Third anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake is approaching

The third anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, 11 March, is approaching. Past three years, Catholic Church in Japan mobilized all the Catholic communities in Japan to assist the disaster hit area which is almost all under the Sendai Diocese with a title of the "All Japan" framework. Immediately after the disaster in 2011, Bishop Tani and myself together with Caritas Japan staff members went to Sendai to meet Bishop Hiraga of Sendai diocese and his chancellor, Fr. Komatsu on 16 March in which we decided to establish the Sendai Diocese Support Center (SDSC). That was the beginning of the "All Japan" framework to assist victims in Sendai diocese. Since then, Caritas Japan has been supporting all these activities of relief and rehabilitation in Sendai diocese with long term planning thanks to huge donations from Japan and abroad.

During last general assembly of Japanese Bishops in February, as I have mentioned, Bishops decided to continue this "All Japan" framework for another three years. Catholic Church in Japan will continue our efforts of rehabilitation and Caritas Japan is also ready to support these activities.

Obviously the leading role of reconstruction of the disaster hit area ought to be the local people of the area and Church should not continue the activities just to maintain status quo of our own initiatives. We have to foresee the termination of present activities one day. However, as we know, Church has been in Sendai diocese before the disaster, and it was in Sendai during the disaster and it will be in Sendai for years to come. That means Catholic Church in Japan will never stop our efforts to be with people in the disaster hit area, though our style of commitment may change.

So many people came to join our program as volunteers. There are a lot of different ways to support the local people in the area. Probably there might be some who feel sorry as they were not able to visit the area because of various reasons. In fact, I am also the one. When disaster happened in 2011, I was in charge of two dioceses, Niigata and Sapporo, and was just elected as president of Caritas Asia at that time. Then as a president of Caritas Japan, I was put in charge of the entire operation of the "All Japan" framework. So numerable meetings prevented me to find time to visit the disaster hit area. I am feeling sorry about this. At the same time, my own experience in Caritas activities for long time, such rehabilitation program requires both people on the ground and behind the lines. I hope everyone of us in Catholic Church in Japan to find our own and unique role in this "All Japan" operation and, even though one can not go to the disaster hit area, join the effort of Catholic community in Japan with ones unique way as a part of one body of Christ.  As a Christian, one can even support the activities with prayers. Also it is imperative to be sensitive to the information from the area.

I have a coordination team for the "All Japan" framework. This team coordinates all kinds of initiatives from Catholic communities in all over Japan to assist disaster hit area and also provides platform to exchange information. The team is managed by Fr. Kanda of Osaka diocese and Mr. Hamaguchi, an employee of Osaka diocese. Without these two men who have rich experiences of disaster relief management from Kobe earthquake in 1995, I could not achieve anything. Fr.Narui, SVD, the former Caritas Japan director has joined the team since he was appointed as the SVD generalate JPIC secretary as long as he has time to spare.

Caritas Japan has issued a report of activities in Sendai disaster hit area for past one year. You may find it both in Japanese and English and may download PDF file in this link.

This is the first time for Caritas Japan to organise such disaster relief operation inside Japan itself. We did collection of relief fund for victims of disaster in the past. But what we are doing at this moment is a long term rehabilitation program. On behalf of Caritas Japan, I would like to thank all of you who donated generously to support victims through our program in Sendai diocese. We will continue our efforts.

Bishops Conference of Japan is organising a commemorative Mass of the third anniversary of the disaster at 6 pm on 10 March at Sendai Cathedral, Motodera-Koji Catholic Church. You are welcome to join us.

President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan, Archbishop Peter Okada of Tokyo has made his message public in Japanese. You may read it in Japanese in this link.

In his message, Archbishop Okada highlighted importance of principle of subsidiarity in such relief operation. Though three ecclesiastical provinces, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagasaki, has established their own center for activities in disaster hit area, these activities are complementing the charitable action of local Catholic community of Sendai. Therefore, these provincial centers are part and parcel of charitable activities of Sendai diocese and not acting for its own merits.

Also in his message, Archbishop reiterated the contents of the November 2011 Bishops Message on abolition of nuclear power plants saying that the general direction of Japan after three years of the Fukushima accident is shifting opposite to what Bishops called for in the message. And he put emphasis on the importance of changing life style as necessary step to abolish nuclear power plant. It is not the matter of searching alternative energy sources without changing our life style which just consumes a lot of energy. The original message says as follows.

Christians have an obligation to bear genuine witness to the Gospel especially through the ways of life expected by God; “simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment and self-sacrifice”.We should choose anew a simple and plain lifestyle based on the spirit of the Gospel, in cases like saving electricity. 

In Niigata diocese, all the parishes are asked to say commemorative Mass on Sunday 9th March. I will celebrate Mass at Niigata Cathedral at 9:30am on 9th March. You are welcome to join us in prayer. 

   

Earthquake and Tsunami victims support meeting @ Ofunato

The 26th Sendai diocese support meeting took place on 30 January at the Jinomori Ikoino-ie in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture. The Jinomori Ikoino-ie is a volunteer center (base) run by Osaka eccesiastical province and a part of continuous effort of entire Japanese Catholic Church to support rehabilitation program of Sendai diocese. The entire program has been called the "All Japan" program. For the meeting in Ofunato, each of three provinces in Japan sent their bishop in charge, namely Bishop Hamaguchi for Nagasaki province, Bishop Suwa for Osaka province and Bishop Koda for Tokyo province. I attended as a bishop in charge of the "All Japan" and Bishop Hiraga of Sendai was also present as a chair of the meeting. All together 14 people were in presence.

