Three hundred people attended the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre at SOAS, University of London, on Sunday 11 November to discuss the latest earthquake and tsunami relief activities in the Tohoku region of Japan.

The event, entitled TSUNAMI, 611 Days Later - referring to the time that had passed since the Tohoku Earthquake struck on 11 March 2011 - was hosted by London-based volunteer groups TERP London and Sakura Front, and the Japan Research Centre at SOAS, with sponsorship from the Sasakawa Foundation.  The organisers hoped to stress the importance of not forgetting the Tohoku Earthquake’s victims and their changing needs. The Chair of the Japan Research Centre, Dr Stephen Dodd, reminded the audience in his opening note that “all barriers between people and cultures dissolve” in the “outpouring of compassion” that follows a major catastrophe.

The event began with a screening of the 2012 Academy Award-nominated documentary "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" by British film director Lucy Walker. Lucy had originally planned to visit Japan in spring 2011 to make a documentary about sakura. The events of 11 March 2011 left her facing a moral dilemma - to cancel the project altogether or make a very different film. (Editor - You can read more of Lucy's thoughts in an article from our March 2012 webmagazine.)

The documentary mixes interviews with survivors with juxtaposing scenes of spring blossoms and carnage in the Miyagi and Fukushima coastal areas.  It served as a powerful reminder of the destruction and many members of the audience were moved to tears by the interviewees’ candid reflections.

The director was unable to attend the event because of commitments to her new project, but sent the audience a message: “I am so happy that people are watching the film, because everyone in the Tohoku region keeps saying to me, and to everyone else who visits: 'Please, please, don't forget about us.'"

Governor of Miyagi Yoshihiro Murai speaks of the damage inflicted
on the prefecture by the tsunami. (Photograph by Saera Jin)

Mr Murai told the audience that, following a conversation with the Mayor of Kobe, he realised a return to the status quo would not be possible. Kobe was a major port prior to the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995; although all the facilities there had been restored within a decade, container ships never returned. The Governor of Miyagi, therefore, believes all rebuilding efforts should take the possibility of future changes into account.

Some of the changes the Governor intends to make require a complete restructuring of coastal communities, with residential areas and key infrastructure being moved to higher ground.  He expressed a strong interest in creating modern ‘smart cities’ relying on sustainable energy to encourage young people to stay in – or move to - the area, which suffers from a rapidly declining population. He finished his speech with a plea for international tourists to visit in order to show support and stimulate the local economy.