SEARCHING FOR LOST FRIENDS

Tagajo City was the worst. Mud was everywhere and all the buildings were destroyed. There were signs of the tsunami wave having reached to my height (176cm). Many vehicles were on top of other vehicles, upside down, or stuck into the buildings.

I walked many hours. I could see at least three cases of fires occurring; smoke was everywhere and I heard sirens, ambulances, and fire engines all the time. I was very moved to see many businesses announcing free places to rest.

I visited many shelters and saw they did not have much food and disaster victims couldn't even rest due to the Tsunami Warnings being issued several times in one day. Those who were separated from their families must have been so worried all the time.

However, I met and got a chance to talk to one person who had been rescued from Shiogama. She was caught in the tsunami and thought she was going to die when the water came to the top of her chest in her car, but a man appeared from nowhere and took her out. She said she barely survived.

I met another lady who lived near the seashore. She was driving when the earthquake occurred, and her car was caught by a tsunami wave. She was being carried by the wave for a while and all of a sudden her car hit a house and stopped. She somehow broke the window of that house and sneaked inside. Finally, people came to rescue her.

At the Toei-Oedo line platform for Hikarigaoka, the gates were filled with people waiting for the trains. But no one broke into lines and there were no ropes, but people quietly followed the direction of the staffs anyway. I was just moved by such an unnatural convenience.

My husband had walked four hours back home yesterday. He said he almost gave up around Akabane, where he met one man cheerfully speaking to people, "Oh, you're having a tough time? Here's some hot coffee for you!" That gave him power to keep going. I believe he must have been so happy because he already talked about it more than five times.

At work, I saw a group of young men buying alcohol. One of them said, "Oh, no, I only have money to buy Sake. Ok, I am not buying Sake," and he returned his Sake to the shop and donated all his money to Japan Relief instead. His friends also followed what he did. I was so moved. I saw one man putting several 10,000 yen bills into the donation box. I heard him saying to his friend, "Because I could buy video games any time." People around him including myself also donated. I was also able to go to the blood donating facility at Naniwa, Osaka, which was overflowed by people who wanted to donate their blood to those in the disaster area.

From small children to elderly people, Koreans are paying close attention to what's going on and standing up to support Japan. On the Korean internet, many people are calling for donations to Japan, saying, "You can just give up watching one movie, give up one drink (and donate,) so they don't feel they're alone!" Three ground-based broadcasting stations: KBS, MBC and SBS also aired the national-level donation program. Yesterday, 12,681 people donated 1339.14 million won (about 100 million yen.) It's very unusual for more than 10,000 people lining up to the donation boxes in one day, usually it would take around 10 days for the number of donors to exceed 10,000 in any kind of disasters. All of the major Korean papers continue printing articles about Japan relief.

According to the Chosun Ilbo Newspaper, "The reason why the second disaster was prevented to its smallest degree was the sense of order in Japanese people," and, "Even under the situation of having totally lost their living foundation, Japanese people are acting exemplary. People who share one blanket together; people who wait in the several hundreds of meters in line to receive the support; people who buy food just enough for themselves for the sake of the others; a bakery owner who gives away free bread to disaster victims; a woman who stands on the street with the sign that says, "Please feel free to use our toilet," the world is awed by their care and the citizenship these people have shown."

Foreign news agencies praised the perseverance and the order of Japanese people as "The evolution of the human spirituality,'" and, "Japanese people are now holding their bloody tears and persevering through this trial with incredible will power."

Joong-ang Ilbo Advisor Lee wrote, "We thought Japan and Korea are 'close geographically and distant politically' but now we realized that these two countries are, in fact, one community that shares one life. This proves to the world what true globalism in capital is.

"Now the compassion and encouragement toward Japan has filled the Korean air. This must be the first time when this kind of warm feeling towards Japan filled our heart since the end of the WW2. In the moment when Japan got struck by this horrible disaster, we realized that Japan, in fact, was our closest neighbor! Now we, Korean people, will be outraged by whoever will hurt Japan any further, and we will applaud any heart that supports and encourages Japan. Korean people who want to support her and encourage her are getting lined up, saying, "Japan! Please be strong!"