Announcement on Reorganization of HARU

It has been 3 month since HARU was found by some volunteer students on 24^th of March, after the Great East Japan Earthquake. We have made a collective effort by doing anything we can to help, and accepted many requests. We have always groped what we can do, and what we ought to do.

It is said that 3 months lets it move on to the next reconstruction phase in many affected area. On this occasion we are discussing about our future activity and reorganizing the system. Under this circumstance, we are not capable of doing any advocacy work right now.

Though there are so many of works left that are needed in affected areas, we are going through an indispensible reorganization. It takes a while, but we are willing to turn over new leaf. So please wait until then.

“Ishinomaki Wonder Yokochou”

“Ishinomaki Wonder Yokochou” project is planned by a group of artists such as Ichiro Endo and some other artists, belonging to “Island Japan”, and several members of HARU took part in this activity.

Tachimachi Shopping Street in Ishinomaki was seriously affected by the Tsunami. Right after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the streets were covered with mud, so very few people were walking on them. The whole town looked “grey”. Even in this situation, we found an open flower shop. “Sakko-chan”, an artist of the Island Japan, who had stayed in the shopping street and had been engaged in the volunteer activity, was shaken by a picture hung in the shop. It all started from this episode, she then decided to start an activity of drawing pictures on the shutters of shops on the shopping street. She hopes that these pictures will cheer up shop owners so that they will be able to start their daily operation again.

Until now, we had drawn pictures on 3 shops’ shutters and name boards. Many artists gathered from all over the country, from Tokyo to Oita, and they even try to get the passers by or citizens to be involved in drawing pictures on shutters.

They also recruit volunteers for drawing pictures with them on an as-needed basis. No special skills are required. Let’s draw pictures together!!

In addition, near the shops with painted shutters at Ishinomaki Wonder Yokochou, an exhibition of art works of high school students is being held now. Name plates used for temporary housings, which are made by an art club students from Ishinomaki Nishi High School and Ishinomaki Koubunkan High School using wood scrap are on display. Since most of the students come from serious affected areas, they put special feelings in these name plates.

The shopping street and the exhibition site, was seriously affected by the Tsunami, so most of shops could not open again. Despite of such situation, the exhibition was held without charge as a favor of owner.

“Name plate exhibition for everyone”

Date: June 18^th ~26^th (11:00~18:00)

Place: “Boys Gallery” 2-6-25 Tachimachi, Ishinomaki City

After the exhibition, the name plates will be given to the temporary housing residents. During the exhibition period, also visitors can make their own name plates. Materials are ready. Everyone is welcome. We hope that many people visit the exhibition..

Contact information:

Chie Kajiwara

Ishinomaki Wonder Yokochou

08033243338

Received Letter of Appreciation from University Library

Hello, I’m Tatsurou Kuboki, a member of publication section.

I am pleased to inform you that University Library gave us a letter of appreciation for the volunteer activities of HARU.

From April to the beginning of June, HARU had been engaged in volunteer activities on recovery of University Library. The University Library has more than 4 million books and is one of the major libraries in Japan. However, due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, more than one million books fell off the shelves or were damaged.

In order to bring about recovery as soon as possible, HARU carried out an volunteer project. Consequently the library could reopen before the long vacation in May. At present, the library is operated on regular basis as before.

June 14^th, 2011 was the 100th anniversary of University Library. On this day, anniversary ceremony was taken place. At the start of the ceremony, Keiichi Noge, an Library Director, gave a speech in which he said that “Earthquake disaster occurred on this 100^th anniversary year, and we were suffered by the earthquake. However, thanks to student volunteer members, we could recover early. Now, let’s encourage ourselves for revitalization of this library together toward the next 100^th anniversary.”

After that, we were given a letter of appreciation from Library Director Noge.

The content of the letter of appreciation is as follows:

Certificate of Appreciation

To "HARU" -Reconstruction Team of TOHOKU University-

You contributed on recovery of the University Library, which was suffered seriously by the Great East Japan Earthquake, with a lot of volunteer members.

To admire your achievement and express our appreciation, on this day of the 100^th anniversary, I am very pleased to send you this letter of appreciation.

June 14, 2011

Tohoku University Library Director

Keiichi Noge

Volunteer activity of cleaning photographs – keep memories of affected areas–

        Now, HARU has been engaged in cleaning photographs damaged by seawater and mud in tsunami.  Japan Self-Defense Forces provides us with photographs and photo albums of which owners have not been found.  We wash the mud off of the photographs.  And we dry them, preserve, and finally return them to residents. The number of photographs is more than 120 thousands, so it will take a lot of time to complete this activity.  We would like to do what we can do now, and clean them one by one, quickly and carefully.

