It's been exactly one year since I started this blog to update my family and friends on how I was doing after the March 11th quake. At 2:46pm many people in Japan paused to remember and pray for those who were affected by the quake and following tsunami. Also, I remain grateful that my family and friends here survived without harm.
From now on I still plan to keep up some posts on this blog every now and then. I may even start doing some posts not related to the quake as well. In the meantime, I would recommend checking out the Japan Times website to get current news from Japan (you can find it in the links column of this blog). Here's a summary of the one year quake memorial, much of the material I wanted to write myself on this blog, but Japan Times has already done a good job of it....
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120311x1.html
Just for a brief summary of my own, the people living in the affected areas have great resolve to rebuild their lives and communities, but the lack of people, funds and resources are making this task slow and difficult. Just getting rid of all the debris is turning out to be a colossal task. Aslo job opportunities for young people are scarce.
The Fukushima reactors that suffered meltdowns will take a projected 40 years to be fully taken care of, but it will be difficult to just find enough workers since there is a time limit of how long workers can be there because of the radiation exposure. Some nearby communities are cleaning up from the radioactive materials that were spread, but there's the question of where to put the radioactive debris. Some communities may never be able to return. By May all of Japan's nuclear reactors will be closed down because they are not getting the needed permission from the local communities to continue operation. It is unclear weather any of them will be restarted again.
Lastly, Japan is rethinking it's estimations for earthquake and tsunami preparedness. There was one especially sad incident where several people were gathered at a designated tsunami safety spot that was not high enough to save them. On this one year commemoration, a memorial was erected on that location that included a final message that when a disastrous earthquake strikes "Leave immediately and run as fast as you can to the highest place you can get to."
From now on I still plan to keep up some posts on this blog every now and then. I may even start doing some posts not related to the quake as well. In the meantime, I would recommend checking out the Japan Times website to get current news from Japan (you can find it in the links column of this blog). Here's a summary of the one year quake memorial, much of the material I wanted to write myself on this blog, but Japan Times has already done a good job of it....
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120311x1.html
Just for a brief summary of my own, the people living in the affected areas have great resolve to rebuild their lives and communities, but the lack of people, funds and resources are making this task slow and difficult. Just getting rid of all the debris is turning out to be a colossal task. Aslo job opportunities for young people are scarce.
The Fukushima reactors that suffered meltdowns will take a projected 40 years to be fully taken care of, but it will be difficult to just find enough workers since there is a time limit of how long workers can be there because of the radiation exposure. Some nearby communities are cleaning up from the radioactive materials that were spread, but there's the question of where to put the radioactive debris. Some communities may never be able to return. By May all of Japan's nuclear reactors will be closed down because they are not getting the needed permission from the local communities to continue operation. It is unclear weather any of them will be restarted again.
Lastly, Japan is rethinking it's estimations for earthquake and tsunami preparedness. There was one especially sad incident where several people were gathered at a designated tsunami safety spot that was not high enough to save them. On this one year commemoration, a memorial was erected on that location that included a final message that when a disastrous earthquake strikes "Leave immediately and run as fast as you can to the highest place you can get to."
