Earthquake trauma (Throwback)
Tomorrow will mark the 12th anniversary of the Tohoku eathquake and tsunami in Japan.
I was sure that I did blog about my experience of that day in here. But I have searched and searched but could not find any articles that I may have written on it. After all these years, let me take you back.
It was a friday afternoon. I was on my way to pick up my older son from school. I had my other son with me. I remembered wearing a red dress with leggings and a coat. I was dressed up because after school, I was to attend a birthday party at the flat of my Indian Mommy friend. Her daughter was in the same Montessori class as my first born.
I was sitting on a bus talking with another Japanese lady I befriended earlier that year. The bus came to a stop at the light right at the slope before we reached the school. Then all of a sudden, it started to shake. Slowly at first, then violently. The bus was rocking left and right. I felt like I was on a boat during a hurricane or one of those crazy rides at the amusement park. Around me people started shouting and ducking on the floor of the bus. Outside I could see the small older Japanese houses shaking. I was scared but I just hold on. They said the entire earthquake lasted 6 minutes. But it felt like forever.
When everything finally stopped, the bus went forward. My Japanese friend was trying to call her son on the phone but none of the calls could go through. She started panicking and I reminded her that communications would surely be down for a while as I am sure that everybody would try and reach their loved ones. I also told her that her son would be alright just to calm her down. We went to the school. I met several other Mommy friends. Most of them were panicking. It was the first time for them to experience such a thing. And to make matters worse, the school refused to release the children because they were scared of Tsunami. If you are not familiar with earthquakes, let me tell you that for a island country like Japan, they often come with tsunamis. A tsunami is a series of extremely long waves caused by a large and sudden displacement of the ocean, usually the result of an earthquake below or near the ocean floor. They basically destroy everything on their path.
You can imagine the outrage of some parents. Some mothers were screaming and shouting. I have never seen such expression of emotions. It was all the more outrageous as I did not know why they were so mad. It was school policy as they were just trying to protect the children. The mothers could see that their children were safe inside the school so why panic? I have to add that the entire scene was comical at some point to me.
What made it even more comical was the fact that there was an aftershock right when most Moms were protesting. So they all ducked in the middle of school ground, huddled up together to protect themselves. The shoutings and crying were more intensed. I get that they were scared but the entire thing was just too funny for me. It was just so absurd. The kids that they wanted to take home might have been more secured inside the school than the Moms themselves who were exposed outside.
Anyway, after an hour, the school released the children. Everyone was relieved and decided to head home. I took my oldest who did not seem phased by the entire ordeal. For some reasons, I walk home with the boys. I think I was told by a friend that it would be safer to walk than to take transportations. It was normally a 20 minutes walk but with small boys it turned into a 45 minutes walk. By the time I arrived home, I was exhausted from the entire day.
I had to check to see if there were any damaged to my house first. Thankfully, only a painting fell and broke. Everything else was fine. I settled in with the boys, getting their diner ready. I got in touch with my husband who was travelling at the time and with my family as well. My parents were so worried that I was all alone with the boys. I had to remind them that my house was secure.
The following day, all hell broke loose. We were told that there were explosons and radioactive leakage at a nuclear power company called Fukushima Daiichi. And this was all caused by the tsunami. I actually got the news from my parents through a frantic phone call. The night before I could not really sleep because I had turn on TV which was just updates about the earthquake. I was getting more and more anxious. So the following morning, I had decided to let the boys watch animes on TV while I watch shows on my computer just to forget about the stress. This news changed everything. Radioactive leakage was not something to play with. People in Fukushima were being evacuated. I started receiving calls from my Mommy friends. All of them were getting ready to evacuate, or in other words leave Japan. And they were all asking me if I was to do the same. Before the earthquake, I had plans to join the husband in Thailand for a quick holiday. I was supposed to leave the following tuesday. Therefore there was no need for me to evacuate now. Still the phone calls got me hysterical. At night, a coworker of my husband, who also happened to be a neighbor knock on my door with his wife. He wanted to make sure we were safe and even offered to go shopping for me if I needed anything. I answered that I just went shopping on Friday (the day of the earthquake) so I was fine. He also informed me that he and his wife would evacuate soon. Needless to say that I did not sleep well that night.
