" Guys, the area is vast. It's like from Tokyo to Odawara?"

[kpete]

Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 12:44 PM EDT
First-hand report from NE Japan: "I may not be a nice person, but I can't be that cruel."

by citisven

Got an email yesterday from my old friend Chie Matsumoto, a Tokyo-based journalist. She just got back from Northeast Japan where she was doing a story for USA Today. The humanitarian crisis is totally devastating and they need help. I'm posting her email here http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/22/958878/-First-hand-report-from-NE-Japan:-I-may-not-be-a-nice-person,-but-I-cant-be-that-cruel with her permission.

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Guys, the area is vast. It's like from Tokyo to Odawara?

The entire area is so destroyed and so mixed up that it is definitely contaminated. I lit my cigarette worrying whether that would set the entire city on flame. People don't seem to want to care about that yet. I know that these things hit much later in life to affect your health.

We went to the town well known for the manga artist, Ishinomaki Shotaro, the author of Masked rider and Cyborg 009. Sato-san, 46, survived after being taken away by tsunami. He saw a boat pass over his head when he was under water. He washed ashore, thank god. But he is not happy because his mother is missing. After he heard the warning siren for tsunami, he got his mother in a car with some important personal stuff and decided to run. His mother had bad legs. He shut the store shutters and put his hand on the door to open the car, when the tsunami took it away from his hand. His mother on the car.

When I talked to him, he looked 60, with mud covering his hair, clothes, face and hands. He has not been washed because there is no water. He was one of the 20 people who evacuated to the second floor of Manga Museum, which was still standing.

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the rest:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/22/958878/-First-hand-report-from-NE-Japan:-I-may-not-be-a-nice-person,-but-I-cant-be-that-cruel

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R n/t

[Snoutport]

2. another kr nt

[Lucinda]

3. knr

[truedelphi]

4. Thank you for posting this.

I am so worried about these people.

Having had many Japanese friends, who come here to study and then want to stay, I cannot imagine what is going on for their families and friends. And in some cases, the friends cannot make contact, or only can do so sporadically.