who was writing about the 3.11 great earthquake and tsunami disaster,
with regard to how it affected me and my life,
and my hopes and plans for moving and working there in the future.
Here are his questions, followed by my answers,
if anybody is interested...
Questions:
1 How did the tsunami affect your life?
2 Why have you decided to move to one of the affected areas?
Answers:
I am afraid I am not the typical case for your study
that I am not from the area but marrying a guy
who is living in Fukushima (He is not from the area originally either).
Having said that, my answers are:
1.
My life is not changed.
But my BF's has in terms that he had been living a very career-oriented life
but since he saw people's lives so easily washed away in a moment
he started to think what really mattered in his life.
Having a family, spending a happy family life with loved ones
first came to his mind.
His sense of value changed in the way to value family/leisure time
more than his career/work time, and spending money for that
rather than spending money for consumption goods.
The goods are to be so easily lost/destroyed by the fierce power of nature.
What would be left and remembered after such a natural disaster??
What would be cherished and valued?
I, myself personally, did not experience this kind of change and deliberation
at the time of the disaster, but talking to my BF,
these questions were really significant and convincing.
In Japan , it is said that many couples decided to get married
for more or less similar reasons,
while other couples decided to end their relationships
because they could not share their strong emotions/feelings
brought to their mind by 3.11 or
because they felt "He/She is not the one whom I would want to be with
at the end of the world..."
2.
I have answered already. but if I could add:
I would be very hesitant to move to Fukushima or Touhoku region in general
if not this disaster, to be honest.
Touhoku was and still is a very rural, depopulated, super-aging region.
It is peripheral.
This is why there are many nuclear power plants to send electricity
to the great Tokyo region.
Touhoku people risked their lives in return for the subsidies of the power plants.
Also they were the ones who supply food (especially agricultural and fishing)
for more better-off regions.
Japanese people, including myself who live in a urban area in West Japan,
were not so aware of this fact, and did not give it a critical thought.
I was not understanding and had little empathy/compathy.
The disaster was so devastating and drew huge attention towards Touhoku.
A lot of people/things/thoughts were sent.
But I am afraid the attention will fade.
The people there will have to rise by themselves,
for the community/industry rebuilding/revival
which had been shrinking before the disaster.
It is a start from the negative.
I just thought I would want to be a part of the endeavour as a local citizen
(marriage migrant indeed!) and as a person who has been engaged
as a minority-support and community-organise practitioner.
Accidentally, Fukushima/Touhoku has become a place
with the very special significance and
will provide/be faced with a lot of opportunities and challenges,
more so than ever before.
It will make a story of rebirth.
Why not moving there??
I hope you know what I mean,
Yuko
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