comment
Keep it coming
Hi... Your blog definitely gave me a better feel for what you are seeing, doing, and experiencing. Some great comments like your horror at realizing the subway system shut down at midnight so the tremors you were feeling weren't coming from any subway! Good stuff. Just curious...is it possible to put video clips on your blog? Stay safe and in touch...love you, Dad