A magnitude 9.0 earthquake damages homes, businesses and schools. A tsunami wipes away harbors, neighborhoods and an airport while we look on via television and the Internet.
Then the situation grows critical at a crippled nuclear power facility, unleashing the specter of radiation deaths on the only country where the power of a nuclear attack has ever been unleashed.
A week after the catastrophes began, the horror and the suffering are obvious to us, Japan’s neighbors across the Pacific Rim. Somehow this disaster seems more magnified than others, such as in Haiti or Indonesia. Japan is a highly developed country, and as we watch, we realize: If a disaster of such magnitude can happen there, it could happen here. And, of course, we weren’t spared. One man died in California, and some Oregon Coast ports were damaged.
To be sure, Clark County has an abundance of ties with Japan. Some of our largest private employers, firms such as SEH America, Wacom Technology and Sharp Corp., are subsidiaries of Japanese companies. Subaru of America uses the Port of Vancouver as a major West Coast port of entry for its Japanese-built automobiles. Since 1995 Joyo, Japan, has been Vancouver’s sister city. (Fortunately Joyo, located between Kyoto and Nara, escaped the tsunami and was not near the epicenter of the March 11 quake.) Camas has two sister cities in southern Japan: Hosoe and Taki. Thirteen of Clark College’s 70 exchange students hail from Japan.
Besides the formal bonds between businesses and governments, many Clark County residents have made their own connections. Jennifer Wheeler’s son, Joshua, teaches English in Japan. (He’s safe.) Skyridge Middle School is expecting to host 20 students and adults from Hosoe next week. (They’re still coming.)
Coincidentally, last Saturday was the annual Japanese Festival at Washougal High School. Teacher Chris Parkins, who took part in a martial arts demonstration as part of the program, recounted how he had been an exchange teacher in the hardest-hit region. “I have friends and students of mine in Sendai,” Parkins told Columbian reporter Kathie Durbin. “It’s very personal to me.”
What can we do? Donations are obviously one way to help. The effort has already begun. Locally, some contributions were made during Saturday’s Japanese Festival at Washougal.
On a larger scale, corporations such as Starbucks and Intel are pledging donations or matches. If you want to help, consider well-established disaster relief groups such as World Vision, Mercy Corps and the American Red Cross.
As the disaster unfolds, we will learn much more. Can the broken reactors be cooled safely? Will the food supply hold out in the hardest-hit areas of Japan, where transportation will be difficult for some time to come?
What will the impact be to the global economy?
And, of course, how many will die?
In the coming days, some will try to use the Japanese disaster to argue for their cause. Opponents of nuclear power are already pointing toward seismic safety issues. The pro-coal lobby, which has been under attack because of air pollution and global warming, quickly restated its case. There’s talk of whether the U.S. west coast should be covered by a costly tsunami alert system. To the extent that these discussions enhance our planning and make our decisions better, they are welcomed.
From our perspective, we see the danger and project it upon ourselves. The horror is magnified by our deep and growing ties to Japan.
These personal, political and commercial bonds are most often a reason to celebrate, but this week, we feel sorrow.