        I would like to introduce a procedure for cleaning photographs. Some photographs are so degraded   that ink is removed or almost removed. If we badly wash the mud off the photographs, ink may be also removed and they may get further injured.  However, if the mud were left unwashed, bacteria would grow and the photo would disappear.  Under these circumstances, we wash away the mud with our fingertips delicately and carefully.  After washing, we hang up the photos with clothespins and put them in the new album.  As to cleaning damaged albums, we clean the mud page by page.  Aside from our activities, photographers are working on making copies of damaged photographs.  How carefully we wash the photos, unless we can remove the bacteria completely, they will eventually fade. Therefore, we try to duplicate the washed photos to preserve them.

        A member of HARU who is in his 1^st year of economics major said, “I feel satisfied when a damaged photo which at first looked impossible to be restored finally got clean after the mud was washed away bit by bit. One day when I was leaving after the activity, a couple who came to pick up photographs found theirs and smiled happily.  This made me think it was worth it. ”

        Another member who is in his 3^rd year of materials major said, “Preserving records like photos for future reference is a very important task.  I also cleaned the back of the photos carefully when a date or some notes were written on its back. I hope I can be of help to keep those memories as far as I can.  When we were cleaning photos, a resident came and found out a photo of him.  The photo had happened to be his friend's. So he brought it to the friend.  This is an episode which made me decide to put in effort in order to return all photographs to their original owners.  We have to complete the cleaning work by Obon (around mid-August).  I will continue this activity.”

        Through the activity of cleaning photos, we would like to send memories to residents as much as possible, and we hope these activities will help reconstruction.  HARU will continue this activity.  We have been working at Yamamoto-chou until now.  Hereafter we will move to Katahira campus and continue the activity.  We will make efforts to return as many photos as we can to affected people in cooperation with many people..

University Library Continues to Recover

Hello, I’m Shihomi Meguro, a member of the publication department.

At Kawauchi campus where we’ve just welcomed new students, you can see beautiful seasonal scenery of young leaves and blue sky.

 

It’s been 2 weeks since the lectures restarted. With an aim of striking balance between study and volunteer activities, HARU members seek “what I can do” for recovery.

This week again, HARU members have made efforts on recovery work at university library.

On May 18^th, about 10 members of HARU worked at the main building of university library.  On 1^st and 2^nd floor, there are about 900,000 books including classical documents and large books.

Thanks to the hard work of the library staff, most of the scattered books on the floor were returned to the bookshelves.  The library stack room is now available.  On that day, we strapped the books to the bookshelves to prepare for the aftershock.

       

A student of the faculty of economics who participated in this activity had gone back to his hometown, Yonezawa City in Yamagata Prefecture, to take refuge for a while until the lectures were restarted.  In Yonezawa city, he worked as a volunteer to support affected people who escaped from affected area around Fukushima nuclear power plants. He returned to Sendai when the lectures were started, but he said “I cannot feel ease when I study.  So, I joined a volunteer activity here at the university to help someone else.”

A student in his 1^st year of master course of law and politics told me his motivation of joining HARU.  He said, “I was stimulated by a friend of mine, Kyoto University student, who had worked as a volunteer in Miyagi Prefecture.”

A student in his 1^st year of doctor course of engineering has moved from Niigata to Sendai this spring in order to go to the doctor course.  He told us what he felt when he decided to join this activity.  He said, “When I watched the TV news covering the earthquake disaster, my legs moved at the next moment.”

 

It was impressive that each member told his feeling word by word, without stopping his hands to band books.

Library staff expressed thanks to HARU members for their activities to recover the library.

Staff was concerned most about the effects on the rare books.

On 2^nd floor of the main building, there is a rare books stack room.  In the room, rare documents of the world written several hundred years ago, and the first published edition of Soseki Natume and his letters written in his own handwriting were strictly kept.

 

In this room, strict systems against earthquake disaster had been provided, for example earthquake-proof book racks. However, some books in this room fell out of safety bars and scattered over the floor.  This told how severe the 3 minute-earthquake of 3.11 was.

 

The rare books will be repaired by staff and professionals, but the cost will be significant.

A staff member of university library dropped his shoulders in disappointment and said, “When I think of the affected books, I cannot stop feeling like crying.”

HARU members will continue to help recover the library even after the next week.

Touching passion for recovery - Reception assignment at Yamamoto-chou volunteer center-

I’m a member of publication section of HARU. I have been engaged in volunteer activities at Yamamoto-chou in Miyagi Prefecture over 3 weeks. Today, I’d like to introduce reception assignment jobs at the volunteer center for people applying volunteer activities in Yamamoto-chou.

This volunteer center, set by Yamamoto-chou Social Welfare Council, serves as a base for the recovery support activities. It is located in a tent set in front of an administration building of the social welfare council. We accept individuals or groups of applicants for volunteer activities, and accept demands of affected people living in this town. We also work on distribution of lime hydrate and antiseptic to disinfect houses, etc.

Among the town residents who need relief support, there are many people who lost their families or relatives. I talked with a woman who had lost her husband and was left alone. She stood petrified with her eyes turned red and swollen as if after crying.

