Great East Japan Earthquake

Ten Years Since the Great East Japan Earthquake

Written by Yogi (Yogendra Puranik), PhD, on March 11, 2021

It has now been ten years since the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to all the victims, and my deepest sympathies to those whose lives were disrupted. What happened that day, and what followed in the days and weeks after, I will vividly remember until the end of my life.

The Day of the Earthquake

I was working in my bank office on the 5th floor of the Marunouchi Nichome Building near Tokyo Station when the earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on Friday, March 11, 2011. At first, the tremors were gentle, but soon the shaking grew stronger. Cabinets rattled, drawers slid, and the metallic clanging of furniture filled the air. It felt as though the building itself might collapse.

I quickly put on my helmet and ducked under the desk. Colleagues who had been calm moments before turned pale with fear. Outside, on the top of a neighboring high-rise under construction, a crane mounted on the 30th floor swung wildly. We prayed it would not fall.

The quake, with a magnitude of 9.0, was the largest in Japan’s recorded history and among the strongest in the world. Its force shifted the Earth’s axis by several centimeters and moved Japan’s main island by over two meters.

Family Worries and First News of the Tsunami

From under my desk, I called my nine-year-old son, who had just returned home from school. He was in the toilet when I called him. He said, “Everything around me is moving.” Not fully understanding what was happening, I told him to wear his helmet and hide under the dining table. He was home alone. The helplessness I felt as a father was unbearable.

Soon, overseas television stations began broadcasting live images of a massive tsunami sweeping into Miyagi Prefecture, waves more than 10 meters high, in some places over 40 meters, swallowing towns, vehicles, and farmland in seconds. This international footage arrived before domestic Japanese media could air it. The devastation was beyond imagination. Nearly 20,000 people were killed or went missing, and more than 470,000 were displaced.

Walking Back to Home and First Night of Fear

I could not immediately leave work. Banks, being the backbone of economic activity, were obligated to continue operations even during disasters (a regulation later amended in 2020). Finally, after 5 p.m., I explained my situation to my boss and left. With all train services suspended, I had no choice but to walk.

The roads were filled with cars and walkways with people. Traffic signals were out of order. Police could not be seen anywhere. The cars and pedestrians were all on their own. I wanted a hitchhike; however, no one would offer one. After 10 kilometers and three and a half hours of walking, I reached my home in Nishi Kasai and was reunited with my son. Until then, a kind elderly neighbor, Mitsui-san, had taken care of him.

At home, electricity and the gas supply had stopped. The entire housing complex was engrossed in fear. As one of the directors of the residents’ committee, I joined the other leaders. Overnight, we visited all 1,526 households, checked on their safety, helped move fallen furniture, and worked on restarting the gas supply. This continued until morning.

The Nuclear Crisis and Panic

On March 12, explosions rocked the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant. The government’s information was insufficient, and reliable updates in foreign languages were almost nonexistent. Both Japanese and foreigners were confused, while international media reports painted frightening scenarios. The foreign community in Japan, particularly young families, began to panic.

As a known volunteer in the Indian and international community, I started receiving dozens of calls from people desperate for trustworthy information. Along with another Indian, Madhav Shivpuri, I set up a volunteer call center in my Nishi Kasai home. Soon, others like Abhishek Sali, who were fluent in Japanese, joined us. We published our phone numbers, and within days, we were handling over 500 calls per day. Mothers cried on the phone, fearful of radiation and their babies’ futures. Calls also poured in from anxious parents in India, panicking even more than their children in Japan. I translated news and posted updates on mailing lists and social media. Madhav compiled these into a WordPress blog to streamline our work.

Coordination with the Indian Embassy

On March 16, 2011, key volunteers met Ambassador Alok Prasad and First Secretary Paramita Tripathi at the Embassy of India. The Ambassador clarified that the Government of India had not issued an evacuation order and advised against panic based on aggressive overseas media reports. Still, he acknowledged that individuals could make their own choices.

We discussed creating a communication network to reach Indians across Japan. A temporary group of 10–15 volunteers would collect updates from the embassy and disseminate them to community groups nationwide.

The embassy also arranged for larger Air India aircraft (upgraded from Boeing 777 to 747) to provide extra seats, prioritizing families with infants. Unfortunately, when this was shared with the community, many interpreted it as an evacuation order, causing further panic. The limited Air India staff in Japan were overwhelmed, so Tata Consultancy Services stepped in to assist.

