DISAPPEARED
LINGERING
PREPARED
My friend Mari and her 15-year-old
It’s been a week since the earthquake
At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, I was at
daughter Haruko were in Kesennuma,
hit us. Our region of Soso has now been
home in Shinjuku, writing an abstract to
Miyagi prefecture, when the tsunami hit.
designated as an area of radioactive
a research paper I’d just completed. Our
They managed to stay safe on a building,
contamination; we have to head
apartment started to shake. I thought,
but they were trapped as the water
outside the 30-kilometre exclusion
“Oh, not now, I’m trying to concentrate.
rushed into the city. When I finally got
zone from the nuclear plant to pick
Abstracts are tough”. You get used to
in contact with Mari two days ago, she
up relief supplies. Many people from
earthquakes in Tokyo. The city rumbles
told me how they witnessed a neighbour
Fukushima Prefecture have had to
every now and then but the shaking
try to hold onto a post to stop from being
evacuate, but many still remain. Many
rarely lasts more than a minute. This
swept away. The post broke, and the
haven’t relocated because they are
time, it kept going. It got stronger. I stood
woman disappeared in the water. She
too old to move to emergency shelters.
under the steel frame of our front door
hasn’t been found yet.
Many linger because of their deep
and watched the skyscrapers wobble.
attachment to the land handed down
There was an emergency earthquake kit
from their forefathers. Medical workers,
under our bed. A list of emergency num-
in devastated facilities with shortages of
bers by our phone. A childhood’s worth
Brighid Rader Kentucky, USA
medicine, also remain to help the people
of earthquake drills in my memory. I
who need them.
had prepared, yes, but I wasn’t prepared.
Soso Bureau Staff, Soma and Futaba
Annamarie Sasagawa Shinjuku, Tokyo