On Sunday I wrote of what I had then considered the sole hopeful development in the unending parade of horrific news coming out of Japan, the unconfirmed reports that "many" of those missing from the devastated town of Minamisanriku had actually turned up alive and sheltering in the nearby town of Tomoe. Yesterday, as I was unable to find any confirmation of those initial reports or even further mention of them, and as I read of and saw the ungodly devastation visited on this little town, I had more or less given up any hope that those reports were anything but wishful thinking. Today, in what has to be the sole piece of good news I have encountered so far, I am delighted to report that there was truth to the rumors and some 2,000 residents of the stricken town who had been given up for dead, are in fact alive.
The Miyagi prefectural government said Tuesday that search teams had located 2,000 people in Minamisanriku who had been missing and presumed dead. They had fled to surrounding towns as the tsunami bashed the coastal areas of the town.
Elsewhere, I'm sorry to say, the grim news continues to come it.
While we should certainly rejoice in this little bit of good news not just for its own sake, but because it may well indicate a pattern in which a substantial number of those initially reported missing prove to be alive and well. However, it should also be noted that Minamisanriku was one of the first to report such widespread casualties. It is possible that the reports that are now coming in with depressing regularity are from towns that first confirmed that their residents were no where in the area. I don't know, but I am hoping that it is the former rather than the latter.
The latest town to join the ever-growing list of those that suffered appalling devastation is city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture. Unlike Minamisanriku and Onagawa, Ishinomaki was not simply wiped off the face of the earth. A more substantial town with a population of over 150,00 and the eastern hemisphere's second largest fish market. It was also home to the harbor where the Japanese warlord Date Masumune, in the days before the seclusion policy was put into effect, had built a ocean-going vessel on the model of a Spanish galleon that carried an embassy from the newly-established Tokugawa Shogunate to Acapulco en route to Rome, where they saw the pope. On a per capita basis, it seems that relatively few are missing from Ishinomaki, but the number is on par with Minamisanriku. Today the Asahi reports that Ishinomaki mayor Kameyama Hiroshi has disclosed that the city has confirmed over 1000 dead and estimates that the total number is near 10,000. The devastation can be seen in this before and after satellite photo:
However, even in the hardest hit part of this town, there was some good news. A 25 year-old man was found alive today, reporting that he had been swept away by the wave and, by chance deposited in the second-story of a building that prevented him from being swept out to sea. He has injured his leg, but was conscious and responsive when rescuers got to him:
As heartening as this may be, we need to keep in mind that for the survivors the ordeal has just begun. Recent estimates are that as many as 440,000 people have been made homeless by the earthquake and tsunami. For many of them, life as they once knew it is now over.
Looking at this picture broke my heart and took me back to days after the Kobe earthquake when I spent time in a shelter with my girlfriend and house-mate. I clearly remember the unnatural darkness as we lay in our little area, without light staring at the ceiling waiting for sleep we all knew would not come. Somewhere in the room a radio droned on as the announcer repeated the geographic divisions of the local area and then began reading a list of the dead. People sometimes spoke to one another, but only in whispers because we all knew that there were people there who were desperately listening as the alphabetical list grew closer to the spot where their missing loved one would be if they were found dead. Sometimes I thought I heard a sigh of relief as someone realized that the announcer had moved beyond the name and that their loved one was not yet dead, that they could cling to hope for at least another night. Other times, I thought I heard a startled gasp, but we were very fortunate in our area that no one broke into outright wailing--perhaps someone who was known and well regarded, but apparently no loved ones. The people in Minamisanriku, Onagawa and Ishinomaki will not be so fortunate. The death toll is just too large.
For three nights we fell asleep to that. The second two we did our best to do something during the day, something that would tire us so that we wouldn't have to lie awake so long listening to that voice drone on and on. As the days wore on, the smell of unwashed humanity began to make itself felt and we were beginning to smell even ourselves. We were very lucky. Soon after that I was able to contact my homestay family, who lived outside of the stricken area and they came and got us. We all had a hot shower and bath and felt human. The following week I was home in my own bed, my mother waiting on me hand and foot.
These people will have no homestay families to rescue them. They will have no bed to go to. Many will no longer have mothers. Day after day they return to their cramped, increasingly unsanitary shelter. Sooner or later someone is going to get the flu. They are running low on food. They will need clean water, medicine, bedding, toilets and a thousand other things just to keep them in the state of sheer misery, I found so unbearable. Many of them, like this woman, will find themselves trying to swallowing perhaps the most intense moment of grief they experience in their entire lives so as not to disturb what little peace the other refugees have. If you can do something for them I urge you to do whatever you can.
Plubius has a great diary, outlining where you can donate to help.
In other news, it seems that the earth is still quite unsettled and a relatively strong earthquake, tentatively measuring a 6.4 on the Richter scale has struck Shizuoka Prefecture, though the Japanese Meteorological Agency estimates that this quake was independent of the massive temblor that struck last week and may be responsible for producing aftershocks of its own. No word on casualties yet.
Also, I would like to follow up on something I wrote yesterday, namely the story of how Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro rather disgustingly referred to the quake and the resultant tsunami as "divine retribution" for the mercenary and selfish spirit embraced by the people of Japan in the postwar era. Ishihara, for whom I have long had a special loathing, has made all sorts of outrageous remarks in the past, referring to people with racial epithets, declaring that women past menopause serve no useful purpose and should just die, or denying the extent of the Nanjing Massacre. Never once have I heard him even utter a single syllable of apology for all of these outrages. Yesterday, however, Ishihara apparently went to far and today was forced to apologize. What's more, he didn't try to worm his way out of it with your standard GOP-style "I'm sorry you were offended" kind of bullshit, but actually manned up and delivered an unequivocal apology:
Because my words were deeply hurtful, I withdraw them and offer my deepest apoligies to all those affected by this disaster, to the people of Tokyo and to the people of Japan.
Were he any other person, I would even say that he handled himself with something approaching class.
For other news on the Earthquake/Tsunami, check out the Japan News Round-Up.
Also, the National Journal has a page of heartbreaking, awesome (in the original sense), and even one or two uplifting photos here.
Finally, in closing I would just like to offer the following as an inspiration to others like myself who are desperately trying to find a cause for hope and optimism among so much gloom.
A member of Japan's Self-Defense Forces soldier cradles a young survivor in the devastated city of Ishinomaki
Update: The girl pictured above was apparently swept from the arms of her parents when the wave struck. Both parents survived and they have been reunited with their baby girl. (h/t to Cassandra Waites)