A letter from Bill Geppert in Japan
April 2011
Dear friends in Christ,
I hope this letter finds you well and feeling hopeful in a world that now seems to be going through some rough upheavals. There is no need to wait for 2012 for some predicted disasters to occur. Here in Japan the people of northeastern Japan are bearing up under some heavy trials and burdens. Over 190,000 people are displaced from their homes. Most of them have no homes to return to. Others must wait for the all-clear from the government that radiation levels are back to normal. This is difficult to say as not only are damages difficult to assess, but the crisis is still ongoing and may even get worse. Not only do these people not have homes to return to, but they do not have jobs to return to as companies no longer exist or must wait until the all-clear. The 190,000 are living in schools, town halls, empty buildings and even huge sports centers. The government is trying to prepare temporary housing, but it is difficult to secure land to build on. Children will all have to be assimilated into other schools far from their original schools.
Even people whose homes survived the quake and tsunami are having such a tough go of it. Farmers’ produce is being banned from shipping because of radiation levels. Companies dependent on smaller factories that no longer exist must suspend business or work at reduced capacity. To try to find alternate suppliers means giving up on reconstruction for the displaced people. It is likely many will never return to live in their old homes.
In some cases, such as Minami Sanriku Town, there is absolutely nothing remaining. All 8,000 people are missing. Not even bodies have been found. Almost no buildings remain. All the town’s government registries and systems for tracking their people are gone. So no one really knows who all the missing are. They have literally been swallowed up. An attempt is being made to reconstruct information from national government records and the recent 2010 census. But it will be years before there is any kind of closure.
Every night on the extended news programs there are incredible stories told, very few with happy endings. One such story is about a young mother with two small children whose husband was out making deliveries for a transport company. He called his wife just after the quake struck, asking if she was OK and was evacuating to higher ground with the children (one still a baby, and the other just 2). That was the last time she ever talked to him. They later found his body in the truck that was carried away in the tsunami. She was only meters from the tsunami when she was able to drive up a slope and barely escape. She had in fact reversed course when the traffic heading away from the sea was at a standstill, and she did a U-turn and was going toward the sea. The slope saved her and the children. All the people in the traffic jam were not so lucky. Going through his effects later — their house had somehow survived — the mother found a small ring that was to be a present for her on March 14 (White Day, the Valentine’s Day in March for ladies to receive their gifts — which must be a ploy from the department stores and sweet shops). It is, she says, something she will cherish forever. But on the TV interview she was deeply distressed as she expressed her fears. Two small children to raise, and she is all alone. “How can I do it?” But, she said, she will take full responsibility for raising the children somehow and survive as a way of honoring her husband.
Another story is about an elderly couple who were evacuating to higher ground when the husband remembered their next-door neighbor. She was an elderly woman who had difficulty moving about. So he told his wife to keep going, and he would return to make sure the neighbor was evacuated safely. The tsunami struck a few minutes later and the wife watched in horror as the town below vanished in the water. She never saw her husband again.
One happy story is about an elderly woman who was preparing her dog for a walk when the earthquake struck. Afterward she came out of the house to listen to the loudspeakers telling all residents to evacuate because of tsunami warnings. She said she was uncertain what she should do and in which direction she should go (the evacuation center nearest was in fact engulfed in the tsunami). The dog, however, began to pull on his leash and drag her toward a hill about six blocks away. The woman said the dog had never done this before but was in an agitated state. So she let him go and he would go on ahead and then run back as if to say, “Come on, hurry up.” Then he would take off again, and this went on until she was up the slope on the hill itself. She watched as the tsunami came through the town destroying everything in its path. She said she realized the dog, a Shih Tzu, had saved her life. “He knew something was wrong, and even knew that only higher ground was the place to go.” For people who love dogs, not to mention other people, this is a heartwarming story. She is now in the evacuation center with her small dog, who is considered a hero.
I ask for continued prayers for all the people in northeast Japan who are struggling to get on with their lives. It is good to remember that when disasters strike and we can’t explain why they happened, the love of God is truly the most precious commodity we have. Truly in all circumstances we trust in God and his love. Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Bill Geppert
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 148