On Sunday, I was tired of it all. I was about to burst into crying any moment. I even shouted at the boys at one point. My husband on the phone urged me to calm down and be patient. Tuesday was just in two days. He also urged me to get out of the house. So I did. I packed some snakcs and lunchs and went with the boys to the park next door. I let them run wild while I was reading a book. It was such a beautiful day to be in the park. Spring was here and the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom. The weather was nice as well. I felt so peaceful that day.
Tuesday finally arrived. By that time, all of my foreign friends have evacuated back home in France, USA. I spent the entire monday getting ready for the trip. I had my Senegalese friends on the phone urging me to go early to the airport because everybody was planning to leave Japan. They also told me that I was welcome to stay with them in case I could not leave Japan. My flight was at night, but I decided to leave by midday. My Japanese friend and neighbor must have dropped me off at the train station. I book a bus to the airport. Thankfully the hubby before leaving book a flight from the closest airport, Haneda, and not Narita. He did not want me to travel such a long distance with two small boys. My boys were 4 years old and 21 months at the time. I arrived quickly at Haneda airport. I was sure the bus would have been filled but to my surprise they were almost empty. People were evacuating but it seems like no one wanted to take the Haneda route. Once I arrived at Haneda and cheked in, I felt relieved. I had enough time to spare before boarding so I took the boys to have diner. I let them play and run around in the aerport while beeing on the phone with the husband. And funnily enough, at that very moment, another aftershock occured.
I have lived in Tsukuba, Ibaraki from 2001 to 2004. While living there I would exprienced mild earthquakes at least every week. One time, we even had a big one. But I was never scared of them. Call me crazy, but I enjoyed them. Even when the big one happened, I was still very chill as the kids say. However that aftershock scared me. I shouted at the boys to come join me. I hugged them tightly while ducking and clutching my phone waiting for the aftershock to pass. People (foreigners) around me started to scream. It was not a plaisant experience. At this point, I was so stressed, all I wanted was to leave Japan.
The aftershock passed. I boarded the plane with the boys and landed safely in Bangkok Thailand with the boys where I reunited with the husband. We spent 15 days there, sightseeing, shopping, enjoying ourselves. But it was a stressful time. We did not know how the situation at Fukushima would evolve. We did not know if we had to return to Japan, if it was safe to return to Japan or if we had to move back home.
It was a stressful time but I was lucky. I still had a flat to return to in Japan if I wanted to. I still had the options to drop everything and return home. Many of my foreign friends in Japan did that. However, it was not the case for Japanese people. The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.1. It was the most powerful eathquake ever recorded in Japan and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world at the time. It triggered tsunamis with waves reaching 40 meters in some areas, which detrsoyed everything on their paths. The earthquake occured in March when it is still very cold in Japan. More than 20.000 people were recorded dead, and several injured. And more than 200.000 people were misplaced due to the Fuskishima disaster.
The aftermath of the earthquake followed us all through the rest of 2011. Because the Fukushima nuclear plant was shut down. The entire country was low on energy so the governement asked us to consume less. We had scheduled power cuts particularly in Summer. In all my years living in Japan, we had never had power cuts. Some companies were asked to install working shifts for their employees. The husband would go to the office every other day. However the most difficult part was the collective trauma caused by the fear of radioactive leakages. So many people were scared of even drinking the water from the tap fearing that it had been contaminated. People were wearing masks everywhere. I know of a Japanese mom who would carry a geiger counter everywhere with her to measure the radioactivity level. People were paranoid and for just cause. We have heard so many rumors on TV, and in our circles. It felt like Covid before Covid.
Personally I think I was traumatized but I did not dwell on it. I could not dwell on it. I had two young children to look after. If I shut down, who would take care of them? I remember that at one point I had to stop all outside influence to avoid adding to my stress. When my parents kept calling me with updates about the Fukushima disaster, I reminded them that I was fine, that I had a plan and to stop calling me because it was only making me panic. When I returned to Japan after 15 days in Thailand, I focused on my kids and me. I also tried to help at school to raise funds for the disaster victimes. I wanted to do so much more to help.
A month after the earthquake, I felt another aftershock in the middle of the night. By that time, I did all my research on what to do in case of earthquakes and I had already packed emergency kits. I remember waking up the husband to tell him about the aftershock. He woke up, looked at me, grumble something and went back to bed. I was dumbfounded. It occured to me then that I could not count on this person to save me. I was debated if I should wake the kids and run outside or not. However, the aftershock stopped as quickly as it started. I went back to bed but could not sleep. The following morning I told the entire incident to the husband. He did not remember a thing.
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