Filipina Women are Determined to Stay in Japanese Tsunami Zone and Rebuild
More than 100 Filipina Women Survived the Recent Tsunami in Japan and are Determined to Stay
Photo Credit: John Orsbun/ShutterStock
Text Size:
August 22, 2011On the Sanriku Coast, more than 100 Filipina survivors of the recent Japanese tsunami band together to survive the rebuilding process.
Two-thirds of these women have lost their homes in the March 11 tsunami, and four individuals died in the catastrophe.
Prior to the tsunami, these Filipinas were members of a support group, offering each other assistance in adapting to their adopted country.
Amelia Sasaki, the group’s leader, has lived in Japan for 31 years and has been a resident of Minamisanriku, about 370km northeast of Tokyo, for 26 years.
Sasaki has never lost hope, despite the setbacks. She reveals a strong work ethic in her interview with UCANews: “As long as we’re alive, we’ll manage somehow. I was always able to tell myself that even if we had to start from less than nothing, it would be OK.”
Sasaki has put all her family’s remaining resources into purchasing a prefabricated hut where she will reopen her English classroom. The thought of leaving Minamsanriku for Tokyo or other, safer cities, never crossed Sasaki’s mind.
“For me personally, it took three or four years for the locals here to really accept me. Now there’s no one around here who doesn’t know me, and everyone is (just like) my family. Even if I went somewhere else, I’d have to start from zero. So if I have to begin from scratch either way, I decided I would rather do what I can for everyone here,” she said. “Right now, it feels like I’m starting my life over again, like it’s a second life.”
Normelita Chiba, another member of Sasaki’s group living in Minamisanriku, works on rebuilding her life with her husband in the hospital on kidney dialysis. Chiba’s husband also lost his livelihood, a hotel, in the tsunami.
“My husband has kidney problems and needs kidney dialysis, but the hospital here was washed away,” said Chiba. “I didn’t know what to do, so I called Amelia and got some information. Every day was terrible, with nothing but stress and worry. But with my husband in the hospital, I just have to do my best.”
Sasaki and her group are focused on helping each other survive and rebuild.
“It takes too much time to wait for the government. Right now, there’s nothing to do but what we can do ourselves.”
