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!

Blaming games on 3.11 incident

   3.11 incident was a nation-widely shocking issue. In general, Japan was well-prepared for earthquake. However, this time not only earthquake hit Japan, but also tsunami and Fukushima nuclear explosion brought into a dilemma. Tsunami and earthquake are simply natural disaster so it is hard to blame technology and science. As a matter of fact, natural disasters are beyond our control.

    Indeed, advancement of science and technology lessened the damages. On the contrary, public blame science and technology on the nuclear power plant explosion. Once Japan is not safe from the natural disasters, the nuclear power plant should not be built. At any rate, people built it despite the risks from the disasters. Hiroaki Koide(an assistant professor at the Research Reactor Institute of Kyoto University, has become a leading anti-nuclear voice in Japan) used to warn the possibility of catastrophic nuclear power accidents. Nuclear power is entirely operated by machines. In any chances, machines eventually break down. On top of that nuclear energy includes carcinogenic substances. Once they penetrate with air, they will enormously contaminate and harm our life. Hiroaki blamed imperfect machine controlling system and inappropriate locations. According to him, America and Europe avoided building nuclear power plants in seismic faults. For instance, most of the nuclear plants are located in East Coast, in which earthquake does not strike. On the other hand, Japan operates 54 nuclear power plants in spite of the most seismically active country in the world.

     According to Hiroaki's worst-case scenario, "the cooling of the reactors will fail, causing the reactor core to collapse ― the so-called meltdown. And if there is water remaining at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel containing the reactor cores, a steam blast explosion can occur. If that happens, the primary containment shell covering the reactor pressure vessels ― the final radioactivity-confining barrier ― can be damaged. Then a great quantity of radioactivity will be released into the environment." In conclusion, he strongly claims Japan has to abolish nuclear power plants. He stated that the solution is acknowledge the fact that human beings are greedy and ridiculous. We need to think about how much energy we do need and reform our energy-wasting world. Not only in Fukushima, but also Hamaoka showed some problems. I guess Japan has to prevent another catastrophic disaster. 

   Unfortunately, the public do not trust what mass media says about nuclear power plant. Mass media tries to release fears, but it does not help.Actually people are psychologically exhausted and stressful. The government plans to conserve energy, which is saving electricity, specifically blackouts. And the publics are quite cooperative.


   

Risk and Blame

  According to this book, people think pollution of the environment and religion are connected. Moreover, they believe morality is an important factor to protect from the disasters. For example, they even say that one woman's death caused by misfortunate ancestors. However, nowadays the disasters are concerned in political angle rather than superstitious or religious account. Also, the system of justice is blamed. "The blaming and the system or justice together are symptoms of they way the society is organized"(6).

   "Danger is defined to protect the public good and the incidence of blame is a by-product of arrangements for persuading fellow members to contribute to it" (6). Recently, government tries to calculate or estimate the danger of disaster. It seems to cause conflict between government and public. The government exaggerates the risk in order to gain political power by public. Thus, they may put political pressure on the public. Also, the nation provides new method of protection, which requires scientific knowledge. "Forensic uses fit the tool to the task of buildings a culture that supports a modern industrial society" (15).Risk analysis started researching the danger from disaster, but the public is not aware of the danger in the same way as the experts.

Nuclear Energy

The field I am interested in...


1) Scientific aspect - nuclear fuel energy, facts, current events, three major types of damages in Japan after 3.11: economical, ecological, and psychological loss.


2) Critical Point of views - Pros and cons of nuclear energy in general. Convenience vs Eco-friendly
Problems of using natural resources- solar energy, wind energy because they take too long time. Somehow they are not functional.

3) The situations in other countries' nuclear plants such as US, France, Korea, etc.
   Other countries are more cautious about operating the plants and even thinking of shutting those down.
   The one in Korea has trouble because it was built long time ago likely 60s or 70s.


Websites


1.Special Interview with Stacey White, Senior Research Consultant with the Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), discusses the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
 http://sfs.podbean.com/2011/03/15/special-interview-with-stacey-white-on-japan-disasters/


2. Statesmen's Forum: Seiji Maehara, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
http://csis.org/event/statesmens-forum-seiji-maehara-minister-foreign-affairs-japan


3. Professor Michael Green discusses Secretary Clinton's upcoming visit to Japan as well as the economic and political situation in Japan one month after the March 11th disasters.
http://sfs.podbean.com/2011/04/14/east-asia-weekly-review-9-japan-one-month-later/


(Korean Newspaper URLs. Most of the time, Korea listens to Japanese side)
4. www.koreaherald.com 


5. http://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/


6. The latest science news and opinion from Nature, the international scientific journal. 
http://www.nature.com/news/index.html


7. National Geographic
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/


8. Yomiuri Daily News Paper
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/




9. Asahi Newspaper
http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/


10. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus provides in-depth critical analysis of the forces shaping the Asia-Pacific region . . . and the world
http://www.japanfocus.org

Mononoke Hime VS. Avatar

   In the first place, I found several similarities from both films. Although the settings are held in certain fantasy spaces, both films send important messages about the nature. In other ways, these movies warn us stop exploiting and destroying the earth planet. Indeed, humans in both movies strongly challenged to the nature and fulfilled their desires until they were satisfied. Unfortunately, it ended up with a mutual destruction or tragedy. I personally believe once our greed grows up, not only it is unstoppable, but also it hurts us. As a matter of fact, humans in both films harmed both forests and themselves. 

