Quake survivor back in Sendai

SEVENTEEN months ago, 29-year-old Chaw Li Ling (pictured), a Bruneian medical student in Japan, survived a terrifying ordeal she was trapped, stranded and isolated after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan's northeast coast in March 2011.

She described this experience in an exclusive account to The Brunei Times last year, describing the fear she felt as she was stranded in her apartment in the university city of Sendai. Li Ling was stuck with no electricity in the middle of winter, until officials from the Brunei embassy in Tokyo drove through the night to evacuate her from the fallout zone.

The most powerful earthquake to have hit Japan, it left a trail of destruction in its wake, scarring a country that has not seen such loss since the 1945 atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The earthquake triggered a powerful tsunami with waves reaching heights of 40 metres. Worst of all, the waves caused a number of nuclear accidents, including the Level 7 meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Luckily, Sendai, which is located half an hour from the coast, was spared the worst of the destruction and escaped the tsunami which engulfed nearby settlements.

The Japanese National Police Agency confirmed that 129,225 buildings collapsed completely, with a further 254,204 buildings "half collapsed", and another 691,766 buildings partially-damaged.

The astounding series of catastrophes left almost 16,000 dead, with thousands more injured and missing across 20 prefectures.

A mere month after disaster struck, Li Ling returned to Japan, unphased by the threat of radiation, and determined to complete the final year of her masters degree in medical science.

The Brunei Times talks to her more than a year after the incident, which has come to be known in Japan as "311".

Q:After quite a traumatic experience, many people would have been apprehensive about going back to Sendai. Yet you returned a mere month after the earthquake and have chosen to stay on for another four years to study for a PhD. Can you shed some light on the thoughts that led to this decision?

A: Firstly, I chose to return about a month after the earthquake because I was confident that the situation was under control at the time at least in Sendai. While back at home in Brunei, I kept myself up to date with the news in Japan and also kept contact with my professors and other staff in my research department. Both of these channels assured me that it was ok to return. At that time also, I was halfway towards finishing my masters degree. So I thought it's better to finish it. I've graduated this March and decided to continue to PhD with the same department.

The reasons for this were it was a better decision career-wise and the research directives of my current department are in line with what I'm interested in. I was able to get a scholarship extension for the whole PhD period. Since coming to Sendai in 2009, I really like the living environment her.

Q: How has everyday life changed in Sendai since the earthquake and tsunami?

A: The radioactivity issue was a major concern and we tried to avoid consuming foodstuff (meat, vegetables, rice, milk etc) produced from the Fukushima area. Most of my friends also avoided drinking/cooking with water straight from the tap and opted for bottled water (water from Japan is considered safe, though I always boil before drinking).

Another not-so-terrible thing is the tremors or earthquakes. There were definitely a lot of small and medium-sized earthquakes shaking the city after 311, especially last year. All of us, including myself, eventually got used to it. Other than that, life is almost normal here.

Q: What are the recovery efforts in your area and how have they impacted the residents' lives?

A:I am living in the central Sendai city area and the tsunami never reached here. So the main recovery efforts are on fixing the cracks in roads and buildings. Now, almost all of them are already fixed. Also the Sendai airport is already in normal operation and they started their international flights since late September last year.

The main recovery efforts are still focusing on the tsunami-affected areas, even though almost 16 months have passed. I managed to join one volunteer group activity for international students in one of the tsunami-affected cities called Ishinomaki. At the time, we helped remove debris from and even talked to some elderly residents. They talked about their experiences when the tsunami hit the area and showed a water mark that is almost the same found in all the nearby houses.

That mark is a height of about 130cm. Though a depressing story, I felt that the residents here were coping quite well and were positive on the recovery of the city. Another thing is that the residents were also really thankful that people from other countries also came to help them.

While there are people who can be optimistic, I think there must be others who couldn't. At my university, questionnaires about "How does the 311 disaster affect you" have been circulating pretty frequently (I have completed about five to six of them already).

4) Since the meltdown of the nuclear reactors in aftermath of the earthquake, there has been a lot of anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan, and many groups are now advocating an end to nuclear power in the country. Can you comment on this?

A: Yes, they has been a lot of anti-nuclear protests around Japan and last year, there was also one started by students in my university too. I haven't heard about these protests recently, so I presumed it died down a bit at least in the Sendai area.

I think it's a difficult decision for the Japanese lawmakers to make. Shutting down the reactors would be a safer and better option but then there will be problems of energy supply. Since last year, an order has been issued for big companies and institutions to save energy during summer (a period where a lot of energy is consumed due to air conditioning). This summer, the order has still been issued but not as strict as last year. Because of this, I think Japan really needs nuclear power to cope with the energy demand. Unless they can find another source, I think nuclear power will be here to stay for a few more years to come.The Brunei Times