誰かが言わなきゃならない

1. Information sources

Major information sources of the refugees in the Big Palette are posters, TVs and free copies of newspapers. A couple of TV sets stand on each floor, showing mostly the NHK programs. Series of morning dramas or evening history dramas are very popular. No announcements are made by the town office, although all the functions and staff members have moved here, too.
Back in town, monthly leaflets with town news or town council briefing were distributed regularly by area-wise group leaders. But nothing like that is
working here. Autonomy group activities in small areas are paralyzed. Bilateral
communications between the town officers and the people are totally dead here. This abnormal situation is continuing from the very beginning of evacuation.
People collect necessary information by themselves: from friends, from the staff at the temporary town office in the Big Palette. No means exists to absorb the opinions of refugees (villagers). Back in town, everything started from the bottom: from women’s groups, from the youth groups, from the junior groups, etc., but no more.
People use mobile phones or free telephone services and collect information of interest. How the people of next town Okuma-cho are doing in evacuation, for instance, is fairly well known among our villagers.

2. Taxes

Little information reaches us from the tax office, much less than that from the prefectural disaster headquarters, insurance companies or post offices. Having a concern about the follow-up of the annual tax return process, which I
submitted at the end of February, I contacted the tax office. I was told that the relevant information is given on the TV or in the newspapers. But they are not easily noticeable.
Under this disaster, the tax agency postponed the deadline of the tax return processes. The new deadline is “Two months after returning to respective homes.” The tax return or withdrawal will follow later. The answer to my inquiry of whether evacuees of the earthquakes or nuclear accidents can be awarded with tax reduction was “Probably yes.” The national revenue may
be dropped significantly, in view of tax exemption to donations, fixed asset tax exemption as reported, tax reduction to refugees and depressed economic activities.

3. Afterquakes

Yesterday midnight (at 23:32 on April 7) an afterquake of Magnitude 7+ off Miyagi hit us (Koriyama was shaken, too, in Richter scale 6+). It refreshed our fears, especially so because afterquakes were decreasing these days and it occurred at midnight. The Big Palette is a modern building and we believe in its strength against earthquakes, but still the big sounds of steel beams or aluminum frames banging each other are scaring.
Sudden and concurrent movements of everybody in the hall at midnight seem to easily cause a panic among us.Most scaring afterquakes were those of a couple of days after the main quake on March 11,when we temporarily stayed in Kawauchi-mura. They were more scaring than the radiation from the accidents, as they came one after another. We got gradually accustomed to quakes.
Quakes in Richter scale 3 or so did not frighten us much any longer. On the other hand, we may have become nervous: even vibrations due to running big vehicles could be easily misinterpreted as quakes.
When the TV reports Hama-dori (where is my house) was shaken in Richter scale 5+, a concern is raised: my house might have been damaged by big afterquakes, despite it stood the main quake of March 11. Frustrating is that no accessibility in the evacuation zones causes such unnecessary concerns. Furthermore, afterquakes are taking place nationwide: Ibaraki,Chiba, Aomori and the Japan Sea side. Where can we be safe and free from earthquake fears?

4. Hierarchical relation: power relationship from top to bottom

In evacuation life, the power relationship from top to bottom (from the government to the
prefecture, towns and citizens) seems to become saliently visible. This relationship established in normal lives is well kept in evacuation life, too.
Often we visit the town emergency headquarters for all kinds of consultation. We bring up with our opinions, requests, proposals, everything. But the staff members there are also our town fellows. As we know each other, we tend to hesitate saying too strongly.
As we know their mindset is similar to ours, we well understand their difficult
position. They often say, “We are requesting the prefecture to do so,but ….” When we directly call the prefecture, the person on the other side of the line simply says, “We are requesting the government to do so, but ….” We want to protest in mind from our standpoint, “It is your role to protect us citizns.
Why can’t you request the prefecture or the government more strongly? We are not to blame for this life with hardships. It is our right to request, isn’t
it? Why the town acts so weak?”Actually none of us can dare to say this strong. The prefecture depends on money from the government, the towns depend on money from the prefecture, and we depend on the towns.
Everybody is accustomed to this power relationship, and this constitution is maintained in evacuation life, too. Dissatisfactions tend to be repressed. Few people can be too demanding. Town staff is not too demanding, either. Rather they seem trying to appease us:
“I can understand how you feel. But we can’t do anything more. Sorry.”