Japan Tsunami: How Quickly We Forget

Nate Nam

​Typically when a loved one dies, it's the few weeks after the funeral -- when friends stop dropping by and relatives fly home -- when the real grieving begins. You could say that's sure to happen with Japan, a month after a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern part of the country.

As soon as the bleak images and depressing stories start to dissipate from the news cycle, people begin to forget.

That's why Nate Nam, a Millbrae resident, started his own blog -- insidesendai.blogspot.com -- with ongoing updates, stories, and new pictures from people in Japan to document their everyday lives. Nam, who lived in Sendai for two years when he taught English, says he is deeply worried about the country and the government's lack of response.

Nate with his class on Halloween in Sendai

​Just 20 miles from the coastline where the tsunami hit is the town of Sendai, where most of his friends and former colleagues live. He communicates with them daily via e-mail, extrapolating raw news and vignettes that would be otherwise overlooked by the media.

"Lucky for me, I have a different role in this," Nam told SF Weekly. "I am able to use social media to share personal stories about what is really going on so people can stay updated."

Nam says that he is adding fresh content to the blog every day, hoping to give people here a reason to continue donating to help the devastated country.

"Japanese people will tell you everything is okay, that they are fine," Nam says. "But that's because they are shy and they do not like to burden others. But their problems haven't disappeared -- it will be a long-term rebuilding process."

Nam says he frequently hears tales about how so many Japanese are still homeless; others have no hot water or access to emergency supplies. And the nuclear radiation leak that followed the earthquake has only compounded the crisis.

Nam tells SF Weekly about one of his friends, who lived on the coast of Japan where the tsunami hit. He was taking photos of his wife and children as they celebrated a holiday akin to Valentine's Day and ate cake. As he snapped photos of the happy family, the powerful earthquake shook their house to the core.

Then the tsunami hit.

But the father continued snapping photos, one after another, as the rising water rushed through town. He went up to the top of his building and shot more than 100 pictures of the tragic scene as it unfolded. "We have those photos," Nam tells SF Weekly. "People can now see the progression of the events."

So far, his blog gets roughly 150 hits per day, Nam says -- it isn't much, but it's enough to start spreading the word. "Often we get disconnected and hardened to the news, but people need to follow up on this."

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