Personal awareness of the quake after 3 weeks

Last night, I went to a local Korean restaurant near Incheon International airport. It is completely local. No foreigners were there.  When I looked inside, three old ladies were hanging out on the floor. When they saw me, they welcomed me in. I ordered Kimchi-chige, and waited for my food. The TV was on. They were watching a Korean news program. I didn't pay much attention to it, but I soon realized some place which looked familiar to me on the screen. Then, I realized that was a Japanese news report imported to Korea to show Korean people what happened to Japan. The report was about the strong aftershock, Japanese quake level 6, which hit Miyagi on April 7. No sooner had I realized that it was about Japan, the Korean old ladies turned away as if they felt they didn't know what to say to me, from the country there.


Today I translated two articles for Quake Book into Japanese. As I have been busy with my personal business, which is why I have to be in Toronto now, honestly speaking, my biggest concern was no longer the earthquake, but the issue of my US spouse visa lately.  During the week just after the quake, I was really depressed by the unbelievable sight the tsunami hitting the Northeastern coast, and of course by the worrisome Fukushima nuclear power plant. However, honestly speaking, my head has been occupied with all the worries and consideration about how I can get my husband back to his country. I could stay forever in Japan no matter what happens, but my husband doesn't have to.  I was handling what to sell, what to dump, what to send, how to send our stuff.


It was on the day before I left Japan for Toronto to help with translating Quake book from English into Japanese. And I did it, in a hotel room, just right after I arrived at the hotel. Translating is always fun. Once I start, I cant help trying to find the best expression for the sentences to flow. I did two. Quake books is about collecting people's live voices (like Murakami's Underground), and I translated them, trying to put the writer's personality, his/her feelings about the quake into Japanese lines.  After I finished, I found some strange feelings born inside me.  I feel like sharing the feeling of those who experienced the quake, which I kinda tried to ignore.


We can be completely ignorant, being safe away from the disaster as long as we are safe as I was. However, we can also extend out imagination to those people in despair no matter how small what we can do for them might be. We can say we are busy with our own life, but we can still spare some time to do anything for them.
Korean elementary schools closed themselves on a rainy day the other day to protect their kids from radiation. They are angry with us who released contaminated water from the nuclear plant into the sea.  Some of them stopped raising money for us. I understand their anger. It is natural. We contaminated mother nature. No one knows the future results. It is beyond imagination. There is no other cases which have ever happened in the world. This happened for the first time in the entire history.


Some people blame for our faults, but there are others who try to be helpful still. A famous orchestra director came over to Japan at this "dreadful" time to throw a charity concert to raise money. His comment was not so special. It was something like "You are not alone. We are here for you." But his comment sounded real, different from foreign celebrities' commenting overseas, cancelling their visits.  Even I was touched.  I would be because the foreign media shows a scary overlook that Japan is basically covered with radioactive substances. I feel there is a gap. it is not that bad living there. It is NOT because the Japanese government keep saying the level is still non affective to health.  People living in Japan appreciate that they are alive. We eat vegetables planted there eat meat and fish caught in/around this country. But for the people affected by the information reported through the foreign media, breathing in Tokyo would be even dangerous here.


Therefore, it was really touching the concert master came to Japan, working with the orchestra,  eating at restaurants in Tokyo,  using tap water at a hotel in Tokyo,  even encouraging us,  sharing the feeling with us.


I am living being detached from the quake, being occupied with other business, making a lot of excuses to avoid helping those in trouble from the quake. However, we have to do something. Having a chance to help translating, objectively seeing myself as Japanese in Korea, I am determined to do what I can do. I don't want to be defeated by the doom.