The Japanese Are Back

Today I am writing from Montreal, Canada. This is my second conference here in the past two months, the first one being right after the great Tohoku earthquake. The Hinomaru flag is still hung outside the falafel shop near the youth hostel where I am staying—waving beside a Canadian flag and two flags from a local hockey team. I was moved when I first saw two Japanese flags hanging in front of that shop when I was here two months ago, but now there is only one Japanese flag (I think the other one was replaced by a hockey flag).

At my conference I have run into many Japanese participants, unlike in March. In March I spoke to every Japanese participant I could find and ask them where they were from. With no exceptions, the answer was always “Kansai,” not Tokyo or anywhere north. Now Tokyo area participants seem the most numerous, as one would normally expect.

But Japan’s recovery is far from coherent. Tohoku is still not prepared to accept volunteers in full swing. Nevertheless, more people seem to be focusing on the tsunami recovery and fewer on radiation. I learned last night that over 100,000 civil defense troops are helping with the rubble and other recovery tasks, comprising nearly half of civil defense forces in Japan!

At the conference I am now attending, Comparative and International Education Society, a Tuesday panel session on “Education in Emergency Situations: The Case of Japan” was organized just in time for the conference, and a full and enthusiastic audience attended and has been talking about it ever since. Although I had to miss this session, I learned from those who attended that Ministry of Education in Japan (MEXT) is promoting efforts to arrange university credit for student volunteer activities in the recovery.

These all look to me like promising signs, although the challenge will be in logistically receiving all the volunteers headed for Tohoku from around Japan and from around the world, in the coming months. Especially after having volunteered in Kobe after the 1995 earthquake there, I feel the tasks of facilitation must be daunting. Nevertheless, the need for volunteer help is monumental, and volunteerism itself has developed considerably over the past 16 years. With any luck I will get a chance to bring students there myself. If I do, I will post pictures.