Eleventh of March 2011, I woke up self-contented and strong. I went to work ignoring the gloomy weather that day, told myself that the weather will change later in the afternoon. Then around two o'clock in the afternoon, I came across a tweet that changed everything.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 hit Japan, followed by a 10-metre height tsunami that struck the coastal areas. News about it flooded my twitterfeed, for a while I was confused what to follow and read. A few minutes passed, Phivolcs issued a tsunami warning in the east coast of the Philippines. I tweeted it. It got more than a hundred retweets in just a few seconds. Because of that, I progressively reduced my whole life into my work's twitter account and my own, at least for hours. I read so many updates from qualified journalists, news and government sites. About 54 countries have been issued Tsunami warning by the US meteorological department. I didn't imagine that earthquake would have that humongous impact for the whole Pacific basin. They said that quake was the biggest in the last 300 years. It's almost surreal that out of the blue hundreds of people were killed in Japan, that in a few minutes the world starts tumbling and nothing is like it used to be. And who would have expected the worst to come? A nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi following the quake. I shudder at the thought of a nuclear meltdown. Before we ended our day at work, we at Greenpeace posted a message on Twitter and Facebook extending our thoughts to the Japanese people. I went home late, hoping that the tsunami spillover won't be as disastrous for the rest of the islands fronting the Pacific and that Fukushima would be under control.
At 11 pm, tsunami alert was withdrawn in the Philippines and some other countries.
The next day, my father woke me up telling me that someone from Greenpeace International was on air interviewed via phone call by BBC News. It didn't say who it was, but said that the organization is deeply concerned about the situation unfolding at the Fukushima nuclear plant and that how dire it would be if it continues its abnormalities. Hmmm.. a monster earthquake, then a vast tsunami. Now a nuclear emergency. No dull moment since yesterday, huh. And that started my weekend. I sneaked inside my brother's room to get his laptop (I know he'll be pissed off once he reads this haha but I don't care now) and went online. Twitter. Facebook. Greenpeace. BBC. Reuters. Breaking News. CNN. Youtube. Kyodo. NHK. Guardian. NYT. Inquirer. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner with that deary laptop. Every news site updated every minute (okay, I'm exaggerating but that was how it seemed to me). Depressing photos and horrific videos were there at every click, at every site. Hashtags of japan, fukushima, earthquake, and tsunami remained trending. I ended my day with my twitter account online via mobile.
Sunday came. I went online again. Pops and I kept talking about the crisis in Japan, while he watched international news on TV, and I did my online thing. Some news said Fukushima is under control. Nobody was sure about that -- because the more they say they're in control, the more I think things might be really out control. My day wasn't so different from the last two days. I was thinking that night before I went to bed, I could use a wish, that the Japanese people would still be strong enough to rebuild their nation after all that has happened.
Another week started. Monday, March 14. Another rough day in Japan. I truly commend the heroism of the workers at Fukushima, fighting to avert a catastrophe, thus risking their health through exposure to radioactive elements at the plant. I feel so sad at the thought that their families are waiting for them at their homes, worried with nothing to do but wait and hope.
My thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people as they face this tragic chain of events. I hope the people who are greatly affected recover sooner and that they'd still have the courage to start anew. What happened was a hard lesson for us all, for the whole world. Everyone suddenly became Japanese. With the quake, the tsunami and the nuclear crisis in Japan, much has been made of Japanese resilience in the face of adversity.
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