3/11 Three Years on Part 2: What Happened to Me

 

Day 1 Friday March 11, 2011

            It was graduation day.  After the ceremony the students had gone home early so only we teachers were left at school and another teacher and I were talking to each other about the faculty party scheduled for that night when the shaking started.  I instinctively took shelter in the doorway out of the teachers room.  For the past year my rule had been that if the shaking did not knock anything down, I would not worry.  The first tremor knocked everything over, including me.  After the shaking ended I could not move for a minute.  The lights went off.  The shaking stopped and the office was a mess but the building appeared to be undamaged.  The principal came out of his office and began to direct everything.  I went back to my desk to sort things out when the next tremor struck and one of the Japanese teachers told me all had to leave the building so we ran out onto the baseball field.  It was snowing and I hadn’t tried to get my coat.  The shaking continued.  Some of the teachers got out their cell phones and turned on a web browser or television in order to get the news and we heard about the tsunami.  The teachers kept using a word I had never heard before but could understand that translates to “great tsunami.”

3/11 Three Years On Part 1

            I was in Northern Japan on 3/11/11, the day of the Great Northeast Japan Earthquake.  It has gotten easier for me to talk about it since then, because I have told the story so many times, and have been able to come to terms with my experiences, and with the consequences of the earthquake that I did not experience firsthand.  I do not intend to write about radiation and nuclear energy specifically, because enough people continue to write about that topic, and they do not wait for the anniversary to do so.  I will use my soapbox to write about the rest of Tohoku, where is lived and worked for a year, and came to appreciate and love.  I will tell you about Tohoku, because this is the story of the earthquake that is neglected these days.

Let's Do the Tension Tango

On February 20 2014, the Financial Times reported that a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) officer, speaking to FT anonymously, said that China is training for a “short, sharp war” with Japan and its allies (which include Australia and India).  On February 23, 2014, the New York Times reported on the US-Japan Iron Fist exercise at Camp Pendleton, as if it was something entirely new.  Iron Fist occurs every year, yet, this year, the Times ran the headline “In Japan’s Drill with the U.S., a Message for Beijing.”

Japanese Medical Education

Different countries have different standards for medical training.  Take Japan: it's a very healthy society.  They have lower healthcare costs than the United States thanks, in part, to near-universal healthcare insurance coverage.  The progression for becoming a doctor is a little different from the United States.  The biggest difference is duration of education, but when you speed things up, something else gives.

Afghanistan in the 1960s

You hear over and over how “Afghanistan is stuck in the thirteenth century” (or some other medieval century).  Well, no, its not.  The reality is more complicated.  Would you believe, the pictures posted here: http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/01/28/podlich-afghanistan-1960s-photos/5846/ are from Afghanistan? Well, I’ve encountered this part of the Afghan history before, and can assure you its all real.  Modernity is fragile.  I think it is very important for us to view photographic collections like this because they show us something we Westerners tend to overlook about Afghanistan.  I have had shouting arguments with people who refused to believe Afghanistan had ever been different from the one they saw on the news for the last thirteen years.  Well, here is my proof. 

Hat tip littlegreenfootballs.com.

Play Ball!

           I need a break from politics.  So let’s talk about something else.  Since my round-up of the new anime season is not finished yet, let’s talk about something else Japan and the USA share a love for; baseball.  I’ve never been much of a sports fan, but once in a while I will claim a team as my own.  Since I come from a family of Yankees fans, I tend to pick that team.  Its not bandwagonning if your family is into it.  When I was little I would root for the Phillies, but they sucked in those days so I turned my back on them.  When I lived in Miyagi I adopted the local Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.  And now the Yankees have signed the Eagles’ pitcher, Tanaka Masahiro.  The Eagles have a bad few years (and that’s going back before the earthquake), so I can’t imagine the fans are too happy to lose a good player.  At least it isn’t to the Yomiuri Giants. My brother tells me Tanaka’s contract is normal for a pitcher.

Abe Goes to Yasukuni Jingu

         Last month the Prime Minister of Japan, Abe Shinzo, went to Yasukuni Shrine
(Jingu in Japanese) to pay his respects to the enshrined military dead. At first, I thought I had nothing to add to this story. After a few weeks of reading the same arguments over again, I realized I do have something to add: I find fault with the way English-language writers portray the Yasukuni issue and describe the shrine itself, I find fault with the difficulty we have with Yasukuni’s whole context, but I do not find fault with the rest of East Asia’s grievances over everything Yasukuni Jingu represents.
Whenever a Japanese prime minister visits Yasukuni Shrine, one of the more common recurrent responses (besides outrage) is a befuddled ‘why?’ Why go through the same drama over and over again, risk the ill will of the neighbors, and endanger Japan’s foreign affairs. Well, Abe Shinzo, despite all the work he did on his visit around Southeast Asia last month, seems not to care how he comes across overseas. Or he is gambling that the states of Southeast Asia are worried enough about China to overlook the pain of war memories. It is an interesting contrast to Abe’s foreign policy actions from last fall. The deal over Okinawan bases announced last week would suggest that Abe and his advisors want to minimize the amount of risk they want to take.