Storytelling

    I heard a sad story about one Japanese young man, who newly moved to Sendai on 3.11. While he was riding a bus from his old town to the new place, he had a weird dream. In his dream, his tooth fell out. Although it is a superstition, tooth falling dream has a meaning of death. At any rate, he arrived at his home around 3 p.m. On his twitter, first he posted good things about his new place, which was safe and rigid. Few hours later, he began twitting negative comments in a relation to tsunami. In the end, he wrote he did not want to die, which was the most heartbreaking part.

Energy Saving

    Once natural disasters hit Japan, nuclear power plants exploded. The nuclear explosion caused the largest trouble in Japan. As a consequence, North East side of Japan is struggling from shortage of electricity. Gradually Japan put emphasis on energy saving through visual aids. Thus, many people realize the problem and concern about the energy saving. Public facilities also limit the lights. Compared to the past, Tokyo has become darker. Some stations stop operating escalators. This summer seems to be the toughest time because of hot weather which requires enormous energy from air controllers.
   Before this incident, common people do not deeply consider about electricity saving. Actually excessive usage of electricity fastens global warming and extreme climate changes.
   Setsuden is not only helpful for the power plant but also universally helpful for the ecology.

Disaster Preparation

   In general, Japan has risk in a relation to earthquake. Accordingly, Japanese educational institutions have practiced earthquake drills. However, Sophia has not done any drills. Many people in Sophia think the school desperately plan out earthquake drills. Therefore, during the discussion we did the drill. Indeed, many people recognized some problems such as classroom environment (small desks), disorganized shelter information, and mistranslated instructions. But the good thing of drill is making us more prepared and realistic.

   After 3.11 multiple disasters, Korea also realized some risks of earthquake. So it also arranged the drill, but fellow citizens did not take it so seriously. They thought that was wasting time and energy. They believe earthquake will never hit Korean peninsula. Unfortunately, occurrence of earthquake has become more frequent. I think Korean government officially has to make it mandatory for its safety.

  In South Korea, every month of 15th or once a month, we had to participate civil defense drill. City halls turn on sirens for few minutes. As soon as we hear the sound, we are not allowed to go outside even driving is not permitted. Since Korea is divided and still in war, the government sensitively take care of national defense. Attacks from North Korea is unpredictable. So we practice to be in war-mode. By doing this drill, we discover how to behave during the war for instance, be calm, stay with many people, and so on.

Nihonjinron

   This is one scene or capture from public Korean news. Actually, the headline sounds sarcastic and means the crisis of Korean Wave due to the disaster. A person who wrote the script was something wrong in his or her mind. Indeed, many people pointed out the flaw.

This is the artwork from one designer who showed sympathy on the disaster. The designer labeled "HELP" with the disorganized houses due to the Tsunami. The poster emphasized the victim area up in Tohoku desperately needed supports from all over the places.

This is the design from the neighbor country, South Korea. South Korea also showed condolence to Japan. On the poster, the facts were accurately illustrated in order to inform people as many as they could. Truly, Koreans donated money and sent rescuers up to Tohoku.

Korean Mass Media on 3.11

   When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I started carefully watching news. For one week, Korean news channel concentrated on broadcasting damages and accidents up in Tohoku. Korea strongly supported and donated commodities to the victim areas.

    As is known, Korea and Japan are neighboring countries and they had complex diplomatic relationships. Historically, Korea was persecuted by Japan. Still both countries are not comfortable about colonial and territorial conflicts.  Moreover, Korean national news announcer showed cynical attitudes towards Japan. He said that the tsunami in Sendai looked even more vivid and spectacle than Hollywood blockbuster films. Next day, the press sharply criticized his manner for being too emotional and showing direct anti-Japanese feelings. Therefore, he apologized and became more cautious. Some Koreans said Japan deserved to be attacked by nature because they ignored christianity.

   On the other hand, Japan was awkward. Seasonally, every spring, Japanese education administrators politically irritate Korean government in a relation to the territorial debate so called Dokdo or Takeshima issue. They always warn us that Dokdo belongs to Japan. Then they plan to put the wrong information on middle school and high school history textbooks. In spite of having hard time to do relief project, they even mentioned it  this time. After that Koreans gradually cease donating moeny to Japan. In this manner, Japan merely follows its own political manual.

Volunteer Experiences

    When I went to middle school and high school in Korea, Volunteering was mandatory. Significantly, my middle school forced everyone to fulfill 20 hours of volunteer work. Therefore, I went to Alzheimer clinic with my friends. And I went to Girl Scout camp and did English interpretation.

   Then, I went to Habitat for Humanity in Bohol, Philippines while I was in international school. This volunteer trip contained multiple purposes. First of all, I went there because it sounded good for filling in my college application. And I wanted to visit other country. Indeed, I toured Cebu for one day. From next day, I started building houses. After building the houses, I did homestaying at one single household with my dorm room mate. In addition, it was a nice chance to get to know my older classmates who also joined the trip.