Prior to the meeting in the morning, we invited 4 local people to share the situation and difficulties in the area. As we could see while we were in Ofunato, tsunami hit area has not been rehabilitated as such. Most of the damaged buildings have been demolished but new construction has not been started. The local people told us about this delay of reconstruction. It is mainly because  the government employs laws and regulations for ordinary times for such reconstruction program and not for emergency situation. So especially in Tsunami hit area, reconstruction has been taking too much time as local governments have to have unanimous agreement from entire landowners before they could start any new construction programs. So naturally it takes time.

The tsunami hit area was already less populated and aging area before the disaster. As majority have to live in refuge for already three years, some started to leave the area and settled in other communities. It will be very difficult to re-create communities in these area. People are suffering from just waiting for something to happen.

According to the government statistics, around 270 thousand (270,000) people are still in refuge in all over Japan. Many of them are still living in temporary housings. Catholic Volunteers operates Cafe in many temporary housing area to provide opportunity for people to share their stories and spend time together.

In Ofunato and also other similar coastal areas, subsided land after the earth quake has been big problem. The local governments have resolved that landfill would be only solution to protect people from future tsunami. To do so, all the remaining buildings have to be demolished, though some of them are in practical use at this moment, and land ownerships have to be readjusted. I wonder how long it may take to complete all these process to begin building new communities in the area.

In Ofunato, railway line has been destroyed. Railway company gave up to reconstruct the line and replaced it with bus service. You may see from the photo above. This is a "railway crossing" for Bus service.

The 3rd meeting of diocesan teams supporting Sendai diocese

The third meeting of diocesan teams to support Sendai diocese has been held in Fukishima area from 19 June, Wednesday till 21 June, Friday. More than 60 participants, including three bishops, one bishop elect, priests, religious and laity from all over Japan's 16 dioceses had bee

n divided into three groups and dispatched to three different courses for site visits. I joined a group to visit Iwaki and the area near to Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant which had been damaged by Tsunami in 2011.

On Wednesday morning, we made a visit to Iwaki parish and met with a volunteer team of the parish who shared their experiences with evacuees from town close to the nuclear power plant. Also we made a visit to the Mominoki volunteer station run by Saitama diocese. In the afternoon, we were taken by bus to the area quite closed to the nuclear power plant. It is possible to enter the area but residents are not allowed to live there since entry during night time is prohibited. We could see piles of debris of decontamination of the area in black plastic back. It may be quite impossible to find any place to keep these backs for long time without fear of the residents.

Even after two years of the disaster, earthquake and tsunami, because of radiation, people are not able to clear debris of the disaster.  We were in front of Tomioka rail way station, which has not been in function because of tsunami, and saw several damaged buildings left behind as they were on 11 March, 2011.

 

On Thursday, the 3rd meeting of diocesan teams supporting Sendai diocese was held in Koriyama parish chapel in Fukushima.  During the meeting, Mr.Sugawara of Ofunato parish in Iwate shared his experience of establishing a "Sister Relationship" with Sakai parish in Osaka. Mr. Sato of Sakai parish also shared his view from the other side of this relationship.

They did not know each other until the day of earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku area on March 11, 2011. Ofunato and Sakai is 1,000 Km apart. Sakai parishioners led by Fr.Murata of Osaka diocese offered help to Ofunato people and also proposed to establish special relationship between two parishes. Since then parishioners from Sakai visited Ofunato several times and, for this spring, number of parishioners from Ofunato visited Sakai for first time to pray and play together.

This is the act of charity, Caritas, of Catholic Church. We do offer professional relief service from Caritas agencies to disaster victims. And it may be a short term services for the disaster hit area. But our commitment does not stop there. We, as parts of one body of Jesus, also offer long lasting partnership to walk along with people in the disaster hit area. Through these activities, not only professional relief workers, everyone in Catholic Church could join Caritas activities of Church.

 

 

 

Sendai Diocese Support Meeting, held in Iwaki city

The Sendai Diocese Support Meeting was held in Iwaki city on 26 April, Friday, from 9:30 am to 3 pm.  This meeting was the 20th gathering of this group since the massive disaster in Tohoku on 11 March, 2011. Iwaki city is in Fukushima Prefecture and around 40 to 50 km south of Fukushima No1 Nuclear Power Station which is still under critical condition after the Tsunami disaster.  Within Iwaki city, there are 13 groups of temporary housings for evacuees.  Some of them are housed in private apartments which had been hired by local governments.  According to the government's statistics, more than three hundred and then thousand people are still unable to return to their original area in entire disaster hit area in Tohoku.  Most of the disaster hit area is in Sendai diocese.

 

The meeting was chaired by Bishop Hiraga of Sendai and attended by 17 plus participants including 5 Bishops. This monthly meeting is to coordinate relief efforts of Catholic Church in Japan within Sendai Diocese.  Three ecclesiastical provinces, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagasaki had established their volunteer bases and have been sending team of volunteers to support people.  These provinces were represented by Bishop Koda, Bishop Suwa and Bishop Hamaguchi respectively. I represented Bishops' Conference relief team with Fr. Kanda and Mr Hamaguchi, both from Osaka and Fr. Narui, SVD who had been a director of Sendai Support Center and the director of Caritas Japan till the end of March.  Though Fr. Narui has been appointed as JPIC coordinator for entire SVD (Divine Word Missionaries) congregation, he may help us as a member of my team as far as his time permits.

We met for this meeting in the "Mominoki Support Station" in Iwaki city run by Saitama diocese as a base for volunteers and also to invite people to come and relax with cup of coffee. The center itself is a beautiful log cabin while we could still see a number of temporary housings around the area.

At the beginning of this meeting, two people from Okuma town shared their stories after the disaster. Okuma town is where four of 6 power plants of Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Station are located and, as it is now, 96% of the area is closed for civilians to enter.  These two mothers of young kids from Okuma town had to evacuate from their homes after the accident of nuclear power plants and unable to return since then.