Waves of Concern

My mom with her older sister on the beach near where the tsunami hit. Mom is on the right.

Mom with both sisters in Matsushima. Mom is the one with the stylish 70's 'do.

I thought this would be a good way to let you know a little about what is going on with my family in Japan.

As most of you know, my mom is from Japan, arriving in Texas as a new mom on Christmas Day, 1959. She and my dad have always lived within 15 miles of the first place they lived here and have been in the same house for about 49 years. She speaks Japanese with a Texas accent. She is the person from whom Megan and I get our "spunk".

The rest of her family are all in Japan. Some in Tokyo, some near Sendai. Her family in Tokyo are cousins with whom she lived for the first 5 years of her life. Her mom died within a couple of months of her birth from TB and her father sent her and her older sister to live with his sister and her family in Tokyo. Her father remarried twice. The first time, his bride and new baby died. The second time to the woman I knew as my grandmother and who brought back 2 girls from Tokyo to raise as her daughters. She also had 3 other children, 2 sons and a daughter. This also incredibly spunky woman died last month at the age of 95.

Mom's older sister, Kieko, lives in Shiogama, 10 miles north of Sendai and less than 60 miles from the nuclear reactor that is exploding. Her younger sister, Reiko, lives in Matsushima, 6 miles farther north. Both are on the coast.

This is the enlargement of the small black box above.

My mom talked to her sister Thursday night, my mom's birthday. She had heard there had been some earthquakes and tsunami warnings but my aunt said that there was nothing to it (they are pretty used to those things). Friday morning was a different story. Despite repeated attempts, we couldn't contact anyone until about 3:30 in that afternoon. She was finally able to get my cousin (who lives with his mother, as every unmarried Japanese man should). They both talked to mom and told her they were all ok. She said the earthquake was so strong that she couldn't even walk, she had to crawl around the house. There was some structural damage and the windows were broken, but no tsunami. As a matter of fact, because she had no electricity, she didn't even know about the tsunami. My mom had more information about it by watching the Japanese network than my aunt and cousin did. Later she was able to talk to some friends who lived closer to Sendai. They were able to evacuate and were safe, but their business was under water. She was also able to contact the "Tokyo Cousins" and they were fine, too.

Mom has not been able to contact any family again since Friday afternoon. No news at all from her younger sister in Matsushima and the rest of that family (husband, children, grandchildren). We know that the city is flooded. My mom is convinced that she is "up in the mountains" with her in-laws. I hope so, since one of the many rescues I watched was of a man floating 9 miles in the ocean on the roof of his house and he was from Matsushima. I heard that google had a database of names at evacuation sites. I was so excited to have something productive to do, something to help my mom ease her mind. When I pulled up the images of the names, they were, of course, written in Japanese. I felt so defeated. I guess I didn't think that one through, did I? My mom looked thru hundreds of photos, trying to identify the cities where the photos were taken. She found several surrounding cities, but none of Matsushima.

So now we wait. When the earthquake happened in Haiti, even though I recognized the tragedy, it wasn't too difficult to go on with my life. I didn't identify with the people. This is different for me. The faces I see are my mom's and aunts', uncles' and cousins'. The language I hear behind the dubbing is the background music of my childhood, my mom and her friends gossiping and discussing life. The places I see on the news are places I've been with my family. I can't do anything but watch and pray. It's snowing there tonight and my aunt and cousin are in a house with broken windows and inconsistent electricity. Her family, aside from her son, is unaccounted for. My heart is breaking for her, for my mom and for the whole country.

I can see God's hand, though. My sweet 80 year old aunt, recently widowed, was completely spared. Her small traditional Japanese house damaged by the earthquake, but still standing and dry. She was saved from the panic and knowledge of the tsunami because there was no electricity. The fact that my mom was able to speak to her the day of the earthquake is also a blessing. My mom sent her Christmas gift late this year, not getting it out until January. In that care package of goodies were my aunt's favorite treats, a taste developed while working at the Army base in the 50's...Spam and Vienna sausages. I feel sure my frugal, pack rat aunt squirreled away these goodies, too precious to eat all at once. What a blessing now when they don't know where they will get their food. Hopefully there will be more blessings to come.

Japanese women aren't normally regarded as tough. I know for a fact that they are. My mom and her sister made it despite losing their mother at a young age and then leaving the only "mother" they knew to join a dad they hadn't seen very often and his new wife. They made it through World War II when food was hard to find, watching neighbors suffer from malnutrition. Fire bombs fell and when the sirens blew, they evacuated to icy caves. They walked to farms, trading candles for vegetables. My aunt cared for a husband for years after he sustained a brain injury in an accident. My mom came to a country, with a new baby and not much else. They are tough, I just wish they didn't have to be now.