It may seem the land has settled back to normal, but the massive cleanup of rubble continues, and fear of the contaminated soil and water in Japan remain.
It was March 11, 2011, when a magnitude-9 earthquake struck the country’s northeastern region, crumbling buildings and triggering a tsunami, which left devastation that shocked the world.
Known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake or the Great East Japan Earthquake (there were actually five other quakes in March and April of at least a magnitude 7), the wall of water that followed crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, unleashing a national crisis over the threat of radiation contamination. More than 100,000 were forced to evacuate as destruction stretched along the coast more than 230 miles south to Tokyo and beyond. An estimated 23,000 people are still living in rescue camps. Twenty thousand are missing or dead.
Though not in the immediate disaster area, Mennonite Mission Network personnel and associates in Japan were struck by the tragedy and shared their experiences. Mike Sherrill, who, with his wife, Teresa, and their three children, serves in Tokyo, was at Shibuya station downtown when the quake hit. He wrote of feeling the ground shake as he looked up at a 20-story skyscraper being built. “The building swayed back and forth like it was made of rubber.”
Farther away in Hokkaido, Mary Beyler wrote of the destruction of the oyster beds at Akkeshi, a Hokkaido town on the Pacific coast.
Ray Epp and Akiko Aratani, who direct Menno Village, offered to house evacuees. They opened their home to Yoshiki and Meiko Kanno, a couple whose family farm located about 20 miles from the Fukushima power plant had been contaminated. Since taking refuge at Menno Village, Meiko gave birth to a daughter, Aoi.
"Japan is a small country and people in the disaster cannot just get up and move wherever they want," he said. Jobs are scarce, and the costs involved in moving to a new place without the possibility of finding work, is, for most people, scarier than living with the threat of long-term health damage due to radiation."
Epp and Aratani also spearheaded a community-wide volunteer effort that resulted in 15 children and three mothers from the nuclear contamination zone spending two weeks at Menno Village.
Mark Bartsch, who with his wife, Stephanie, and their two sons, serves in Kobe, reported traveling 10 times to Tohoku with work teams to help with the massive cleanup that was further complicated by a typhoon in September.
So what is Japan like a year later?
"The March 11 disasters were a huge blow, dividing the year into before and after, even for those of us in Hokkaido Mennonite churches not directly affected," Beyler wrote in her annual report.
Download full-resolution image.Published news reports and eye-witness accounts from mission workers compare the cleanup involving tons of contaminated soil to a costly cat and mouse game. Water is sprayed or chemicals are used to clean contaminated areas. Soil is dug up and replaced, but then radiation readings indicate levels remain too high. A second cleanup is necessary. Plus, the soil removed remains contaminated and needs to be placed somewhere, and the water used to clean damaged areas pollute water and soil farther downstream. Farmers on such lands have difficulty selling crops, even if the government deems the radiation to be within safe levels. Reality is settling in that Japan’s new normal may be to live in permanent fear of contamination.
“Many are in temporary housing, really a small two-room structure with thin walls in the deep cold winter,” said Teresa Sherrill. “The rebuilding will go on for years. The radiation is real and the dust from the debris is now being distributed throughout Japan … many, many farmers from the Tohoku area find it very difficult to sell their produce and rice.”
Yamanota Fukuin Church, a Brethren in Christ congregation in Japan, is asking churches around the world to join in prayer at 11:45 a.m. on March 11 for victims and survivors. The congregation is part of Nihon Kirisuto Keiteidan (Brethren in Christ Church of Japan), a Mennonite World Conference member, and a partner in the East Japan Great Disaster Relief Assistance Committee, which was formed in May 2011 by the Japan Mennonite Fellowship.
Working through local churches is how Mission Network personnel and associates are restoring hope and sharing God’s love. Asahikawa Gospel Church, where mission associates Angela and Tomoki Yamanaka are associate co-pastors, will join other local churches on March 11 for a "unified charity concert and bazaar" to raise funds and pray for continued needs and healing.
At Menno Village, Epp and Aratani recently initiated a project named Eschaton: The Center for Nonviolent Economics, which they hope will be an environment for constructive thought and action to improve Japan’s future.
“We are wanting to establish a center that will allow people to come together to think about what has gone wrong and what it is that we, working together in solidarity with one another, can begin to do to create a way of living that affirms life," Epp said.
There are encouraging reports of radiation remediation efforts that are working, Epp said. Also uplifting has been the cooperation among citizens in the face of disaster, along with the North American support that has been received.
As the cleanup continues and people try to rebuild their lives, Mennonite mission workers are committed to walking with the people of Japan in the years to come.
As the Sherrills reported: “The seeds of the gospel that are being planted in the restored land will bear fruit of redeemed lives in the future. The efforts that the Christian churches are extending are the tangible hands and heart of Jesus.”
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For immediate release.
Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
