Greenbelt Friend Wakabayashi Talks about Japan

“The nuclear power plant in Fukushima is under serious situation, as you know. I can not tell what will happen tomorrow [sic],”  reported Kana Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi and Yasuhiro Tanaka have visited Greenbelt several times to exchange information and hear ideas on preserving the history of Senri New Town, Japan’s first planned community.

Although she is worried about the threat posed by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant crisis, Wakabashi wrote, “I can not tell what will happen tomorrow, but I am safe today and I am with my loving family today [sic].” Tanaka, his family and Senri New Town are also safe for now, she reported.

“I heartly hope that situation does not get much worse [sic],” she continued, sharing that the Japanese living near the center of the earthquake “do not have enough foods or goods, especialy for babies." And she is concerned about the hardships of the cold on elderly refugees.

She said she and other Japanese sincerely appreciate the U.S. army’s Operation Tomodachi, which she wrote translated to Operation Friendship. In addition, the U.S. news coverage of their crisis as well as their reporting concern for the Japanese people “do cheer us up.”

While visiting Greenbelt, Wakabayashi and Tanaka met with Greenbelt Museum director Megan Searing Young and Greenbelt News Review editor Mary Lou Williamson as well as patrons of the New Deal Café and farmers market.

When I emailed Wakabayashi back to tell her that the Japanese were also in the thoughts of Greenbelters that I had talked with, she wrote that I could share her thoughts with Greenbelters and let them know that the American people’s concern has touched the Japanese.

“While I was doing interviews to Greenbelters, I was impressed by the words, ‘Community is life’, which is said by a man I met at New Deal Café,” she wrote.

Wakabayashi has witnessed this type of community as the Japanese reach out to help each other. She has been particularly touched by the unity among those who were devastated most in northern Japan, which she wrote “historically has strong community and people are so gentle in the area.”

“But I found this ‘community’ is not only for the people living nearby,” she wrote, “All people who are concerns about Japan are member of our ‘community’ [sic].”

Wakabayashi feels that the Japanese did not have the proper knowledge about nuclear power and its dangers, despite Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the crisis in Fukushima is making them reconsider the issue.

For now, Wakabayashi wrote “All I can do is to pray. But I want to tell you that Japanese people holds hands and walk together. I believe ‘We shall overcome’.”