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Message from Mark McTamneyowner of English BugYou are not allowed to view links. Register or Login----------We are a small English School in Fujinomiya City, near Mt Fuji. While we were a long way away from the epicenter of the Tohoku earthquake, we certainly felt it and experienced the uncertainty that followed in the following days/weeks and months. We want to show people that although it was an extremely difficult time for all of Japan, we have come through it and we can still manage a smile or two. Thanks to the Tyler Foundation for providing this platform for us and we hope other schools and groups from around the world will join in submitting their videos. Shine on!!----------SING FOR JAPAN!----------As Japan remembers the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Tohoku region on March 11, it is important to remind Japan that we haven't forgotten.The Tyler Foundation mobilized its resources and launched the Shine On! Tohoku Children's Support Program. To date, close to 9,000 children have received psychosocial support.And in collaboration with the Sakari Elementary School in the Ofunato region, we recorded the song Who I Want to Be a bold and hopeful song of promise.Originally sung by Rie Fu, we invited the global community to sing this song for Japan. We are asked groups of all ages to submit their videos to be posted on our websites for all of Japan to see and to be reminded that we have not forgotten.----------For more information about how we are helping kids with cancer in Japan:You are not allowed to view links. Register or LoginTo purchase the song, cd or to find out more about the music:You are not allowed to view links. Register or LoginMore about our Shine On! Tohoku Children's Support Program and Shine On! Smile Ambassador:You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
I watched an interview with this young woman on the television on Friday night and it blew me away. It is so inspiring to see how strong and able is the human ability when people are faithful and disciplined and believe. They have done so much by first knowing that orderly participation by all gets things accomplished, no matter how big or insurmountable a task appears. It can be done. Many of the people assisting in the re-building lost whole families and communities of friends, still they have so much compassion for those who remain. Awesome. This is what humanity looks like. Bless them all.
Many of the people assisting in the re-building lost whole families and communities of friends, still they have so much compassion for those who remain. Awesome. This is what humanity looks like. Bless them all.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or LoginI watched an interview with this young woman on the television on Friday night and it blew me away. It is so inspiring to see how strong and able is the human ability when people are faithful and disciplined and believe. They have done so much by first knowing that orderly participation by all gets things accomplished, no matter how big or insurmountable a task appears. It can be done. Many of the people assisting in the re-building lost whole families and communities of friends, still they have so much compassion for those who remain. Awesome. This is what humanity looks like. Bless them all.Quote (selected)Many of the people assisting in the re-building lost whole families and communities of friends, still they have so much compassion for those who remain. Awesome. This is what humanity looks like. Bless them all. I so agree Hesouttamylife! Inspite of their own loss and grief there is so much unity and care for each other. LOVE and respect to them. L.O.V.E. always
Chronology of major events related to the nuclear crisis Kyodo March 11, 2011 — The magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami cause a station blackout at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, crippling reactors 1 through 4. The government declares an emergency and orders residents living within 3 km of the plant to evacuate.March 12 — Prime Minister Naoto Kan inspects the plant. A hydrogen explosion rips through the No. 1 reactor building. The evacuation zone is expanded to a 10-km radius and later to 20 km.March 14 — The No. 3 reactor building suffers a hydrogen explosion.March 15 — A hydrogen explosion occurs in the No. 4 reactor building.March 17 — Ground Self-Defense Force helicopters drop water to cool off spent fuel rods in the No. 3 reactor's storage pool. Fire engines spray water from the ground.March 20 — Reactors 5 and 6 achieve cold shutdown.April 2 — Highly radioactive water is confirmed flowing into the sea from reactor 2.April 12 — The government raises the crisis severity level to 7, the highest on the international scale, bringing it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.April 17 — The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. announce a two-phase road map to bring the crisis under control.April 22 — The government designates a 20-km radius around the plant as a no-go zone, while setting a ring 20 km to 30 km from the plant as an area that will have to be evacuated if further emergencies develop. In addition, evacuation is advised but not mandatory for an area beginning at the 20-km line and stretching beyond 30 km.June 7 — The government admits meltdowns occurred in the cores of reactors 1, 2 and 3.June 27 — Tepco starts cooling the damaged reactors using water decontaminated through a newly installed water treatment system.July 19 — The government and Tepco say "Step 1" of the road map is largely completed and revise the conditions for completing the second phase and containing the crisis.Sept. 8 — New Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visits the crippled plant for the first time.Sept. 19 — Nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono announces a plan at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency to move the deadline for cold shutdown forward to the yearend instead of mid-January.Sept. 28 — Temperatures at the bottom of the pressure vessels for reactors 1, 2 and 3 fall below 100 degrees.Sept. 30 — The evacuation preparation zones are lifted.Nov. 4 — The government decides to provide Tepco with ¥891 billion to help pay its massive compensation bills.Dec. 2 — Tepco unveils an interim report on an in-house investigation blaming the accident on a tsunami of unprecedented scope, though other disclosures show it was warned in advance.Dec. 16 — The government declares the remaining reactors are in cold shutdown, completing the road map's second phase.Dec. 21 — The government and Tepco announce a plan to scrap reactors 1 through 4 in the next 30 to 40 years.Dec. 26 — The government decides to reclassify the Fukushima evacuation zones into three categories,depending on radiation levels. The government's accident investigation panel says in an interim report that the government and Tepco responded poorly to the crisis.Jan. 26 — The government announces a plan to complete decontamination work in some evacuation areas by March 2014.Feb. 13 — The government decides to offer Tepco an additional ¥689.4 billion for compensation payments.Feb. 28 — A private-sector panel says Kan's response to the crisis created unnecessary confusion. He made sure Tepco's staff didn't flee.
