'You're the best': To Japan, with love, from around the world
Publisher Caroline Pover poses with a group of British schoolchildren after speaking to them about Japan.Tokyo expats who either chose or were told to leave the Kanto region in the wake of the March 11 disaster in the northeast of Japan have been catching a lot of flak.
Their departure became a media event and the Twittersphere even coined the derogatory term flyjin, a subject we’ve already discussed at length.
But why all the vitriol? As CNNGo discovered, many of those who left are using their time, skills and connections to pitch in from afar.
Road trip
Tokyo-based writer and publisher Caroline Pover was in Saipan working on a new book when the earthquake hit. In the confused days that followed, she watched the news and tried to figure out what to do.
“I can give speeches, I am persuasive, I can write, and I don’t like the word 'no' -- those skills have to be helpful in this situation somehow,” she says.
“Going back to Tokyo and getting on with my businesses didn't feel like the right thing to do. Rather than go to Japan and use up resources, I thought I could go to Britain and generate them.”
As a former elementary school teacher, Pover has made stopping at schools along the way a priority. She talks to the kids about life in Japan and teaches some basic Japanese.
Messages of support
The younger students have drawn messages of support for their counterparts here -- "Love you, good luck, you're the best" -- which Pover is passing along to schools and to volunteers headed to the disaster areas. Older kids have enjoyed making video messages, which are then posted online.
No matter where she stops, Pover says she has been moved by the outpouring of love and support among British people.
“One thing I’ve loved to hear from people’s comments, and read in the students’ letters, is how people are still so interested in visiting Japan,” she says.
Self Defense Force
American-born, Chiba-based teacher Arwen Murakami was asked to leave Japan, not by her embassy, but by her husband, a JSDF soldier.
In the week following the disaster, she was left without much to do, as her students cancelled their lessons and husband Masanori worked long hours in Urayasu.
Then they got word that he would be deployed to Fukushima. “He asked me to leave the area so that he could concentrate on his work, knowing I was safe,” Murakami says.
She decided to head back to her hometown of Akron, Ohio. “It seemed to me, given some of the wild reports in the foreign media, that I was in a unique position to help clarify the situation for those outside Japan," she explains.
"I also knew there were people who wanted to help but didn't know how, and I wanted them to have the opportunity to support the groups in Japan who mobilized immediately but without much initial publicity.”
Second Harvest
Murakami has been very busy since then, setting up a Japan Relief Fund for donations to Second Harvest Japan and Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support, as well as matching event organizers with groups that fit their particular concerns.
She's also been speaking with them about the situation on the ground, downplaying some of the hysteria in the media, and communicating what sort of aid is needed most.
One popular event she promoted was a vegan bake sale organized as part of a worldwide event to raise money through cruelty-free sweets. Murakami spoke about her experiences in Japan and brought along some cherry blossom-decorated matcha cupcakes, raising almost $3,000 for JEARS and Direct Relief International.
Pajama time
However, the biggest portion of her time went into supporting an event that her sister started -- Jammies for Japan -- which encourages students and employees to pay for the privilege of wearing their pajamas to school or work.
Schools from New York to California took part, donating the proceeds to ShelterBox, an organization that provides cleverly packed and easily shippable shelters and supplies to disaster zones.
Murakami is still not sure whether she made the right decision in going back to the United States temporarily, but she hopes that her efforts have had some positive effect.
“I was reading awful reports about how Japan didn't need or deserve any aid, how none of the aid was getting through anyhow, how people were finally getting their due, and I felt that I had to come back and help drown some of that out.”
