Follow-up to yesterday's post:
As a follow-up to yesterday's post of my personal account of the tsunami and aftermath in Japan, I wanted to share a couple of links, courtesy of National Geographic. First is a harrowing one-hour special aired on their TV channel:
Witness: Japan's Disaster
If you want to know what it was like to be there, this is as close as you can get. Minimal narration, footage taken mostly from handheld cameras, absolutely no analysis. The first six minutes is entirely footage of the earthquake--which gives you a good idea of what it's like to be in an intense, six-minute long earthquake. There's quite a bit of footage from Kamaishi and Ohtsuchi, where I taught. I recognized places I knew. It's not easy to watch, but imagine what it was like to be there.
While you're watching, btw, contemplate this: Japan was and still is the most prepared country for this kind of disaster. Those of you living along the coast may consider this a dress rehearsal. You can't stop the earth or the sea, but you can limit the body count by educating people and teaching them what to do in the case of natural disasters.
Next, they have a list of organizations doing relief work in Japan:
Japan needs our help
Obviously, it's not a comprehensive list, but it gives some good organizations to donate to.
Again, I put absolutely no restrictions on this. Don't worry about asking for permission to link back or repost any of this. I want the message to go out and for this to stay alive in people's minds. There is no bouncing back from something like this, even for a first-world nation.
Witness: Japan's Disaster
If you want to know what it was like to be there, this is as close as you can get. Minimal narration, footage taken mostly from handheld cameras, absolutely no analysis. The first six minutes is entirely footage of the earthquake--which gives you a good idea of what it's like to be in an intense, six-minute long earthquake. There's quite a bit of footage from Kamaishi and Ohtsuchi, where I taught. I recognized places I knew. It's not easy to watch, but imagine what it was like to be there.
While you're watching, btw, contemplate this: Japan was and still is the most prepared country for this kind of disaster. Those of you living along the coast may consider this a dress rehearsal. You can't stop the earth or the sea, but you can limit the body count by educating people and teaching them what to do in the case of natural disasters.
Next, they have a list of organizations doing relief work in Japan:
Japan needs our help
Obviously, it's not a comprehensive list, but it gives some good organizations to donate to.
Again, I put absolutely no restrictions on this. Don't worry about asking for permission to link back or repost any of this. I want the message to go out and for this to stay alive in people's minds. There is no bouncing back from something like this, even for a first-world nation.