Hiroshi Kunita, Part 1 Returning to nature

Hiroshi Kunita (center) lifts a stove, part of a truckload of relief supplies. (Photographed on March 18 in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture)

Hiroshi Kunita

Born in Saijo City in Ehime Prefecture in 1968. After graduating from Kyoto University, he was a reporter at the Asahi Shimbun for 10 years, working in Kyushu and Tokyo. His coverage of NGOs prompted him to join Peace Winds Japan in 2003. While assuming responsibility for planning the group窶冱 activities in Japan, he has been involved in relief efforts for the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004, a major earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, and the Northern Sumatra Earthquake in 2009. When Peace Winds Japan opened a branch office in the city of Onomichi in 2007, he was appointed director. He lives in Saijo City, Ehime Prefecture.

The NGO I work for, called Peace Winds Japan, provides support for war refugees and victims of natural disasters in a number of places in the world. In Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the difficult security conditions in these countries, we have been engaged in the reconstruction of areas damaged by conflict for more than a decade. More recently, we have become involved in support activities in response to earthquake damage in Turkey and the flooding in Thailand.

Our main effort for 2011, though, has been providing support for the victims of the major earthquake which hit eastern Japan on March 11.

On March 13, I left my post in the city of Onomichi and traveled to the earthquake-stricken area. I went there via Niigata to get gasoline and other necessities, and I arrived in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture at midnight on March 15. It was snowing there at the time.

The next day I headed a convoy of trucks carrying relief supplies and visited several evacuation centers in Kesennuma City and Rikuzentakada City in Iwate Prefecture. I helped deliver a lot of goods to the people staying at these sites, such as bread, fruit, blankets, flu masks, underwear, stoves, and kerosene. In March alone, the amount of supplies we delivered was equivalent to 30 loads on a 4-ton truck.

We also offered satellite phones for people to use in order to contact family members in evacuation centers. They had been unable to reach their loved ones with their cell phones, so our satellite phones enabled many of them to speak with family members for the first time and happily confirm that they were safe. When I heard them speaking into the phones with such joy, I couldn窶冲 help but tear up. Since then, we have continued to provide support to people who are now living in temporary housing and need daily necessities, to children, and to people who are trying to reopen their shops, restart their fishing operations, or resume their lives in other ways.

For every setting, the important thing is to accurately assess the need, although what is needed is always changing. When it comes to the victims of the earthquake, in the early stages there was an urgent need for food, clothing, and shelter. Now, however, the need involves helping them to rebuild their lives, an effort in which the victims themselves should play the central role. Although I often find the conditions around me distressing, I try to focus on what I can do, as a professional, and devise ways to provide support that will be truly helpful, neither too much support nor too little.

However, this time the accident at the nuclear plant has brought about a very difficult situation where we can窶冲 rely on past experience to guide us. The lives of the victims have been profoundly affected by the radiation that has leaked, invisibly, into the environment, as well as the policies pursued by the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the central government. Making decisions about the future is a daunting task for these people. I ask myself what I can do to address such a complex and unjust 窶徂uman disaster.窶・/p>

Compared to the response that occurred in the wake of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, 16 years ago, there is a larger presence of NGOs providing support for the disaster in eastern Japan. At the same time, I don窶冲 think we should be satisfied with the situation as it stands. We should always be seeking out ways to evolve in order to address new problems as they arise.