It’s been two years since the earthquake and tsunami hit Eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. I was in Japan then, and still remember everything like yesterday. My home is far from the epicenters (it was not “epicenter” but there were multiple epicenters), but it was the biggest and also longest earthquake I have ever experienced. Everything around me changed since then: TV programs on every channel reporting the updated information of the suffered areas all the day without advertisement, lack of food due to damaged infrastructure and panic buying, never-ending aftershocks and earthquake-sick, rolling blackout, messages and donation from all over the world, confusion, hopelessness and the feeling of unity…
Today someone complained to me that tons of tsunami-related garbage from Japan have reached BC coasts. Who’s fault is it? Nobody! No one deliberately sent any garbage from Japan to Canada. Some people expect the owners of the “debris” to pay for cleaning, but they cannot even afford cleaning up their land. I want those complainers to understand that thousands of people in the affected areas still live in temporary dwellings since their hometown is still filled with debris.
I wrote I remember everything, but not really. I quitted a job a day before the earthquake, and scheduled job interviews were cancelled. In the great confusion, many companies were not ready to hire new employees. But I dared to think I was lucky; I had a place to live and a warm bed to sleep in while thousands of people lost everything. Now I don’t know what I will be doing three weeks from now; the current contract job will end at the end of this month and I am still looking for a job. Can I think I am lucky now? Now I turned off the room light and lit a candle to remember the rolling-blackout nights.
One more reason to light a candle. R.I.P. all the victims of the earthquake and tsunami.