Japan Disaster Relief Donations
Japan: How to help
Donate to Japan Disaster Relief
The National Police Agency released its updated casualty figures today and the Tohoku Quake/Tsunami has now officially passed the 1995 Kobe Earthquake as the worst natural disaster in postwar history. There are now 6911 confirmed dead and that number is only going to grow as there are an additional 10,316 officially listed as missing. Both numbers are still growing and likely will continue to do so for some time. I will explain why below.
In the meantime, there is a more important development that needs to be made known to the world at large. The desperate situation of the survivors is growing more desperate by the minute. I have already written of how some of them have been reduced to sheltering in park pavilions and stringing up tarps to keep out the cold. They are rationing blankets to the young and elderly. Today I ran across something that just makes me sick at heart.
There are now reports of children starving to death in the shelters.
Yes, you read that correctly. There are reports that some of the children who lived through the unspeakable violence of the earthquake and the apocalyptic terror of the tsunami, have now perished for the want of a bowl of rice in the town of Ishinomaki. The admonition to children of my mother's generation, that "there are children starving in Japan" appears to be true once again. These reports are unconfirmed, but if they are true, then the situation is for more desperate than I think anyone had imagined. These people need our help. Please do whatever you can.
Finally, in a note that would be funny if it weren't so tragic, the Japanese media expresses surprise and considers it newsworthy that the workers attempting to get the Fukushima nuclear disaster under control are considered heroic by foreigners.
Yes that's right, to date almost no one in the Japanese media has praised the heroism of the workers who remained behind when the rest of the plant was evacuated. These people, subjecting themselves to high risks for the good of the larger group would probably say that they are just doing their job. It seems that most Japanese seem to agree with them and they have been all but ignored in Japan, when they have not been reviled for not getting the job done faster. Though many of them have been at the site or near to it from the time of the disaster, have in some cases been unable to confirm the safety of their own families living in the quake and tsunami devastated areas, though they are short of food and clean water and may very well have resigned themselves to death in order to do what they can to get this thing under control, the Japanese media have yet to think of anything nice to say about them. The first anyone noticed that these actions might be considered noble was when the Asahi was surprised to note that the "Fukushima Fifty" were winning praise in, in that wonderfully inane Japanese formulation, "EuroAmerica".
Meanwhile, it what has to be the most disturbing thing I've seen in a while, Japanese actor Tatsumi Takuro wrote in his blog that he was able to confirm that a friend of his was safe after he got a call from him by way of satellite phone, however his relief soon turned to horror at the story his friend related:
Tatsumi-san, this is hell on earth . . . Please let as many people as possible know about the situation here. There are dead bodies lying around everywhere. Chlidren have starved to death even though they are in a shelter. I beseech you, Tatsumi-san.
I have no idea how reliable this report is. Television and print media are in Ishinomaki and there has been no confirmation from those sources, but there is no question that these people are in a terrible situation. Days ago the desperation of the people in Minamisanriku was already clear as they tried to signal those in helicopters above to bring them food:
Minamisanriku, Japan: Man walks by sign aimed at sky asking for food.
The scale of this disaster is almost unbelievable and the tally of the dead and missing just grows every day. It has already officially surpassed the total of the Kobe Earthquake of 1995 in terms of its death toll and the toll is likely to increase perhaps by many times, before all of the reckoning is over. Even if no one else dies in the shelter, a possibility that is now looking less likely by the day, the human toll of this catastrophe will be enormous.
I am afraid that most people have not even begun to comprehend just how disastrous this was.
For the official number of missing does not yet even approach the total given in unofficial estimates for just three towns, Minamisanriku, where it is estimated that 8,000 are missing and presumed dead, Onagawa, where it is estimated that 5,000 are missing presumed dead and Ishinomaki where there are another 10,000 are missing and presumed dead.
The staggering total from those three towns alone is 23,000. Though that number includes three of what were incontestably among the hardest hit areas, it does not include any estimate for some other areas that were hit nearly as hard or in one case likely hit even harder.
For example, one city not included in that 23,000 total is Ofunato, where the waves topped out at a staggering 23 meters (75 feet), meaning that it was possible that people sheltering atop a 7 story building would have been swept away. Many people remember the terrifying image of the wave's approach to shore that was carried around the world and first gave some indication of the vast scale of the devastation:
Tsunami comes ashore at Ofunato
No one in this town is yet included in the unofficial figure of 23,000 presumed dead. That figure also does not count anyone from the devastated town of Rikuzentakata.
Rikuzentakata
That 23,000 presumed dead doesn't include anyone from Otsuchi
Otsuchi
The 23,000 presumed dead does not include any of the friends, neighbors or relatives of this young woman from Natori, whose grief became an international symbol for the suffering of all the victims.
Natori Woman
This is an image of that woman's town as the tsunami swept away buildings that had already been set ablaze by the power of the earthquake. No one killed in this disaster has been included in the unofficial estimate of 23,000.
Natori
Nor has anyone from the town of Mastushima been included in that figure of 23,000.
Matsushima
That figure of 23,000 does not included any of the unfortunate people from Kesennuma that perished in the twin disasters.
Kesennuma
There are other towns as well that have not been included in that total. This quake and tsunami were absolutely devastating. These people are now sheltering in overcrowded public buildings. They don't have enough food, water or even the most basic medical supplies. Some of them are getting ill. Some of them may already have starved to death. The situation is desperate and only getting more so by the minute. They need our help. Please do what you can.
Japan Disaster Relief Donations
Japan: How to help
Donate to Japan Disaster Relief
Also please check out the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Information and Assistance group.
Major Update:
pvmuse makes an extraordinarily generous offer:
If people are willing, I will match dollar for dollar to purchase another box. They are approximately $1000. So I am up for another $500, if people want to help.
I have been wanting to post this in a place to get more attraction. During the Haiti crisis, we bought and sent a number of boxes.
www.ShelterBox.org
I said I'd go in for fifty, but after a heart-to-heart with journeygirl, we're in for a hundred. We just need four hundred more and we can do some real good here today. Please help if you can spare anything. If you are up for it, make your pledges in the comment section and we will get this together and hopefully have it on the ground, and we will soon be returning a modicum of humanity to some suffering family in Japan.