Barnett F. Baron, CEO of Give2Asia, traveled to Japan in June. The following is re-posted from Give2Asia's blog.
For 10 days in mid-June, my Give2Asia colleague, Gillian Yeoh, and I visited Iwate and Miyagi prefectures in Tohoku, the northeastern area devastated by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11.
We found that Tohoku is still an emergency situation. Just a few days after the tsunami, international media published before-and-after photos of damaged roads that had already been repaired, giving the world the hopeful impression that the devastating physical damage would be quickly and miraculously addressed by Japanese technology. This was not Haiti, after all. But on our visit, three months later, we saw debris fields extending for dozens of miles where coastal communities had stood, fields of wood and concrete rubble, wooden and reinforced concrete buildings precariously perched at unsettling angles, man-made islands of cars, refrigerators, and major pieces of industrial equipment still waiting to be removed. We saw that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces were still searching and finding bodies, and we were told that the continuing search was one reason that heavier equipment is not being used to clear debris more quickly.
But there is another factor at work as well: how to dispose of this enormous amount of waste in an environmentally responsible way. Japan does not have much space for landfill; earlier efforts to dump construction waste at sea have drawn criticism. We saw that rodents, flies, and other disease-bearing pests are a growing problem, especially as the rainy season begins. We also learned that an unknown but substantial number of people are still living on the upper floors of their partially destroyed homes. No one knows whether these homes are structurally sound, but they are likely to be vulnerable to after-shocks or the smaller tremors that are so common in Japan. We also saw that some coastal areas are now underwater or inundated during high tide. No one knows yet whether these communities can survive.
SHIFTING DEMOGRAPHICS
Right after the tsunami, some 400,000 people were living in emergency evacuation shelters, many of them elderly. Those numbers are now declining rapidly, with fewer than 100,000 now officially recognized. Local townships have begun to provide newly built temporary housing. The new units provide privacy and are well-equipped, but because of shortages of available land they are often located in isolated areas. Victims living in temporary housing do not pay rent but are no longer eligible for emergency food and supplies and are expected to pay for utilities and services. Their contracts state that they are expected to leave temporary housing after two years. Because in many cases temporary housing is in isolated areas, it is not clear how some of the residents will earn income or get around to obtain basic services from their doctors and dentists, or even get to food markets.
We were surprised – despite repeated requests – by the lack of detailed demographic data apparently available on victims. Most evacuation centers know, of course, how many people they are serving on a specific day, but we were told that there are no reliable data on those who have since left the centers, or are still living in their cars, in their partially destroyed homes, or in other makeshift arrangements. The priority was on providing immediate emergency assistance to those who were brought in or showed up for help.