   Overall, I was satisfied with participating in volunteering activity. As a matter of fact, I learned new life lessons related to social skill and expanded my horizon. However, forcing students to do volunteer is wrong. I think it is contradictory, which destroys a pure meaning of "volunteer".

   Compared to volunteer activity in Korea, Japanese concept sounded more limited and less known. In recent days, many people get interested in volunteering activity after the 3.11 incident.

Tohoku Earthquake and My Volunteer Work

    As is known, Tohoku earthquake is one of the most destructive and tragic catastrophes in human history. Since it was accompanied by tsunami, the loss of life and the damages of infrastructure were such a humongous ones that the people in Japan as well as those of the world are all panic-stricken as the result of them. In addition, the fear of nuclear radiation is widespread under the skies of Japan and its adjacent countries. With all these difficulties, however, Japanese people gave the moral lesson to the world by showing the dignity to cope with their hardships. Their attitude to endure the adversity, in a way, demonstrated the evolution of human beings. People around the world were all impressed by their courage to overcome the toughest crisis in the history of Japan.

     Before I came back to Tokyo after a long absense of my winter vacation, I happened to watch the terrible scenes of Tohoku disaster on March 11 in Korea. I was shocked and panicked because the incident happened in Japan which is my place for my study. Then, I was really at a loss whether to come back to Japan or not. As I expected, my parents at that time strongly recommended me to consider leaving school for a year. At this point, quite a few of Korean students studying in Japan decided not to continue to study in Japan. So, I was in a predicament under this circumstance. "I have only one more semester to go." I talked to myself. I also asked myself "What about my friends in Tokyo? Will they make the same decision like me?" My judgement at this point was to choose to go back to school. It was quite simple to make the decision. The fact was that there are more than 10 million people living in Tokyo. I knew they would not evacuate to other places. They would stay in Tokyo as usual. Then, I got on the plane and came back to Tokyo on April 12th. Everything seemed to go back to normal except the gloomy feelings on the dark streets of Tokyo. Somehow, people looked depressed and low-spirited.

    At this point, I was advised to participate some volunteer work in Tohoku area. I really wanted to venture the trip to the disaster area and see the spot with my own eyes and do something good to the victims of the area. Thus, I decided to join one of the volunteer works in Iwata area. However, there was an obstacle to persuade my parents for me to sign up the trip. My parents strongly opposed my plan on the ground that there are possibilities of the aftershocks in that area. With all my disappointment, I had but to choose the alternative by taking part in some volunteer work here in Tokyo. At least I wanted to experience the volunteer work to give a helping hand in relation to the tragic incident of Tohoku earthquake.

http://www.2hj.org/index.php/eng_home

     As a Korean, I just wanted to show my concern and sympathy to those of the people who are suffering from the hardships. Many of Korean people are willing to help the neighboring country, Japan. Geopolitically, Korea and Japan have strong ties even though there are delicate issues between the two countries. Although I was not able to make a trip to Tohoku area, I tried to participate in some activities which are related to the earthquake incident. In fact, my friend introduced me an organization called "Second Harvest". It is generally known as Food Bank. To put it another way, the aim of this organization is to donate food to the homeless people and low income households. This time, however, the organization is aware of the food crisis in Tohoku area and decided to help the people there by sending food. After I signed up, I got my chance to work there on weekend base. I mostly sorted the donated food and put them into the boxes. I myself also donated some canned food and dried food which I brought from Korea. There was also some simple work of carrying and measuring rice. One of the most interesting experiences was breaking Okinawan brown sugar lump into pieces. It was simply a huge lump of sugar, so everyone had to break it with a hammer and make it into smaller particles. Another day I assembled flashlights and put them into the boxes. Then, I loaded them into a truck. Those foods and flashlights were sent for the people in Tohoku. There were also many other people participating in this volunteer work. The age groups and the nationalities were diverse. I had chances to talk with them and they were all willing to help others. They felt the sympathy to those of the victims of the earthquake. I will continue to participate my voluntary work until I leave Tokyo. I think it is my opportunity to broaden my viewpoint on the matter of natural disaster and human life.

     One thing still bothers us is the damages and effects of the nuclear problem in Japan. Japanese government already declared a state of emergency following the failure of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. I came to know that cesium, iodine, and stronitium which are the products of radioactive reactions, are floating over the Fukushima area and still contaminating the air, water, and soil of Japan. When Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant exploded, Korean peninsula was also under the fear of radiation. I heard a lot of rumors about the radioactivity disasters. Since Korea is adjacent to Japan, naturally there is a high possibility that the radiation from Fukushima invades the peninsula all at once. In fact, health issues relating to radiation seriously frightened Koreans, especially in the matters of cancers and reproduction of deformed children. At this point, Korean president Lee Myung Bak visited Tohoku and even had an occasion of having some local vegetables and fruits from Fukushima. I believe in his scientific judgement and admire his courage to try local food at this crucial time in Japan. Next time at my meeting of the voluteer work, I will share this story with other volunteers to have the feelings of togetherness.

I hope the prompt recovery of Japan!