Social Work in a Glocalised World by Mona Livholts Lia Bryant

Author:Mona Livholts, Lia Bryant [Mona Livholts, Lia Bryant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138644991
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

8Loss and Grief in Global Social Work

Autoethnographic Explorations of the Case of the Tsunami Catastrophe in Northeastern Japan, March 11, 2011

Els-Marie Anbäcken

Prologue

On March 11, 2011 at 14:46, I am in a restaurant close to Tokyo Station, finishing a late lunch meeting with Sayaka, a friend who some years ago studied and worked in the care of older people in Sweden. I have been invited to lecture at the Lutheran college in Tokyo on existential issues in eldercare the following day, and as it is around 500 kilometers from where I live in the Kansai area of Japan, I arrive a day earlier. At the end of our lunch, at 14:46, we experience an unforgettable rustling sound together with a strong and strangely mild shaking. We realize instantly that these sounds and movements are an earthquake. I have lived around 25 years in Japan—I was born here of missionary parents in the 1950s, so I spent childhood years and later came back to work for a few years in Japan. Earthquakes were—and are—not uncommon in Japan, but this one never seems to end; six minutes’ duration with a magnitude of 9.0, and after a few minutes that feel eternal, we manage to leave the restaurant and walk down a few stairs to the street, and as we stand on the ground we feel the earth shaking beneath us. People are silent and there is no panicking. Some have gathered at specific meeting places with emergency rucksacks (obeying orders from their workplace). After some time has elapsed we enter a large building where television screens broadcast what has happened some hundreds and more kilometers northeast. What we see is unbelievable—water masses shuffling away cars as if they were toys, and people at a loss watching this right there and then while we watch at a distance in silence and unbelief—yet knowing it is really happening. Several afterquakes continue to shake the ground. We seek shelter for the night in a friendly restaurant that acts as a temporary shelter before I can return home the next day.

During the weeks that follow, daily television broadcasts show the disaster again and again. The terrifying news tells about the thousands of deaths but also about the radiation accident at the Fukushima plant. Mediated information repeatedly announces that the danger was limited, provoking anger and frustration among many people. Some politician appears in front of the television cameras eating farm products from the radioactivity-stricken areas, as if to normalize the situation and declare that “I am eating this so it is alright for anyone to eat”—which was not perceived by people as much of an assurance of safety. My neighboring city, Kobe, which was hit in 1995 by the Great Hanshin Earthquake, is alert with citizens often representing NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations): now it is our turn to offer help. The constant television broadcasting also shows examples of volunteer activities. Volunteers travel to the disaster sites. Social workers, teachers in social work, students, and civil society react with the attitude: if we can do something, we should.

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