The news pictures here and here that began to flash before our eyes were truly astonishing, catastrophic scenes we found hard to comprehend. Somewhat inured to Hollywood-style doomsday special effects, our eyes searched for truth in what we saw; the dirty, black water tumbling on and on across the fields engulfing farms, glasshouses, roads and cars, ports and ships, people –especially the terrified, panicky people. It was hard to believe.
It is a schoolteacher's job to educate and inform students about the world and ensure they are prepared to face the challenges of life. There is little in the job description that could help make sense of the Japanese tsunami of March 2011. There is little anyone could do to help younger people understand the gravity of such a situation and what response they might make.
Thus, largely in silence did I show students the footage available on YouTube and let them try to comprehend what was happening, the horrifying deaths, the innumerable disasters that unfolded as the waters kept rushing in.
But it's difficult for children to understand, even with a video such as this, the true devastation of this event –that word is over-used, but it is the most appropriate.
The exploding Fukushima nuclear reactor added to the trauma and made us all uneasy, as is evident from this article by Simon Parry. It completed the transformation of our understanding of a tsunami from Katsushika Hokusai's iconic, beautiful image of the Kanegawa Tsumani to that of the ugly, truly terrifying and unstoppable force of nature
The memorial video by OnlineSchools.org, Japan One Year Later, uses poetic and poignant visualisation projected onto whitewashed walls to bring to the eyes:
- 15,846 people dead and 3,320 still missing
- The restricted area around the Fukushima plant is larger than Los Angeles
- 25 million tons of trash now in the ocean
- Food is contaminated and people will live shorter lives as a result
- Only Hiroshima was a bigger disaster
It concludes with a last, perhaps more constructive image which transforms the devastation to something new and the words, 'The Sun is Rising'. In another time those words would be ominous –now they are perforated with hope. Japan suffered, but Japan is rebuilding –that is the message.
All the drawings are taken from images found on The Atlantic, that visibly demonstrate the transition one year can make.
Last Sunday was the commemorative anniversary. I forgot all about it –as if it had never happened. I suppose because I didn't see the waters wash away my family and my home I could be forgiven, but I did see the footage in all its horror.
It's never too late to remember.
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