On Japan earthquake anniversary: a letter of hope and resilience
One year after the Japan earthquake and tsunami, a resident finds gratitude and cooperation amid the devastation.
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Other people are not as fortunate. The economic situation in this region is very depressed. Thousands are still without work; hundreds are homeless. Displaced people from Fukushima have flocked to Sendai and live in rickety old dormitories, waiting, hoping to someday be allowed back home. But the fishing and farming industries, the basis of that once-welcoming prefecture, are in shambles. People just shake their heads and say, “poor souls” whenever Fukushima is mentioned.
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Depression is on the rise, and suicides. So volunteers are being trained as “Listening Counselors.” They go and simply listen, lending support as people pour out their woes and try to work through the confusions of their current lives.
Everywhere there is still a strong urge to support and help others. The magnificent supportive beauty so overtly apparent a year ago is still with us. But the general feeling now is one of deep sadness, or of waiting. Sadness and wonder. Waiting and determination. And also hope that comes from the strong belief that if we try hard enough, we can make things better. And we make every effort to find the courage to accept what life gives us and find reasons to be grateful.
Coupled with the darkness and depression of these times, there is a sense of promise. Priorities have shifted. Values are more basic, more connected to people. Gratitude for small things once taken for granted finds a place in every home.
The other day I went to visit friends and their new baby. “She is our future,” they proudly said to me. “And she is our contribution to Japan’s future, too. That is why we named this teeny sparkle of hope what we did: Niina, “Encircled in a Rainbow.”
Love,
Anne
• This article originally appeared in YES! Magazine. Anne Thomas adapted this letter for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Anne is the author of Letters from the Ground to the Heart – Beauty Amid Destruction, a collection of her letters in the days immediately following the Japan earthquake, and some of the responses she received from people around the world. Proceeds from the book go to the Sendai Yomawari Group, a long-established organization serving the needs of Japan’s homeless, a population which is now exploding.
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