People who want to attend to their needs and take part in volunteer activities come to our reception at first, and are assigned tasks. Then they change into working clothes and prepare equipments. Before starting activities, they are given bibs with the town’s name “Yamamoto-chou” and arm badges. They always wear them while working. Big numbers are registered at the volunteer center so that the center could confirm the condition of every volunteer such as whether they are injured or not after the activities. Volunteers’ works are sorting relief supplies, cleaning individual houses, support farmland maintenance, and so on.

Only around Yamamoto-chou, people can listen to a local FM broadcast “Ringo (apple) Radio”. When we are on duty at the reception, we often hear the broadcast from a radio on the reception desk. In this radio broadcast, a host reads out names of missing people very often in a day and call for listeners “If you have any information, please give us”. On the coastal area, search for missing persons is continued. Such places are designated as Restricted Area, where no vehicle is permitted to enter.

When we stepped into a local government office, the first things we can see are the letters of “Information on Missing Persons”, “Death Registration”, Evacuee List”, and “Second Evacuation Place Notification”. When we face with such situations, we strongly feel that it isn’t a moment of recovery yet.

We meet a lot of people in various situations at the reception. , In communication with them, we sometime have mixed feelings. Because relief supplies from individuals need sorting tasks or sometimes may cause confusion in the affected area, they are not accepted. Yet, a certain volunteer said “Return my supplies! If you don’t appreciate them!” and brought back all the supplies he had brought. Actually, one’s benevolence is appreciated, but when one is engaged in volunteer activities, the benevolence might turn to be nuisance, if one does not think of the situation of affected area. We sometimes see arguments between affected people and volunteers.

Present situation of affected areas makes us feel mixed up. However, we could feel passion through a lot of applicants from every region in Japan who have ambition to recover Tohoku district. During a long vacation in May, the number of general volunteer was dramatically increased. The number of volunteers in Yamamoto-chou had been approximately 40 before the long vacation began; thereafter it rose to 160-200 at once. It was such a large number as to make the council staffs feel difficulty in adjusting assignments for volunteers. We saw volunteers from Ibaraki prefecture, Saitama prefecture in Kanto, in addition, Osaka prefecture, Hyogo prefecture, and Hiroshima prefecture in South Japan. Particularly we were surprised to know that one of them came from Israel, and felt very encouraged to know that there are many people in the world who think “I want to do something I can do”.

My hometown is in Shikoku Island. When I went to an individual broken house as a volunteer, I told this to an affected person. At that time, he said “You came from as far as Shikoku to Tohoku to enter a college, and now you came to help Yamamoto-chou. Just this fact encourages me. I believe Tohoku is going to recover.” I was encouraged by this word.

I think volunteer work is not just free physical labor. Through volunteer activities at the affected area, we could send messages like “We are here and looking at you carefully”, “We want to be with you” directly to affected people. These actions may make mental relationship.

Spread smile to Kesen-numa. Report on “Open air market.”

        This is S.A, a member of the broadcasting group of HARU. I joined a volunteer activity named “open air market”, which was done in Kesen-numa city (Miyagi prefecture) on 30th April. I will write about the activity. We distributed some clothes, which were sent from many universities around Japan. Kesen-numa is a place destroyed largely by tsunami, and people there can get these clothes free of charge in this activity.

        We left Sendai by 2t truck at 6:00 am with Dr Asanuma, a professor of environmental science. We went through Toubu highway and Sanriku road, via Rifu. The road had been affected by the earthquake too, and the car jolted badly.

        

        We opened the open air market at the corner of a parking lot of a convenience store. We spread a blue vinyl sheet and place clothes on it, like a flee market. We arrived there around 8:00 and started preparing, soon a few people started to come. Around 8:30, when we finished preparing, the market was crowded with many people. Not only adults, but also a lot of children came. It was especially impressing to see children choosing school supplies with their parents.

       

        I got some comments from people there. One lady said “I lost my job because the company was destroyed by tsunami. Now I am trying to find a new job while I raise three children. The market is really helpful for me.” I was happy because I could help her even a little and I was touched by her. She was working so hard and being positive to make her living. I asked her what she wanted besides clothes. She said, firstly she needed food and then mentioned about daily necessities and clothes for summer. Another man also talked about the shortage of food. Japanese government is discussing “the step of revival,” but still there is shortage of food and daily necessities. I felt that it was still a step of restoring, not yet revival.

        The man told us that it had been difficult for him to get information about this kind of activity. He really needed information in advance. Actually, the lady had heard about the market by word of mouth. Rumor seemed to be an important source of information there.

       

        In an hour, half of the clothes were distributed and in next one hour, almost everything was. The market was a great success. While I was doing the activity, many volunteers from around the country talked to me. I understood that many people really hope revival of Tohoku region, and it was very encouraging.

 

        “Thank you very much…Thank you…” There was an old lady thanked us many times. She escaped from tsunami without bringing anything. She told us, her house had been destroyed by tsunami and she was wearing clothes given by others. I thought that the market could be some help for the people like her. I felt the hardship of reality by talking with people in stricken area. They expect for support for restoring before the stage of revival. On the other hand, when I saw people smiling, fitting clothes to their body and checked how it looked, I felt very happy.