Nearly three weeks after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake rocked her hometown in Japan, Akiko Sugawara has a better idea of how her family is faring.
Power has been restored to her parents’ rice farm in Osaki, which is about an hour outside Sendai, the east-coast city closest to the quake’s epicentre.
Peace Arch News reported earlier this month how Sugawara, 32, learned through text messages and sporadic phone calls that her parents had no electricity, water or gas, and that temperatures were expected to dip below 0 degrees in the coming days. Although their house was still standing, it was “smashed and destroyed” inside, Sugawara told PAN at the time.
News of the devastation was heartbreaking for Sugawara, who had been visiting the area with her two young children before returning home to South Surrey March 6 – just days before the quake and subsequent tsunami.
Sugawara has since made further contact with family, and they speak every few days.
“I know they are doing well and I’ve heard people are not just being depressed. I think lots of people are also having hope and trying to rebuild the area.”
While power and water is returning to the area “little by little,” gasoline is still hard to come by, Sugawara noted. She said her sister had to wait several hours in a lineup to receive a rationed amount. There are also hours-long lineups at grocery stores, which have imposed a 10-item limit per person.
Despite the constrictions, people are being gracious, Sugawara said.
“People are just patiently waiting.”
Sugawara said her parents have rice stocked up from last year that they are sharing with those in need. They also grow produce, which they have been able to water again with the farm’s pump after power was restored.
“They’ve been trying to save the vegetables, and so my parents are doing their farming and helping other people, so they’ve been really busy. I try not to disturb them, but they call when they have a chance to update me.”
Sugawara said her father has been taking rice and vegetables to friends and family in the nearby and hard-hit city of Ishinomaki. For other food, the family travels hours inland from Myagi Prefecture to Yamagata Prefecture, which has more resources.
Further hardship has been created by the nuclear threat. The government has declared an exclusion zone 20 kilometres around the damaged Fukushima No. 1 plant, and evacuated tens of thousands of people. Those within 30 km have been advised to stay indoors.
Radiation fears mean customers are wary of buying rice and vegetables from her parents’ area, Sugawara said.
“My parents aren’t really worried about it because they care more about the people who died… but it’s going to affect them some way. It’s going to be really bad.”
Many Japanese don’t believe harmful levels of radiation will reach them, Sugawara has learned.
“(Media) are saying the radiation will be coming and it will be bad and talking about it, but it’s not going to happen. Everyone strongly believes that,” she said. “We don’t worry about stuff that hasn’t happened. We are more concerned about what already happened.”
Sugawara said her uncle lives 50 km from the plant and will only leave if he is forced.
“He’s not worried about the nuclear plant, but because the media is talking about it so much, the company that (brings) the food to the grocery store, they refuse to come to the area.”
Sugawara said most are encouraging the spirit of “ganbaro,” which means, “we must go forward.” She has stopped watching news programs that play “shocking images over and over,” and instead focuses on the encouraging reports she is receiving from family.
“People who I speak to are really positive, so it makes me feel way better.”