Men at work

An eye witness account of how the Land of the Rising Sun is getting back on its feet after an earthquake and tsunami devastated it

Madame Takeno Suzuki is the picture of quiet, Japanese efficiency. She speaks English, and holds the responsible position of Coordinator for International Relations, in the International Affairs division of the Miyagi Prefectural Government.


The famous Japanese work ethic is in evidence
as a nation struggles to start anew

We meet her in Sendai, from where we start our tour of the tsunami ravaged section of Sendai, before we board our flight. Once the formalities are over, she boards the bus with us to escort us to where some of the new relocation structures are being built for those who have been rendered homeless by the great waters.

A question here or there and her composure cracks. Despite herself, her mind rewinds to the time when the earthquake was just about to strike: "The early earthquake warning went off just around 2.40 or 2.45 pm," she says.
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"In three to five minutes a tremor of huge magnitude was expected. We tried to stay calm and evacuate, but when it started, the earthquake was of 9.0 magnitude, and the ground shook so hard, we could not stand. We tried to gather everyone and find safe places.
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Then the tsunami warning sounded. But the earthquake had destroyed the metre reader, so we did not know any details at that moment. Then the tsunami struck. The major destruction was caused by the water; 9000 dead, 4000 missing and hundreds of thousands with no place to call their own".

She adds, "The earthquake's destruction was not as terrible, the structural norms we follow saved most of the buildings, and the ones damaged have already been restored. Yet, at that time, the fear was immense. High-rise buildings were evacuated.
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I live on the eighth floor, with two children still very young, so I too got my bedding down, became one of the 17,878 evacuees with my family. There was no electricity for three days, but though the tsunami wave had come two kilometers inland, we were safe downtown, and stayed beyond its reach."

Wreckage
As she talks, the bus we are in is driving out of the town limits onto the highway. Soon we see the signs of earth savaged by the force of water.

It's not an entirely new sight to some of us, after the Tsunami that hit India, but here the devastation is marked by not just uprooted trees and large tracts of paddy fields lying under water, but by the pile up of steel that the wrecked cars created, along side the road, in the distance. A small plane stands with a broken wing, and wires stand crookedly at places.

The driver apologises for the bumpy of the road. Considering that not just a month ago all that had remained of the highway we are speeding along on, was a series of gaping fissures, we cannot but smile at the extremeness of Japanese politeness.

Construction
We turn off the main road, and stop where there is serious construction work underway. This is one of the many small segments that are peppered across the region, to re-house the tsunami hit.

Once these are ready, the families that are now living in cramped and tough conditions in school buildings and theatres and auditoriums, many in a room due to lack of livable space, will find a space to stretch their legs as they sleep, and to enjoy the quiet that comes only in a place that can be called home.
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The row houses stand in a line, back-to-back, front-to-front, and I wonder how happy the neighbours will feel about such proximity. But when I enter the first of the almost ready homes, I realise that things are not quite what I supposed them to be.

Technology
Here, what I see is hard-nosed technology, being carried out to perfection. Men in hard hats work with industriousness at putting together the homes, inside and outside.

Mini bulldozers carry away mud and soil, and wires are being strung across readying for the onset of electrical energy. Inside, the homes are surprise packages. Neat two room structures with white walls and huge picture windows.


Infrastructure and homes are being restored at breakneck
speed, a showcase for the envied Japanese yen for perfectionu00a0
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The lights, the fixtures, the sinks and kitchen ranges are all in place. So is the split air conditioning unit overhead. The loos are small but efficiently built with shower and hot and cold water taps, and auto antiseptic toilet seats.

Technology
The technology is Japanese, but what makes it so wonderful is the fact that underlying it is a large, soft, administrative heart that beats for those in distress and wants to make up to them for the hard times they have faced and that still lie ahead.u00a0

No makeshift shanties, no take it or leave it attitude, this could be a young architect creating a dream cottage for his family. Here, indeed is the difference. That the Japanese in their thoroughness, leave no stone unturned. But there is no mechanical working here. No must-be-done duty. And no sense of why am I doing this...

Compassion
Here is compassion in its deepest form, making technology serve man, and not the other way round. Call it technology with heart. Add to that the will to never say die, to go on without asking why, or why me.
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A few kilometres drive, and soon we are waiting to board the flight from an airport that was devastated by the tsunami less than three months ago.

The watermark is high above our heads, etched like a bad memory on to the wall, the escalators stand like twisted spaghetti. Pictures on the wall, show the rubble the building was reduced to, but for a few walls miraculously left standing.


Workers carry out restoration work

The runway is another disaster story. But the hard hatted men--supervisors and top brass, worker and apprentice, volunteer or whoever, to a man, decided the planes would fly. And sure enough since just a month after the calamity, fly they do.

As we take off from Sendai airport, on time, with full security measures in place, I raise a mental salute to the ground that is falling away from my window and the people who stand in line bowing ceremoniously, as the Japanese always do when bidding a guest goodbye.

The writer is Executive Director, Enclyclomedia

Japan urges end of nuclear industry
The first meeting of the Japan Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs began in Fukushima city on August 1, with a plea for an end to the nuclear energy industry.

A magnitude 9 earthquake off Japan's northeast coast on March 11 triggered a tsunami and explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. Radioactive elements were found in water, air and food products in some parts of Japan.
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"We should shout 'No more Fukushima'," said Koichi Kawano, who heads the Congress. "We have tended to focus on abolition of nuclear weapons while being weak in our campaign against nuclear power plants," he said.

Japanese authorities said earlier that it would take decades to decommission the crippled power plant, while environment experts reported higher concentration of radioactive elements in soil from the region.

About 15,000 people took to the streets in Tokyo in April to protest against the nuclear power industry after the earthquake caused meltdown at the Fukushima plant.

Powerful aftershocks continue to rattle Japan, fuelling fears of another natural disaster that could hit the country any time.

Energyu00a0Policy
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui is set to urge the government to review its energy policy following the Fukushima nuclear crisis, in his peace declaration to be read at a ceremony on Saturday.

The move follows an announcement by Tomihisa Taue, the mayor of Nagasaki City, who has said he will urge the government to promote renewable energy sources.

According to the Hiroshima municipal government, it is the first time that the peace declaration, which has mainly focused on the elimination of nuclear weapons, has referred to the issue of nuclear power generation since referring to the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
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The speech will be read out at the event Saturday marking the 66th anniversary of the 1945 US atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city at the end of World War II. Nagasaki's ceremony commemorates its atomic bombing by the United States three days later.
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In the declaration, Matsui will cite citizens' movements calling for withdrawal from nuclear power generation in the wake of the Fukushima crisis and urge the government to review its energy policy "so as to earn public support and trust." He will stop short, however, of explicitly opposing nuclear power generation.
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The speech also touches on calls from other citizens' groups urging authorities to enhance controls on nuclear power and promote the use of renewable energy.
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"I thought it best to show the citizens of Hiroshima that there are differences in stance over the issue among groups of people," said Matsui.
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"After all, the central government should take responsibility to deal with the nuclear power generation issue."