Response to the Nuclear Society class

As a German I was educated in not being proud to be a German national or at least not to say it aloud because it is still strongly connected to bad things that happened in the past, but... I have to say, I'm quite proud that Germany is in the process of shutting down its atomic plants. This was a long process: starting in the 80s with huge public demonstrations, in the late 90s becoming an official plan of the government and despite struggling in the beginning of 2011 due to political change it got reinforced after the disaster happening in Japan.
I am a formal economic student and know about the advantages of atomic energy but I was never able to understand why nations would still go for it knowing about the horrible risks attached to it. There are two things which makes this energy source a total no-go. 1. The obvious risk of a meltdown and 2. the atomic waste lasting for nearly forever. In the 50s and 60s, atomic energy was considered a clean and efficient energy source but since 1986 we should know that it is highly dangerous not just for the country the plant is built in. After 60 years of use and research we should assume that it is unlikely that we find a solution to neutralize the left-overs and the pollution this "clean" energy source creates. It's a dead end and I can't understand why nations are still planning to build new plants instead of investing this billions of money in research to make renewable energy more efficient and longterm storable. In the long run it would be so much cheaper and so much safer. Can lobbyism be so much stronger than good human sense and judgement? How many human-made disasters we need to experience to make people in charge change their minds?

Cultural response

When it comes to creativity I am not one of the brightest lights but still this assignment was very important to me, so I hope my work transports at least a tiny message...
The words I borrowed from Kenji Miyazawa's poem "Be not Defeated by the Rain" (see entry before) and the pictures I found in the Internet on several pages (if you are interested I can send the links to you). Let's hope I don't violate some copyrights here...

Diplomatic Reaction

Answers to the questions of the "Diplomatic Reaction group":

1. I am and always was a citizen of Germany. At the day the earthquake happened I was in Germany where I would stay until April 13th due to some trouble with my airline company. When the situation in Fukushima became obvious I tried to gather as much information as possible. I was very concerned and shocked about the chain-reaction triggered by the earthquake. Before returning to Japan, I had some serious talk with friends and my family wether to return or stay in Germany. At the day I left Germany I wasn't sure if the situation was as bad as shown in the German media or as controlled as shown in the Japanese media. To be honest I am still not sure but try to make the best out of it. I love Japan but I wouldn't be here if I would believe my life or health is in serious danger. But I can understand that other people don't want to take the risk.

2. Soon after 3.11, I saw in the news that the German embassy would try to contact the ca. 5000 Germans in Japan but I didn't receive any such tries. I hope it was because they knew that I had left Japan before the disaster. Because of visa issues etc, my email and home address as well as my address in Tokyo should be known to them, so that shouldn't be the reason. I hope it wasn't because they were busy moving the embassy from Tokyo to Osaka.

In the aftermath, I got all my information from somewhere else but these days the Internet page provides weekly information, which I (at least) find reliable. So I check in once in a while.

3. Since I was not in Japan at this time, I don't know much about any actions taken by the embassy. I know that they moved to Osaka to be out of the line and that they recommended to stay out or to leave Japan if possible. I was not there, so I won't judge this recommendation.

I am not sure if this list existed before but the embassy also strongly recommend citizens to register their contact information at the German embassy.

4. Well, it's easy to say out of the perspective of a person who was not in Japan when the things happened. But I would have wished that the embassy would have contacted people. I know from a Swiss friend that his embassy not just contacted him but also offered him a flight back to Switzerland. Of course their are less Swiss in Japan than Germans but therefore the German embassy could have employed more people. 

5. I am sorry but I have no idea. I know that Japan and Germany always had good bilateral relations and I don't think that much will change in the future. I know that the German people are very touched by the things and that a lot of found-raising events etc have take place but I am not sure if this because of the dramatical situation itself or because we have tight relations. But this is not about official political relations.

6. I was surprised that Japan does not except much help from other countries. I think in times of crises they should swallow their pride and get all the help they can get. Who said they have to deal with this alone? Especially because the radioactivity could effect more countries besides Japan. And an underdeveloped country might not be able to send money but maybe people who can help with rebuilding houses etc. I wish they would see help separated from political context...

Be not defeated by the rain

In the bus on our way to Hanamaki, an older Japanese gentleman tried to convince another volunteer to read some of the works of Hanamaki's famous writer Kenji Miyazawa. I am not sure if he had much success with the volunteer but the name sucked in my head and I couldn't resist to look him up and read some of his works. In my next entry I will (mis)use one of his poems for one of my assignments but I would like to post it before, so you can see the whole and not just the parts I used. It's surprisingly matching for the current situation. Maybe some of the people in Rikuzen Takada or the other effected areas know and remember his words right now...

Be not defeated by the rain, Nor let the wind prove your better.

Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.

Be strong in body. Unfettered by desire. Not enticed to anger. Cultivate a quiet joy.

Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.

Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.

A thatch-roof house, in a meadow, nestled in a pine grove's shade.

A handful of rice, some miso, and a few vegetables to suffice for the day.

If, to the East, a child lies sick: Go forth and nurse him to health.

If, to the West, an old lady stands exhausted: Go forth, and relieve her of burden.

If, to the South, a man lies dying: Go forth with words of courage to dispel his fear.

If, to the North, an argument or fight ensues:

Go forth and beg them stop such a waste of effort and of spirit.

In times of drought, shed tears of sympathy.

In summers cold, walk in concern and empathy.

Stand aloof of the unknowing masses:

Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a "Great Man".

This is my goal, the person I strive to become.

Borrowed from: http://www.kenji-world.net/english/

Personal experience with media coverage of 3.11

At the day the disaster hit Japan I was on vacation in Germany. It was early morning when my mum called me and told me about the earthquake.

When I am in Germany, I get my information basically through radio and when I am in Japan I podcast a German news show. I use other sources sporadically without particularly looking for it. E.g. when I open my mail program it suggests me some online newspaper headlines and sometimes one grabs my attention.

What changed after 3.11 was that I would watch television a lot. Basically NTV Germany, which is a all-day new program, and when the topic became a little less popular I would switch to CNN and BBC.

When I returned to Japan I found myself lacking information because I don't have a television and I didn't feel enough informed by most international online newspapers. Japanese newspapers were out of range for me since my Japanese skills are not good enough to read articles without a lot of effort. One more problem is that I spend most time of my day outside. So I wanted something I can use for my iPhone and I actually found that NHK World has an app which allows you to certain programs in a live stream. The news are in English and cover Japanese matters but also important international news and the newslines are basically once an hour. I would strongly recommend to get it if you are in a similar situation.

As for the reliability... I wouldn't favor a certain media. I think there are newspapers which try to stay neutral and simply inform people but of course they are some others who just want to sell and dramatize the situation because obviously drama sells best. But this was always like this, not just for 3.11. And of course this applies to all media... there are those and others. What I found really bad was that the information coverage was not sufficient. The serious media wanted to report but there were not many news every day and the not serious media would just make something up to fill the gap because people were really worried and willing to listen.

I liked the use of facebook, twitter etc to easily connect with the people you are worried about and with a status update you can get a lot of people at once but I don't consider it as serious source of information. It's similar to Wikipedia. You can get a first idea of something but the proper research I prefer to do in the library...

Diary

My posts got a little mixed up... please start with reading Day 1 which is somewhere down there. The post "one week later" should be the last one to read. Yes, obviously... just wanted to make sure ;)

And a big thank you to Cecilia who helped me with the English <3

2011-05-27, Day 8

7:05
A lot of new people arrived and the bus is crowded. I'll miss my own two seats but next to Ruben it (at least) doesn't get cold ^^
And it's good that we are so many again, so we can clean a bigger area.
Yesterday night we had our own kind of bye-bye party since it is our last night here. After dinner we'll go on the bus.
Our last day promises to be cloudy...

The guys seem to be in a happy mood. It’s the last day… There seems to be a something indefinable between the 12 of us who stayed over the week. I can’t describe it, maybe I can later…

9:15

For the last time we requested tools in the volunteer center. I really don’t want to leave…

16:30

Today we were assigned for rice fields again. It was strange. I really feel in charge of the new volunteers, like I should give everything to them I learnt during the past week. Already in the bus on our way to the assigned area, I tried to make the two Japanese girls in front of us feel better about what they would see soon. So I told them, that we are requested from survivors and the personal things we will find are not from dead people, they shouldn’t worry. Ruben was whispering later that this wouldn’t be true since the tsunami of course moved a lot of things to different places. But if my little lie makes the girls feel better then it was worth it. We had the same strange situation when we arrived. The new people would be silent and the others would try to cheer them up. I hope they were as thankful as I was on the first day… It’s really impossible to let those things come too close: I remember the first day and how horrible I felt… But those things have to be done by somebody and I am really happy that I could be one of them at least for a few days…

The work was good. The temperature decreased and even though the sun was shining a lot it wasn’t as hot as the days before. We tried to give the new people a kind of orientation since most of them were unsure of what to do and how to do the things. I was surprised how many of them were fluent in English, with the Japanese in our group it was mostly just possible to talk in Japanese.

The farmer we were helping out was really a tough guy, instead of putting burnable and not-burnable collections close to the street; we would burn the burnable things on the field. Finally we had our tent camp fire…  even though it was quite different than I imagined :)

21:10

We just left the camp… OmG, I am really sad… I will miss them all so much. I would have never thought we would grow into such a strong community. I hope I’ll see them all again. The ones who were with us all the time but also the new ones. I don’t want to go… How can we just return to normal life after all this???