Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sendai Earthquake: Two Years Later

Yesterday marked the second anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami that devastated northern Honshu here in Japan. While the immediate impact of the event has faded around the world - and, to a lesser extent, in more distant parts of the country - the many of the worst-hit regions still haven't recovered. In some ways, it probably never will, as to a certain extent the recovery efforts run counter to a long-term demographic shift in Japan: the younger generations are almost universally abandoning small towns in favor big urban areas like Tokyo, Nagoya, Kansai, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

Slate.com has a photo gallery depicting the ongoing effects of the disaster. At school, we're also doing our small part to help the relief efforts through various charity activities and through the considerably larger sacrifices made by the teams of students and teachers who head there to lend a hand twice each year. If you feel like pitching in from afar, have a look at this donation page from the Japanese Red Cross Society.

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