Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami
In Japanese, kizuna means strong emotional bonds.
This series shares stories about Nikkei individual and/or community reaction and perspectives on the Great Tohoku Kanto earthquake on March 11, 2011 and the resulting tsunami and other impacts—either about supporting relief efforts or how what has happened has affected them and their feeling of connection to Japan.
If you would like to share your reactions, please see the “Submit an Article” page for general submission guidelines. We welcome submissions in English, Japanese, Spanish, and/or Portuguese, and are seeking diverse stories from around the world.
We hope that these stories bring some comfort to those affected in Japan and around the world, and that this will become like a time capsule of responses and perspectives from our global Nima-kai community for the future.
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There are many organizations and relief funds established around the world providing support for Japan. Follow us on Twitter @discovernikkei for info on Nikkei relief efforts, or check the Events section. If you’re posting a Japan relief fundraising event, please add the tag “JPquake2011” to make it appear on the list of earthquake relief events.
Stories from this series
“Kizuna” One Year Later
March 28, 2012 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I’ll never forget the morning when I heard about the earthquake and tsunami that happened on March 11, 2011. It was a school day. I had just turned on the TV at around 7 as is my morning habit. It wasn’t long before I saw images of what looked to be an earthquake in Japan and, most shocking of all, in Sendai, the city where I had lived for eight years. The pictures were frantic, hysterical: the numbers on the …
As anniversary of Tohoku Earthquake nears, Japan thanks the world, shows recovery efforts
March 20, 2012 • Gil Asakawa
It’s almost a year since the 9.0-level Great East Japan Earthquake, as the disaster is now officially called, and the subsequent tsunami devastated a huge swath of the Tohoku region along the country’s northeast coast. With the anniversary looming, many communities in the U.S are planning commemorative events, and many people are remembering how they learned of the disaster. The initial news of the earthquake, which struck at 2:46 PM local time on March 11, 2011, were horrific: I got …
Japanese Pop Singer AK is Saving Japan with Your Love
March 9, 2012 • Susan Miyagi McCormac
Akemi Kakihara is a Japanese pop star who has released 14 albums with EMI Music Japan, one of Japan’s major record labels. Her latest album, Say That You Love Me, came out in August 2010, and her two most recent US singles appear on compilation albums. But she’d rather talk about the children. The children are preschoolers in Miyagi and Fukushima, where AK (as she prefers to be called) visited six months after a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami in …
Fukushima City: Six Months Later - Part 2
Dec. 5, 2011 • Susan Miyagi McCormac
Read Part 1 >>Professor Takahashi is an intelligent man whose face shows no signs of stress despite the hardships that have befallen his country. When discussing the nuclear crisis and radiation levels in Fukushima Prefecture, he speaks matter-of-factly and explains the science in layman’s terms. Armed with Fukushima University’s state-of-the-art sievert meter and a scientific background, he admits he has a base knowledge of radiation, which helps him understand the nuclear situation better than the average citizen. Although he feels …
Fukushima City: Six Months Later - Part 1
Nov. 28, 2011 • Susan Miyagi McCormac
In September I had the opportunity to visit Fukushima City, Japan, as a guest of Takayuki Takahashi, Vice President of Fukushima University. I first met Professor Takahashi in June, when he and his team of researchers attended a medical trade show in New York City. Almost as much as he wanted to promote the school’s medical invention, he wanted to promote the resilience of Fukushima residents after the horrific earthquake and tsunami of March 11 set off a nuclear crisis. …
Linda Ohama’s Message of Hope for Tohoku
Nov. 8, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I am very proud to say that my friend film maker/poet/artist Linda Ohama of Vancouver has spearheaded some of the most ambitious relief efforts for the Tohoku tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan. Immediately after the March 11th catastrophe, Linda was organizing a fundraising concert that took place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre that raised over $200,000 and featured classical pianist Jon Kimura Parker and the many other Vancouver and Lower Mainland artists. After that, she immediately launched a nationwide …