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Talk about the hurts they feel

Bob Savage (Global Learning Exchange Director for WorldShare’s USA sister organisation Partners International) has returned from visiting areas struck by Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Weeks after the main quake, as Bob himself experienced, the region was still experiencing aftershocks that were occasionally still large enough to be classified as ‘strong earthquakes’ – at over 6.0 magnitude, many times more powerful than the 5.2 earthquake in the UK in February 2008.

Ishinomaki, where 10,000 people died

To still be experiencing such powerful reminders of the original catastrophe must be traumatic indeed for people who have suffered such terror and loss. The after-effects of such disasters are not merely physical: Bob found people in urgent need of being able to break Japanese cultural and emotional restraints and talk openly about the hurts they feel.

"Many of you prayed for me while I was in Japan,” shared Bob on his return from Japan. “Thanks so much for this. It wasn't easy. When I arrived, my Japanese colleague, Rev. Kinouchi, still could not get gas for his car.

"No bullet trains were running to the north where the hardest-hit disaster area was, so we had to make the trip by bus, eight hours one way. Once we got there, a lot of places still didn't have heat and it was cold.

"Japan has more earthquakes than any other country because many of the world's tectonic plates meet under it. The one on March 11 was the fourth largest on record in the world. There have been more than 700 aftershocks since then, most too small to feel, but I could definitely feel the one that was 6.1.

"Fortunately, Japan has rigorous building standards. I was in Haiti a few months ago where an earthquake killed 300,000, primarily due to notoriously poor building standards. The earthquake in Japan was 100 times stronger, yet a lot of buildings didn't collapse. Many of the roughly 20,000 people who perished died in the tsunami.

"The worst-hit place we visited was Ishinomaki, where 10,000 people died. The tsunami went about 2.5 miles inland, knocking down most things along the way. It was horrible to imagine. One lady described making it to a tall, strong building, only to look down and watch her neighbour swept away in her car.

Planning to serve people who lost everything

"You might be hearing about hundreds of thousands of people in big relief centres in the news. Most of these are being taken care of by the Japanese government. But there are many other people who either can't or won't go to these centres. Maybe their homes are damaged, but they are trying to make it where they are.

"These are the kinds of people that the churches we are working with are serving, people whose situations they know because they are from their own, local communities.

"They are providing food, medicine, blankets, and sometimes labour - helping them dig out of the rubble. But they can also do what the Japanese government won't be able to do.

“As Pastor Kataoka said, "We need to sit with them, to let them talk about the hurts they feel. They need to tell their stories to someone."