Four Months Later (1 of 2)

Japan won the Women's World Cup earlier today, and it was fantastic and amazing on its own for a variety of reasons. It was the first time any Asian team won the tournament, and the fact that the Nadeshiko won it after this spring's earthquake/tsunami was a big deal. Everything was well and good until the more bitter Americans got on the internet to say all kinds of horrible things about the team and how they didn't deserve the win. I wasn't awake to see it myself, but I read that racial slurs aimed at the Japanese and references to Pearl Harbor were trending on Twitter and I saw some fairly indignant reactions to the game on Facebook from my own friends.

I've been meaning to post an update on things concerning 3/11 for a little while and considering the lovely comments people are making, I thought now would be a good time to remind anyone who stumbles across my blog what the Japanese people are still going through four months later.

Buy a print here, it's sweet and proceeds go to charity.

There are more than 20,000 people dead or missing.

There are more than 37,000 people still living in shelters (i.e. school cafeterias, community centers, etc). If you need those numbers put in prospective, Creighton University's student population is about 7,000 and the University of Hawaii has more than 20,000 students. Survivors of a devastating double-disaster (triple if you count Fukushima) been living in shelters that make my freshman dormitory seem like a luxury resort for the same length of time as a semester in college. Problems with theft and sexual assault have arisen, and the general lack of privacy is a huge burden for everyone living in the shelters.

The increase in suicides following 3/11 has prompted the government to do a survey on it. There are at least 132 children who lost both parents in the tsunami and maybe 1,200 who lost at least one parent. Mainichi Daily killed most of the links, but I the stories I've forced myself to read about how these people are suffering leave me feeling helpless and numb. I think of my students and I can't imagine that sort of horrible tragedy befalling them - it's heartbreaking. 

TEPCO appears to be run by a bunch of idiots who are really good at hiding their idiocy. Fukushima experienced a melt-down by the morning of March 12 and eventually experienced a full melt-through. At this point we're on par with, if not worse than, Chernobyl. But they didn't tell anyone until a few weeks ago and I hope someone is going to jail for that, among other things. We had radioactive beef circulating Tokyo supermarkets, but apparently it doesn't glow green like on The Simpsons and most of it has already been ingested. Oh, and they're not compensating elementary schools or old folks' homes that were affected by the nuclear disaster. I didn't know I was back in America where it's okay to screw over students and old people! I should also mention the yakuza were more helpful in the aftermath of 3/11 than the government to some extent, mostly because they laugh in the face of red tape.

This is all the "official" stuff, too. I'm going to write about my own experiences next time, because some of that is important and I haven't talked about it all that much.

And stop berating the Japanese for winning a very meaningful soccer game and giving them a reason to celebrate in these difficult times.