The embassy set up a control room with helplines, but people complained these numbers were difficult to reach.

Community Relief Efforts

Soon, community members like Shrikant Shah and Atul Goyal organized a “Food for Life” campaign. We raised funds, purchased supplies, and cooked meals for survivors. A few cooks and women from the community would come together on Friday to cook the meals. I joined these efforts, personally visiting disaster-hit areas, focused around Watari-cho in Miyagi prefecture. We served them 2 meals during the weekend while some volunteers practiced yoga with the evacuees.

There, we realized that evacuation centers ran short of necessary items like beddings, tissue papers, soaps, and so on. I raised funds in my town to donate these kinds of things. I received a Thanksgiving letter from the mayor of Watari Town in Miyagi Prefecture for this effort.

The scenes of destruction were unforgettable: entire towns reduced to rubble, ships resting inland after being carried kilometers by the tsunami, and twisted tractors left abandoned. The scale of nature’s force was beyond comprehension.

While overseas media were filling the web with exaggerated news and information, NDTV sent their reporter, Nishant Chaturvedi, to Tokyo, who walked through the city and spoke with citizens to gather the right status of things. Here is my interview with Nishant https://youtu.be/i28aUexbn_E

The nasty mascots

While the Japanese maintained social hygiene and followed community norms, some nasty fake mascots in the community took this opportunity to gather fame. They spread news about their volunteer work without doing much on the ground. One Indian businessman in Nishi Kasai bought water bottles from the nearby mall in bulk and started selling those bottles at a premium of 30 yen. The same businessman later published the fake news of his great volunteer work in an overseas newspaper. His acts received bashing and bullying from the community.

Aftermath and Lessons

The reconstruction of the affected areas continues even today. But the earthquake left another impact on the Indian community in Japan: at the time, there was no unified communication network. Around 40% of Indians in my neighborhood left Japan after the quake. Some Indians left their work and Japan without even offering prior information to their employers.

Many Indian restaurants shut down within a few months of the earthquake as citizens reduced eating outside. The restaurant owners mentioned that they saw a kind of discrimination from the Japanese citizens as they chose Japanese restaurants over non-Japanese restaurants. A wave of patriotism could have risen in the minds of the Japanese people.

Not many Indians chose to come to Japan for the next 2 years. When Indians eventually returned in early 2014, it was a younger generation unfamiliar with Japanese culture, manners, and language. The community issues showed an increase in the number. We had to again go through a drive of conveying the necessary things to the new community members.

From this experience came the idea of establishing the All-Japan Association of Indians (AJAI). The goal was to create a single platform for sharing information and supporting Indians across the country. At first, internal disagreements delayed the progress, but later, with a younger and more compassionate team, AJAI was founded and has since steadily expanded its membership and nationwide network. Around 15 state-based associations came together to form AJAI. The representatives nominated by these associations formed the founding committee of AJAI. Soon, AJAI created a website www.ajai-indians.org as a single platform to disseminate information to Indians across Japan.

Conclusion

The Great East Japan Earthquake was more than a natural disaster; it was a turning point. It exposed vulnerabilities but also demonstrated the power of solidarity and community. For me, it reinforced the need to live responsibly, prepare for disasters, and most importantly, to stand together as one human family in times of crisis.

However, even today, the nations and communities are not prepared to face various natural disasters. Mankind has shown short-lived memory with respect to disaster preparedness. And even today, the amount of information available for foreigners living in Japan is limited.

Photo Album from my visits

Names of volunteers

Names of volunteers, as I could recall. I am sorry if I forgot any names. It is unintentional. Please feel free to contact me to add your name. Names are in alphabetical order of first name. Abhishek Sali, Akhilesh Srujan, Alok Srivastava, Amit Chaturvedi, Atchutarao K, Atul Goyal, Bhuvan Tewari, Hari Narayanan, Himanshu Jain, Jayant Kumar, Jishad Abubacker, Kaliprasad G, Kathirvel Murugan, Kundralan Vishwanathan, Madhav Shivpuri, Manoj Dewan, Manoj Bhagat, Megha Agarwal, Mohd Faiz, Narayanan Ravi Chandran, Naren Desai, Nitin Datar, Rahul Tiwari, Rakesh Somayya, Ravi, Rohan Agarwal, Samir Bodhe, Sanjiv Keswani, Thiagarajan Kurinchi, Vijay Gupta, Viswa Ghosh, Yogendra Puranik, Yogesh Sharma.

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