   As I compare and contrast these movies, probably the released time period brought up different aspects. Avatar featured more technological devices and scientific analysis. And the characters are merely different. In Princess Mononoke , mostly they are indigenous people besides Avatar characters are scientist and warriors. Furthermore, the human side of Avatar is more complex and ambitious. I could also found conflicts and separation in one human group. Even if they used to be in a same side, their relationship got distorted and hurt each other. In the same way, these things usually happen in reality. 

   Correspondingly, these two films have a connection to 3.11 incident, too. As can be seen, 3.11 incident is a combination of natural disaster and human destruction. Moreover, human made the circumstance worse especially Fukushima Nuclear Plant explosion. Of course, there would be a lot of conflicts behind it. 

   

Anthropological research on hazards and disasters

  This reading basically viewed natural disasters in an anthropological perspective. In most cases, natural disasters have been interpreted in a scientific way. On news, scientists or researchers showed up and explained the main cause of disasters. Truly, disasters are also related to humanity and largely affect our life. There are three major trends in anthropological research; 1) behavioral responses approach, 2) social change approach, 3)political economic / environmental approach. 

 In spite of technological advancement, humans can't manipulate nature. This article also criticized that technology isn't well-prepared to prevent natural disasters. Honestly speaking, it is very difficult to predict when they will hit us. As a matter of fact, humans endeavored to protect themselves from the hazards. Unfortunately, it did not work well on 3.11 incident. The force was very rapid and powerful. After the disasters, society transforms and evolves. At first, life style will rapidly change. People who were previously victimized would be more cautious and try to keep in an order  as I think. 

   I realized that disasters are quite complex. It comes up with sociopsychological questions and requires knowledge with wider spectrums of fields. If I hear disaster hit one specific region, I only concerned aobut the negative notions such as loss of life, family, and shelters. On the contrary, there are some positive sides after the disaster. In fact, political and business are largely engaged in this matter. Actually victims all kinds of supports which can be psychological or economical and new materials. I strongly agree on the quote "Disaster boom economy". Once a company helped one damaged regions, its reputation will go up and take economical advantages especially profits. Also, damaged places need more workers in order to recover their places. Currently, Fukushima tries hire works from South Korea with paying enough wages, but Korean strongly oppose to send those workers. Despite aftershock from natural disasters, business still goes on. 

Listening to others

   As I read other's episodes on 3.11, I realized I was too fortunate to stay in Korea. I usually go back home for breaks. Anyway, most people who were in Japan went through hardships. Some people even thought about death at that moment. When I read that post, I was a little bit shocked. Mostly, they felt fear from earthquake. Generally, I heard many people evacuated to safer places and stayed with groups of people likely friends, cousins, and family. Temporarily, Tokyo was panic due to shortage of electricity and traffic. Tokyo is still limited to use electricity in public area. However, Tokyo is almost settled down as I see.Despite the chaos, some people seemed to use twitter and notified their safety. I think that was a good idea. Therefore, I realized a great power of technology. And some people shared pictures while earthquake hit their places. Some of their houses were badly attacked by the quakes. 

My Experience

   On March 11th, I was in Korea. On that day, my family and I were celebrating my father's birthday. After having a huge feast, everyone was suffering from  food comma and turned out to be couch potatoes. Since we got bored, my father turned on TV and kept changing channels. Accidentally we saw the news about tsunami in Japan and got shocked. Tsunami destroyed one peaceful village in a sudden moment, which was very heartbreaking especially mom who lost her daughter made me so sad. She didn't mean to miss her daughter's hand, but she lost her daughter by the pressure of tsunami.

   Tokyo was also facing on earthquake, blackouts, and radiation. So my cousins, friends, and acquaintances asked my safety. I told them I was still Korea so they were released. 

   Fukushima Nuclear Plant explosion scared me the most because radiation does not have color and smell. It is hard to figure out whether it come into my body or not. Moreover, it highly risks our health such as cancer and genetic code destruction. It can even affect my offspring so I would rather not to get married if radiation is in my body. 

  Radiation also reached Korea and zinc and cesium were found in the water and vegetables. And Korean weather forecasters kept claiming that radiation would never reach to Korea due to a seasonal wind. According to them, the seasonal wind blows in an  opposite direction to Korea. However, it was nonsense. Actually, the direction can change any time. 

   I had a huge debate with my mom about going back to Tokyo in April. She said it was too dangerous to stay in Tokyo. Since I have only semester left, she wished me on good luck and allowed me to go. 

   At Busan airport, I saw Koreans who put a lot of water bottles in their luggage bags. And I also brought plenty of water bottles and food from my place. I heard there would be a difficulty to get bottled water. 

  After this incident, I thought a lot of things about the world and myself. Humans are fragile creatures and cannot conquer the nature. 

Korea and earthquake in Japan.

  I believe Korea is safe from earthquake, but it is not true. Annually the frequency of quake has been increasing. Moreover, Korean buildings can only stand 6.5 scale, which are weak compared to Japanese building structures.

  This article is written by a professor at the Korean Language Education at Seoul National University.

He wrote about the interaction between Korea and Japan. Korea was also affected by the natural disaster in Japan such as earthquake, tsunami, and explosion of nuclear plant. Accordingly, Korea helped Japan's recovery.

If you want to read the article, please click on the link.

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/03/314_84009.html

Start

  Hi, I am You Gene.
Throughout this course, I am interested in foreign media's reaction on this incident or nuclear energy.
I haven't decided my project theme, yet.



   I will try to post interesting articles and data on my blog.