Life After the Sunami

The second day of this conference was most remarkable to me. On Saturday evening at a casual dinner on campus I had to chance to hear these folks talk about the past few months here in Japan, the earthquake and sunami and the slow movement toward clean up and restoration of their northern region. One of our participants was from the hardest hit region and many others had relatives that they had lost during the disaster. And then there seems to be the unanswered questions about the nuclear situation. It seems that they are closing the power plant and searching for other viable power alternatives. Until then they have severely limited the use air conditioning (and this has been a particularly hot and humid summer for them).

Mr Pecker, one of the leading facilitators here, is creating a non profit organization to bring music back into the lives of the most devestated areas of the disaster. He wants to support the region by donating musical instruments to the children and schools as a way to promote joy and healing into their lives. Takeshi told me about his cousin who lives in one of the areas that was hardest hit by the sunami. He said that after the sunami there was no power and therefore no form of entertainment by any means. He said that after a few weeks his cousin called him up and asked him to send an MP3 player or something that could be battery operated as he felt that music might bring back the joy of life. Tak sent along the player and then shortly after that, his cousin called again and said that he had acquired a ukelele and wondered if Tak could send some books so he could learn to play. It seems that his cousins and others in the region found that through music making they could tap into a feeling of hope and joy. I was particualrly happy to hear it was a uke that he was learning, there is something inherently happy about the uke and it's sound!


Mr Pecker thanked me time and time again for coming to do this conference, as he said many people had decided to cancel their trips to Japan in the wake of the disaster. I understand this as I also had to really consider if it made sense to come at this time. But what I know from our past journeys is that our news media neglects to paint the full picture of any given situation and chooses to target the most sensational elements of world affairs. Life goes on in Tokyo with a fairly normal feel they tell me and I see this as I am here. The northern region is about ten hours drive from here and this is the area that was hit the hardest.

I am struck by the great heart of the people I have met here.