Midori

Around 2:45pm on March 11, 2011, Tokyo native Midori Hayama was at work at a clothing store in the northeastern part of the city. This is when the earthquake struck.

Though the 9.0 quake directly impacted Sendai, the capital of the Miyagi prefecture, some two and half hours north of Tokyo by train, the effects were felt in the capital. Said Hayama of the quake, “First, I thought ‘Its just another small earthquake,’ but it got bigger and bigger, and I couldn't walk straight.”

“It was the biggest in a long time,” she explained. “All the lights on the ceiling were shaking so much. Water bottles we sell fell… some girls were screaming.”

In the immediate aftermath of the quake, Midori was faced with dealing with the store’s customers; such is the service-oriented nature of modern Tokyo.

“I had to take care of customers. I took them outside, to an open space, for their safety,” she said.

Not long after the earthquake a massive tsunami devastated northeastern Honshu, Japan’s largest island. Images of the devastation found their way to every media outlet available, from television and newspapers to cell phones and the Internet.

“It looks almost like watching a movie. I still can’t believe what’s happening there. Just horrible,” said Hayama.

The aftermath of the earthquake has presented a number of fears and a vast amount of confusion and fear. Tokyo has experienced many aftershocks, some as powerful as a 6.0 earthquake. And there is the fear of radiation from the nuclear power plants experiencing reactor trouble.

“A few weeks ago, we didn’t need to worry about the future of our country. Now, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Hayama. She continued, “It’s scary…the radiation is something you can’t see. People are worried and trying to figure out how to deal with it. I think we have to be careful not to get in a panic.”

The wealth of largely contradictory information presented by the Japanese and foreign medias hasn’t helped clarify anything for Midori or countless other millions of Japanese people. As Hayama put it, there is simply “too much information.”

“Media tends to tell things more dramatically. Sometimes I almost think they are just trying to scare us,” she said. “Now, from the stores, water is gone. You can’t find water anywhere. Because the government and media announced the amount of radiation in water here is more than the OK level for babies under 1 year old.”

When asked whether she felt the Japanese government was, as the United States government insisted, lying about the radiation levels, Midori replied, “I don’t think the government is lying but they should tell us more details. And explain better.”

She continued, “I want to ask those experts talking on the American media to come here to help, instead of debating on TV.”

“If foreign media and Japanese media are saying something different, it makes people here confused and worried,” she concluded.

When asked whether she had considered leaving Japan in the aftermath of the quake and tsunami, Midori answered frankly.

“Yes, a little,” Hayama replied. “I heard many people from other countries left here but…they have somewhere else to go back. This is my home.”

Despite the confusion and fear that pervades in the aftermath of the disaster, Hayama stresses that, at least in Tokyo, the situation on the ground is not as bad as it may seem.

“Things are getting back to normal here,” she reported. “I’m trying to get over the shock from the earthquake, though we are still having aftershocks, and they bring back memories. I know a lot of people here who have had a trouble sleeping since the earthquake. Including me.”

But she points out that “Japan is a country who has recovered from a lot of disasters.”

“I believe that after this disaster, people will be more united and will help each other to get over.”

As it has for more than a millennium, life in Japan goes on. Though there will be trials and tribulations, and the path to recovery a difficult one, the extent of which is unknown at the present, the Japanese people have no choice but to continue living.

“Things are tough but a lot of people are trying to be positive and calm,” Hayama asserts. “I think a lot of people are worried, but still there are more hopes here.”

Midori