“Living Together in a Global Community” Study Group: Volunteer Activity Report of the Great East Japan Earthquake

2011年12月10日更新

In response to requests from its members, in December 2011 the “Living Together in a Global Society” Study Group visited the towns of Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture and Wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture to participate in and observe volunteer efforts there in order to research the possibility of carrying out relief efforts for the Great East Japan Earthquake. The following is a summary of the reports from the participating students.

The group intends to utilize the experiences gained through these two projects by creating opportunities to convey information within Japan and abroad about the current status of the earthquake-stricken area-they will present reports at on-campus meetings, at the Advancement of Women in Leadership (A-WiL) international symposium, through exchanges with other universities, and through activities abroad-and they plan to use those discussions with a broad audience to strengthen their ongoing relief efforts.

Observations at Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture

On December 3-4, 2011, with the support of Civic Force, our group was able to observe the current status of the earthquake-stricken area of Kesennuma. We also visited the Kesennuma Volunteer Network “Seikeikai,” which makes the misanga good-luck bracelets that were sold at the most recent Kiin Festival (Ochanomizu’s annual student festival). We saw the misanga packaging and the Sunday children’s welfare program run by the volunteers, and participated in a “tako-yaki” (octopus dumplings) event held over the weekend at a temporary housing unit.
First, given that there have been fewer and fewer reports on the earthquake, most of us assumed that the town would have started returning to its previous state, so we were extremely surprised to find that, even nine months after the earthquake, buildings in the area around the fishing village still remained in their collapsed sate, and that rubble and debris could still be seen scattered about.

As we listened to the local relief organizations, we could get a sense of how important it is when providing assistance that providers do not push their own agenda, but rather that they think about what the local people actually need in the context of the daily changes occurring in the affected region, and that the content of the activities is adapted to meet those needs. Also, while there are various forms of assistance, we thought that one important commonality was the perspective that the assistance should have the objective of “enabling the people in the affected area to live once again by their own means and with individual dignity.”

The strongest impression our study group participants received from our observations was from hearing the voices of the victims of the disaster first-hand. When we visited the temporary housing, the residents greeted us warmly and related how they have been living from the day of the disaster up until the present, which reminded us that we ourselves should be prepared in case of a future disaster. Today, as the interest in the affected area starts to wane, we could sense that there will be a need for continued support for the next five or ten years. Because universities, with their set number of students each year, can easily carry out long-term support efforts, the group believes that we should focus on long-term assistance and play a role in conveying information about the Great East Japan Earthquake both within Japan and abroad. We would like to report on our activities to our colleagues within the university, as well as conduct exchanges with students from abroad on the theme of disasters, using such occasions as the site visit to East Timor and international symposiums held at Ochanomizu University.

(Aya Nemoto, Faculty of Science)

Volunteering at a mochi-pounding event at a temporary housing complex in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture

On December 9-10, 2011, with the support of ADRA Japan, the study group visited the Kawahigashi Gakuen Temporary Housing complex, where the evacuees from the town of Okuma-where the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is located-are currently residing. We participated in a mochi-pounding event, helping with the preparations, making ozoni (a traditional New Year’s dish that contains the mochi rice cakes), and offering hand and foot massages as members of “Gancha.”

Thanks to the generosity of the head of the neighborhood council, we were able to borrow a room at the meeting hall, and given that people were gathered for the mochi-pounding as well, many people stopped by and we were able to have pleasant conversations with the local residents. From the start, one of the main goals of volunteering to offer hand massages was that it can be used as a tool to get the disaster victims to talk and to release some of their pent-up stress, and this time it offered us a good opportunity to listen. During the massage, as they had their hands and feet kneaded, the residents would start talking to us by saying things like, “Since we were evacuated, I haven’t had anything to do, so I’ve gotten fat,” and then turn to life in Okuma, the hardships of life as an evacuee, the nuclear plant, and other bits of wisdom. We would joke with the residents and were able to build a good rapport through the massage.

Although we had gone to help out, it seemed as if we were the ones being taken care of. We need to think in the future about how we, as outsiders, should build relationships and how we should act when we go to the disaster area as students from Tokyo. Up until now, we have tried to use our strengths as female university students by focusing our assistance on support for women and children, but both men and women told us how energized the were by speaking with our group of female students, and in our support for those in temporary housing, we believe that we can also apply our strengths to assisting men, who are often overlooked.

When giving hand massages, one woman said to us, “This is the kind of support I really want.” We often hear that people are in the process of shifting from the stage where they are receiving assistance to the stage where they are self-sustaining, but there will still be a need for certain kinds of support. We hope to have the opportunity to continue volunteering to give hand massages in the future.

(Kanami Uemura, Faculty of Letters and Education)