One of the thousands of traumatic stories from 3.11

The article is from the book "The Japan Times Special Report 3.11 -A Chronicle of events following the Great East Japan Earthquake-."

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      "Unclaimed albums" 

     In Natori, there is a gymnasium of an elementary school that are filled with pictures and albums whose owners are still unknown. A person who found her elementary school  yearbook expresses "It's just a way for people to keep their memories."

     They were first left where they were found, but later brought to this place by Self-Defense Force troops. Then many volunteers started to clean those photos and albums, because they were all muddy and some were ripped away. One of the volunteers is actually looking for her, and her family photos here. Her house got destroyed by the tsunami, and daughter is not found. 

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     Some say looking back does not make you move forward. However, I think looking through past memories, I think we can clear our thoughts and minds. Then, later, move on, gradually. As the Trauma and disaster describes, traumatic events are dangerous, overwhelming, and sudden. This sudden change happened on 3.11 require people to take time in order to accept the reality. And in  order to accept the reality, they need to have the confidence what they have had done before. Photos can help...I'm hoping and wishing.

     

Difference between saving energy and electricity

     I have learned on how our planet needs our effort for saving the energy for the first time in my life, at the age of eleven or twelve in a class called "総合の時間"（the time for the whole knowledge---I might be translating this incorrectly...）. That was the beginning that also the whole society was in consideration on saving energy. Recycle, Eco, global warming and etc became popular terms. And as a kid in elementally school, I was using those words, not exactly knowing what they mean, when writing a small piece of paper, and a research.
    It has been about ten years now. The attitude of people and firms toward the environment did not really change during this time. People who are very serious about the environmental and energy issue scream for saving the energy, but many companies have been ignoring those claims, stating that they do some activities for the environment instead of sacrificing their business. Other people who are not so active on the issue, including me, sometimes tried to save energy, discuss the issues brought up in a conversation, and just "think" about them, not really taking any specific actions.
     I think this was the common behavior in Japanese society until 3.11 happened. Now many companies pay attention on how much energy they are using daily, and struggle to prevent using extra energy, even for a small amount. It seems that if a firm does not take action to save electricity immediately, the firm will be in a big trouble...as a moral issue.
    Looking all the commercials and advertisements on the trains, I feel that many companies understand what to do in this situation. Before 3.11, they did not really know what is expected to save energy and environment. It was too broad area to work on and therefore many consumers did not realize what to expect for them either, while saving electricity is more specific and thanks for the technology improvement, now it is easy to see how much electricity they are actually using.

Nihon jin ron

I found an interview based article in the magazine "SWAK," published on April 28th, 2011.
http://www.magazine-data.com/women-magazine/swak.html

The person who is interviewed is Yanai Michihiko, who is from Fukushima and a creative designer.
http://public-image.org/interview/2008/05/07/michihiko-yanai.html

At the last two pages, he talks about young generation in Japan, the generation that is said, in general, to be very inactive and ingoing. However, he has a different insight in them. He has been thinking that the young generation in Japan pursuit the real reason to exist, have the will to help others, make others happy, and want to stay strong as themselves...He thinks that young generation in Japan right now poses those aspects many times more than his generation had. Therefore, according to the interview, many actions taken by young generation in Japan, such as going up to North, join volunteering, holding charity event were NOT surprising for him at all.

He also talks about how creators' thoughts have changed after 3.11, and he compares the feeling which he also strongly affected by when 9.11 happened.

Global Media

Author: Shunsuke Kimura

Newspaper: Asahi Shinbun

First published on April 24th in Japanese, in Japan

     The article mainly report what TEPCO has reported in 2006 at the international conference. It has reported that there is 10% of chance that the unexpectedly big tsunami comes to Fukushima nuclear power plant #1 within 50 years.

     "So, TEPCO has actually estimated the possibility of getting hurt by tsunami, but did nothing for it?"

     That would be the reaction of most people. However this article does not take a side of readers, TEPCO, nor the government at the beginning. It seems to be a real "report," stating things as the report from TEPCO in 2006 does and explaining it in an understandable way. 

     However in the last part, it introduces how those possibilities are estimated generally and leaves comment on how TEPCO did compared to the general idea. Also at last, the writer leaves a critical impression, reporting that TEPCO has been wounding up together within a company right now and not letting information public.

     I also found a blog that might be talking about the same writer of this article. The blog writer states that the writer, Shunsuke Kimura is a person who writes articles that are 1. not only the direct information from press conference, 2. based on several kinds of information source, research, and analysis, taking several perspectives on the issue, and 3. not influenced by any companies or the government power, telling the truth.

http://geocities.yahoo.co.jp/gl/matiplanplan/view/20110330/1301461968