誰かが言わなきゃならない

1. What puzzles me on Day 1

According to the Fukushima Minpo Newspaper morning issue, Tomioka-cho announced at 6:50 a.m. on the day of evacuation via its emergency broadcast, “Dear towners, do evacuate to Kawauchi-mura Village Office for a nuclear emergency. Take chartered coaches without haste.” Further, it reports that Futaba-cho had prepared large coaches and started to transport its people to Kawamata-cho from an earlier stage.
I myself was at that time of the day on my fact-finding journey for the impacts of tsunami by my car and looking down, with some other people, the coastal line from a height near the Tomioka Fishing Port. In the sight, Tomioka Station house of the JR Joban Line disappeared completely and the coastal side of the town was almost destroyed by the tsunami.
If we noticed the broadcast, we would have started evacuation in a group early in the morning. We did not. Locally, it might have been inaudible due to the equipment failure or something. People, who had evacuated to the primary school from previous night because of the earthquake, took the chartered coaches before doing anything else.
The national highway from Tomioka-cho to Kawauchi-mura was full of vehicles from the morning. The traffic on the 20km long road was inching along. Without notice, I was almost at its most rear point.

2. A tent bath

The Ground Self-Defense Force in Tokyo Nerima Station operates temporary free baths in a tent for us outside the Big Palette: one each for men and for women; kerosene heated; about 400 people per day between 2:30 to 9:00 p.m.; time slots for babies only, too. Inside the tent is lit by temporary lights,
cleaned every morning, Towels can be dried outside.
Ten officers for the operation stay in the Big Palette.The bath is in operation since March 17, two days after we arrived. No plans to end the operation. The women’s bath is watched by Lady Officers on duty.

3. No washing machines

There is a washing place near the back door of the Big Palette. With only two taps, many people wash their faces and brush teeth in the morning. In the daytime, it becomes a washing place. Young people go washing to coin laundries in the city by car. But the cost is not small in a frugal life for a big family (US$10 each time), a headache.
Aged people are managing at this washing place and dry their laundry on the Big Palette handrails. No washing machines for 2,000 people. A message said once
earlier, they would be installed. But still not, in one month since evacuation life started.
How come it takes so long? Who is taking care of such a thing? To s strong complaint, the town emergency center says simply, “That’s true, sorry.” No further development.

4. Families in line for a rent house on town budgets: A story of
my friend

He learned the instruction of evacuation at 9:00 in the morning of March 12. He learned it from a father of his boy’s schoolmate by his mobile, when his
family was staying at the town primary school for the quake on the previous day.
He rushed back to home, loaded mattresses and other items on his car and left for Hirono-cho, the next town in the south, with his family (his wife, a primary school boy, a junior high school daughter, and his step-father).
Noticing something awkward in the town, he drove further down to his parents’ home in Iwaki-city. Three days later, his family moved further south to his wife’s parent’s home in Saitama Prefecture. One week later, he decided to
join the Big Palette in Koriyama-city, where the biggest number of Tomioka-cho people was staying. The then Big Palette was so densely packed that nobody could
be accepted, unless the living space could be ensured by themselves.
He could manage to find a space just enough for five people. He applied for
a rent-house on the town budget for his children’s school, but no positive
response yet. Perhaps his two-kid family does not have the highest priority, he guesses. Higher priority goes to: a family with three or more children between 3 and 15 years old; a family with an elderly member of 75 years old and above; a family with a heavily handicapped member; or a family with a baby. His family may have to wait still some more time.
This system is operated by the prefectural government, but the process efficiency seems different from town to town. Fairly a good number of families of Okuma-cho moved to the assigned ryokan or hotels (up to three months), but only the first group of Tomioka-cho left the Big Palette, while in Kawauchi-mura the application has not started yet.
Not clear how the prefecture and the towns share their roles. Food supply distribution is the same. Town offices can do nothing without consent of the prefectural government. Isn’t it practical that individual families identify a property to rent and apply for the subsidiary? The subsidiary can be flat. Subsidiary for meals is the same.
Isn’t it practical to issue meal vouches (US$5values, for instance) and let
us choose which nearby restaurant to go? What the prefectural government
arranges is nothing but to distribute Omusubi or bread. Vegetable juice,
energy drink or packed meals are occasionally distributed, but never hot
meals. No due consideration to the mindset of the refugees themselves.

5. Parking lots

A warning poster was given on the board; “Be careful about car picking!” As many as 900 vehicles park now in the Big Palette parking lot, so crowded that the access aisles were narrowed to half, but not sufficient enough. Once
a car leaves, the next comes in immediately.
Most of them have the Iwaki license numbers.These cars are often used as pet houses, storages for personal belongings and sometimes as a dining place, if the owner does not want to take meals in the congested Big Palette hall. Some
people enjoy napping in their cars.