Japan marks 8 years since Tohoku disaster

Not a good memory for me. And remember that Tokyo and Yokohama got hit badly by the quake and people actually died in Tokyo and Yokohama. After walking home through central Tokyo to see that my kids were safe at school, returned home to watch the tsunami events unfold in Tohoku. Then left Tokyo when the Tepco threat evolved. Not a good time.

3/11 is a dark cloud that still hangs over many people. I wish them the best moving forward. The country owes them as much support as possible.

That said, however . . .

Some 1,300 people in the hardest-hit prefectures are expected to continue living in temporary housing due to delays in construction of replacement housing, financial problems and other reasons,

I'm absolutely willing to pay higher taxes to get these people back in regular housing. I suspect that the money is there but that it's being wasted. Come on, it's been eight years!

The government has put a higher priority on the stupid Olympic games than on these people's lives.

Wow already 8 years ago. A black day for everyone. So much destruction and so many lives lost.

Was in the office building when it started swaying for more than a minute, scary as hell and that was only a magnitude 1.0. Then watching the first video of a tsunami hitting a bridge and thinking jeez that is terrible. Then to come home and seeing the more horrific tsunami footages sweeping away complete towns, including the people standing on the rooftops hoping they would be safe. My god what a terrible event. May those poor souls rest in peace and their relatives find comfort somehow.

due to delays in construction of replacement housing, financial problems and other reasons

Excuses, not reasons. 8 years!

Could have started a national campaign to house people in homes across the country either with willing citizens. Or a registry of empty homes well known to be available assigned by lottery and given permission of the state to occupy.

Japan could have really done things

Not a good memory for me either but important to never forget, as it will likely happen again one day. Had called in sick to the office that morning (so lucky, otherwise would have been stranded in Tokyo) and was napping on the sofa when all hell broke loose in my apartment in Tokyo at 2.46pm. My wife, son and baby daughter were safely far away, thank goodness. I went through the whole thing alone. I remember stepping out straight after the big one and going to the supermarket just to be around other people. The first big aftershock happened there and the shelves went swinging wildly! Spent that first afternoon and night barely sleeping, glued to the TV watching the tsunami come in, Fukushima dai ichi blowing up and feeling the constant aftershocks. I clearly remember there was a big quake near Mt. Fuji as well either that night or the next. With so many multiple disasters occurring, it really felt like the end of the world. Anxiety levels through the roof. In the days that followed I went to work (on the greatly disrupted train system), but by Wednesday, with the Fukushima situation getting more dangerous and uncertain by the hour, power outages and rolling blackouts spreading everywhere, food shortages in the supermarkets and the uncertainty of radiation falling on Tokyo, I decamped to Osaka. I was worried about the shinkansen being suddenly stopped due to power outages (a very real possibility at that time) so jumped on a train on Thursday to Osaka. Ultimately I stayed two weeks in  Osaka and worked out of our office there whilst things settled down in Tokyo. A terrifying experience. The anxiety has greatly reduced over time, but still endures somewhat. Anyone who was there that day will relate to this I am sure.

"The rebuilding and revival of Fukushima is a top priority agenda," said Yoshiaki Harada, minister for nuclear emergency preparedness, noting people are still unable to return to areas around the crippled power plant due to high levels of radiation.

A government that cannot accept the science is never going to let go of the notion that it can be restored when it absolutely cannot in our lifetimes. Fukushima is it's own storage site, and will be for multiple generations. Reality has to be accepted

Here in Kansai, I felt absolutely nothing. But watching the astonishing footage on my TV that evening after returning from work, I hugged my loved ones all the tighter.

I was in a supermarket today when they made the 黙祷 announcement to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The day of the actual disaster I was in the office (200 km away) on the 7th floor; the building has earthquake dampers in the foundation so it swayed back and forth for over 10 minutes. We did not know the full extent of the disaster at the time. Disasters or life changing events can occur at any time so we should live everyday to the fullest. I hope the people that survived this terrible event have found some peace in their lives...

What sf2k said.

The government has put a higher priority on the stupid Olympic games than on these people's lives.

Have to maintain image.

sf2k: A government that cannot accept the science is never going to let go of the notion that it can be restored when it absolutely cannot in our lifetimes. Fukushima is it's own storage site, and will be for multiple generations. Reality has to be accepted

Fukushima is a large prefecture and effects of Nuclear disasters vary in degree, where there are areas that are as far away as Tokyo from the Nuclear plant. We cannot make a blanket statement under the name of "Fukushima." There are many areas in Fukushima not affected by the disasters at all. There are many areas that require only minimum efforts to restore the normal lives. There are areas that require decades of efforts to do so. And so on. I do not think they are denying science; they are simply determined to restore the land where possible as much as they can even if it requires generations.

I was making Curry while waiting for my family to come home. The doors in our apartment were sliding open and close on their own, all the water sloshed out of the toilet bowl, and some things fell over. I kept my eyes on the ceiling waiting for the concrete to start cracking. All the while this was what was coming out of my mouth "Not today please. Not today please." Referring to my impending death.

The day of was a shock, but for me, the crazier day was today, the day after. Packing up my family in the car and heading as far away from Fukushima as possible, not having any clue if it was already too late or not. We ended up driving to Osaka. Scary days.

We cannot make a blanket statement under the name of "Fukushima." There are many areas in Fukushima not affected by the disasters at all. There are many areas that require only minimum efforts to restore the normal lives.

Sure we can. The name equals radiation same as Chernobyl. They can never be changed in history for all time!

You can however split the prefecture in half, make the affected area the Fukushima Emergency Quarantine Area and consider renaming the other non affected side so they're not lumped together.

https://jciv.iidj.net/map/

or the Fukushima 5-generations Emergency Quarantine Area to really drive home the issue

sf2kMar. 11 05:39 pm JST"The rebuilding and revival of Fukushima is a top priority agenda," said Yoshiaki Harada, minister for nuclear emergency preparedness, noting people are still unable to return to areas around the crippled power plant due to high levels of radiation.

A government that cannot accept the science is never going to let go of the notion that it can be restored when it absolutely cannot in our lifetimes. Fukushima is it's own storage site, and will be for multiple generations. Reality has to be accepted

Yes. Why don't they accept that it's Chernobyl #2?

I remember hearing about this on CNN here in America. I figured at the time it was one of those quakes Japan gets every 2-3 years or so due to being located near the Marianas Fault in the Pacific Ocean and I guessed since they have excellent civil engineering and the Japanese firefighting dept. is known to be one of the most efficient and best disciplined in the world (it needs to be), this wasn't so bad - certainly not as severe as the one Haiti suffered 2 months prior. This was the worst earthquake Japan has had in 800 years! I was wrong.  

It was a horrible day. I wrote messages online to Japanese children to comfort them in this difficult time, via the Mercy hope site. I'm glad Japan got the needed relief quickly and that people were able to recover as much as they did. Having a stable government and infrastructure was a plus too. 8 years later, Haiti is still a mess.