Today, the morning was clear here in Tokyo. I’m back from my trip up north to see some of the destruction from the earthquake and went to my office. All was calm and the bright morning and afternoon sun made for a good day. The sakura trees were in full bloom throughout Tokyo. In the late afternoon overcasts brought a cold drizzle. The clear blue day became gray. Everything seemed fine and no one mentioned that today marked one month since March 11th. Then in the early evening as I was working at my desk an announcement came over the internal loud speakers. There was a klaxon alarm which coincided with a female announcer’s voice. The early warning system noted that an earthquake was to come in 45 seconds. Then 30, 20, and 10. Just as it reached 0 the floor started moving. My first thought was how impressed I was at the accuracy of the announcements. Like clockwork, the rumbling began. This quake was subtle with a gradual increase in movement. The building rocked like a cradle. It was only a magnitude 4 in Tokyo however it lasted several minutes. I got up, gathered my things then tapped a friend on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here…” Then we walked the 24 floors down the stairwell. Again the building creaked. It was an uneasy reminder. I don’t know if these numerous amounts of quakes and aftershocks are normal after a big quake or if seismically we’ve entered a whole new era in Japan.It’s just a lot more different now than in the past 10 years. Before we’d get maybe 1 or 2 noticeable quakes a month. Now there’s too many to keep track of. This contributes to more burdens and stress on the people in the disaster zone. Each time the earthquake alarms sound off, I’m sure thoughts of the worse return. These recent shakes prolong hardships, take away utilities, furthermore they are exhausting the relief workers. It’s hard to begin to recover when each time you pick up the pieces they get slapped back down. The humanitarian crisis now surpasses all the other that have been focused int the media. It’s been an uneasy month. I had planned to write about some of people I encountered during the aid distribution mission. But given today’s shadowy reminder, my writing was disrupted. I’ll pick up the pieces and write what I intended to write today tomorrow…
Linh Vien Thai is Amerasian, born in Dalat, South Vietnam, where he continued to lived during the war. He left for the U.S. and is now an American living in Tokyo. He enjoys adventure traveling and doing what’s right to make the world a better place.
