Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | tsunami
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April 25, 2016

Note: I'm now a regular monthly columnist for Discover Nikkei, the multilingual project of the Japanese American National Museum. For years they've repurposed my blog posts, but now the tables will be turned: I'll write something for DN first, then post them afterwards here. This is the first column I wrote for them. Consul General of Japan at Denver Makoto...

February 2, 2012

There are going to be lots of stories, videos and commemorations of last year's earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in the coming weeks. The first anniversary of the disaster is March 11. I've seen photos compiled by the Consulate General's office and the recovery efforts have been remarkable, although there are still many thousands of people living like refugees...

April 19, 2011

A couple of days after the tragic earthquake and tsunami struck the northeast coast of Japan's main island on March 11, the Newark Star Ledger newspaper ran an article with a headline that promised Japanese Americans' concerns for relatives in Japan: "Japanese-Americans in Fort Lee, Edgewater describe frantic calls to loved ones in quake's wake." I was bemused -- and a little disappointed -- to find that the story wasn't about Japanese Americans. The reporter went up to some shoppers in Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket in New Jersey, and from their names and their quotes, I could tell immediately that the people quoted were Japanese. You know, Japanese Japanese. Immigrants from Japan. Or more precisely, shin-Issei, or "new first-generation" Japanese. Or maybe even just Japanese families of business men (or women) or diplomats assigned for a year or three in the U.S. before rotating back to Japan or to another post elsewhere in the world. There are fewer Japanese Japanese in America than other Asian populations, because fewer Japanese are immigrating to the U.S. than in the past. As of the 2000 census, about 7,000 new Japanese immigrants came to the U.S every year. In contrast, 50,900 Chinese and 17,900 Koreans per year came to the U.S. So it's not surprising that a mainstream news organization would mistake Japanese immigrants for Japanese Americans. (I should note that West Coast newspapers did better, and when they interviewed Japanese Americans they were indeed JAs, and when Japanese nationals were interviewed, they were identified as such.) But still, it struck me that many Japanese Americans are not necessarily closely connected to Japan.
March 21, 2011

Heartbeat for Japan Taiko Concert Three local taiko drum groups, Denver Taiko, Mirai Daiko and Taiko with Toni, are hosting "Heartbeat for Japan: A Taiko Benefit," a concert to raise funds for relief efforts in Japan, on Sat March 26, 7 pm at Colorado Heights University (formerly Loretto Heights) Auditorium at 3001 S. Federal Blvd. Admission is free but donations will be accepted. This should be a terrific evening of thundering drums for a great cause.
March 15, 2011

Japan tsunami I was shocked, saddened and depressed when I learned that there are people in the United States who think that the Tohoku Kanto Earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which has caused enormous damage and casualties that will surely top 10,000, is some sort of karmic payback for Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Really? Seriously? Yes, unfortunately. Here's just a sampling of some updates and comments from Facebook that rant about Pearl Harbor and the tsunami, and how the U.S shouldn't send any aid to Japan:
Who bombed Pearl Harbor? Karmas a bitch. Do I feel bad for japan? Two words....pearl harbor Dear Japan, it's not nice to be snuck up on by something you can't do anything about, is it? Sincerely, Pearl Harbor. screw japan they got what they dederve. any remember pearl horbor I do .they killed thousands of anericans and would do it again. kill em all let god sort emm out. Now the people in japan know how we felt during pearl harbor when they made are man abd women float in the ocean... Its god way of sayng theres too many chinese here imma take u out lol If they didn't bomb pearl harbor this wouldn't have happened. Gods way of tell japanese people there gay all yall remember pearl harbor when yall give money to japan OMG!!! Im so sick of people "praying for Japan" :we should help" i don't know wha happened in yall brain but they're the same people that bombed Pearl Harbor! get it together mane, I have no sympathy for em, Tragic stuff happen every single day!! Obama To Offer Assistance To Earthquake.. We have starving people in this country, people with housing /medical needs and other life substaining essentials yet USA runs to the rescue, who's going to rescue us the overinflated porices does any 1 remember "PEARL HARBOR"??? AGAIN TAX PAYERS WILL END UP PAYING AT THE END OF THE DAY
I'm all for free speech and these people have a right to say what they think, even if it's ignorant, misinformed and downright hateful. But these thoughts are worrisome because they seem so cavalier, so easy for these people to express.
March 13, 2011

tsunami screen shot Unless you live in California, most Americans can't imagine what it's like to be in a minor earthquake, never mind a major one. As a kid in Japan, I lived through lots of little quakes. They were no big deal. If the quake seemed serious or went on too long, we'd simply go outside and wait. But there was never a major quake when I lived in Japan. In the 1990s, on a trip to Japan with my mother, an earthquake hit just after I checked into a hotel in Sapporo. I was hanging up shirts and jackets in the closet when they started swaying. We were on the 10th floor so I could feel the building swaying at least two or three feet. I had a flash of fear, and opened the door to the room and wedged myself in the doorway as a safety precaution (I think it's something I remembered from my childhood), but I knew if the building collapsed standing in the doorway wouldn't help. I looked out the door, and no one else seemed as concerned as me, except my mom poked her head out of her room. As it turned out, the temblor didn't cause much damage in Sapporo, the largest city in the northern-most Japanese island of Hokkaido. But two days later when we arrived in Nemuro, my mom's hometown at the easternmost tip of Hokkaido, we saw the power of the "jishin," or earthquake. Roads were humped up in the middle and the pavement split like the top of a loaf of bread, and in the town's cemetery, my grandfather's memorial had crumbled into a pile of rubble. But life went on as normal. Luckily there were no casualties from that quake, and there was no tsunami that followed in its wake. The Great Tohoku Kanto Earthquake, which is now what the Japanese call the March 11 disaster, is the strongest earthquake in the country's recorded history. That's saying something for a country where quakes are so common there are established rules for what you're supposed to do when they strike, like people in Kansas are taught from childhood what to do if a tornado touches down.