The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com Japan's Fukushima disaster encourages new spirit of volunteerism One year after Japan's Fukushima disaster, some 1 million people have taken the time to volunteer in the disaster zone, unprecedented in Japan. By Take Kambayashi, Correspondent posted March 7, 2012 at 4:06 pm EST Ishinomaki, Japan On a brisk Saturday afternoon, Junko Yokota and her husband, Ryosuke, are delivering a 6-lb. bag of rice to elderly residents in a temporary housing unit for victims of the March 11, 2011 tsunami.To make that delivery, the couple took a night bus from Tokyo after work on Friday to Ishinomaki, 220 miles northeast of the Japanese capital.The Yokotas were among the estimated 1 million volunteers who traveled to the disaster-hit region to volunteer after the March 11 massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami last year, which left more than 15,800 people dead and nearly 3,300 missing.The couple, like many other Japanese, had never been involved in volunteer work but were spurred by images and stories of need following the biggest earthquake they had experienced, says Junko, a web designer. Their decision to volunteer and to continue volunteering almost a year after the disaster highlights a shift in Japan from seeing civic duties as largely the government’s responsibility to taking individual or private initiative. When they joined official volunteer efforts, they were surprised at how much help was needed. “I was so shocked to see the extent of the damage,” Junko recalls. Since their first trip in June, they have made a trip to the region at least once a month to help out.Volunteerism picks up Japan doesn't traditionally have a deeply entrenched sense of volunteerism. But it has grown in the past two decades as more people have begun to help out following natural disasters.After there were serious delays in relief operations following the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, which killed more than 6,400 people, hundreds of thousands of citizens flocked to the scene in an unprecedented offer of assistance.Since then, volunteer groups and nonprofit organizations have sprung up across Japan. Analysts say the disasters and slow government response encouraged a new trend that is mutually beneficial to both the volunteers and the communities in which they serve. “I’m quite confident that involvement in volunteer work enriches people,” says Ken Takata, professor of sociology at Tsuru University in Yamanashi.According to the Japanese Council of Social Welfare, the number of those who volunteered through municipalities in the region reached 930,000 as of mid-February. But many others took part through citizens groups, so the actual number is believed to be much higher, local leaders said.“I’m grateful for their work and enjoy talking to them,” says Hiroko Sakai, a disaster victim in Ishinomaki, who received rice from the Yokotas.Ms. Sakai, who has lived in temporary housing for nine months, says she lost 10 neighbors in the disaster.Volunteers unexpectedly enrichedIt’s a familiar story. Yuma Okubo’s grandparents were also disaster victims: Their house in Ofunato was swept away by the tsunami.Mr. Okubo, a sociology major at Tsuru University, visited his grandparents at an emergency shelter in the city, when he decided to start volunteering.He got unexpected education from the experience.“I have learned a lot by interacting with disaster victims and other volunteers,” says Okubo, who adds he had no interest in volunteerism before. The experience “has expanded my view after meeting people with very different ideas.”Okubo then organized a volunteer group at the university as he wanted other students to have similar experience. The group has traveled to the disaster zone seven times.His professor, Mr. Takata, says he’s seen the benefit volunteer work provides in his students.“Those who join volunteer activities meet many people they would otherwise never meet. They also learn a variety of things while coordinating their activities and caring about others,” he says.Seiji Yoshimura became one of the leaders of impromptu volunteer groups in Kobe. Mr. Yoshimura has also helped with other relief operations, including the 1999 Taiwan earthquake, the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.At daybreak following the March 11 disaster, Yoshimura was in the coastal areas of Miyagi Prefecture, the hardest-hit region, to help rescue victims.Now co-founder of volunteer group Open Japan Kizuna in Ishinomaki, Yoshimura says that this time, more people were ready to volunteer than he’d seen in any other disaster.Postal workers to the rescueHirokazu Murano, postmaster in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, has organized “volunteer tours” for postal workers to help clean up in the aftermath of the disaster. In mid-February, one of the projects that Mr. Murano and 70 other postal workers helped out with involved shovelling away mud from a 120-year-old house in Ishinomaki. “I’ve learned there are so many people who want to be of service,” Murano says.Nobuaki Minami, who works for an IT company in Tokyo, regretted not having volunteered following a 6.8-magnitude quake in 2004 that jolted Niigata, in central Japan, killing 68 people and injuring nearly 5,000.Mr. Minami now volunteers in the Miyagi disaster zone every month.“I’m not the type of person who believes [an] image on television,” Minami says. “The media report the best and the worst, not in-between. So, I wanted to see for myself.”Minami says his involvement has changed his outlook.“At the very beginning, I was doing volunteer work with a sense of mission. But soon this has become part of my life,” Minami says.
