Birthplace:Indonesia
Please describe how the things were when the earthquake occurred.
I was attending a meeting at a laboratory in Aobayama campus of Tohoku University when the earthquake occurred. I hid myself under the desk according to the teacher’s instruction. , I was really scared as I had never experienced a strong earthquake till then. When shaking was over, all laboratory staff evacuated to the parking lot under the Research Center which was designated as the temporal refuge. Then, after a while, I walked back to my apartment.
I was at a loss with the earthquake mess in my room, when Japanese neighbors told me about a nearby elementary school which was a designated shelter around my apartment, so I went there. There were about four hundred people but I was the only foreigner there. It was cold without enough heating, so on the next day I moved to another shelter where my friends, students from Indonesia, were staying.
When I arrived at this shelter, the staff of Career Development Program for Foreign Students in Japan brought us foods. I stayed there for three days and went back to my apartment. By that time, the electricity had been restored, but gas had to wait until the middle of April. I managed to get foods somehow standing in line at a supermarket. However, I could not get enough because of the limited quantity.
The incompleteness of lifeline restoration and the insecurity for foods made me go to the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo by plane by way of Yamagata City, going by bus from Sendai City. And then I temporally returned to Indonesia for about two weeks.
How did your family at home country react?
I gave a call to my parents right after the earthquake and told I was alive and safe. I noticed that my father worried, but he did not say anything. My mother seriously worried.
The major nuclear accident in Japan had been grandly reported in Indonesia as we don’t have the nuclear plant there. I heard the report say, for example, the radioactivity dispersed to the United States after the accident and had been producing the bad effects on the health. It also said it would come to Indonesia.
Hearing such news, I explained my parents that the situation was not as serious as the news reported in Indonesia. I gathered some definite data on The Great East Japan Earthquake and other information, and made them understand.
Though I temporally returned to Indonesia to relieve my parents, one day my father advised that I should do what I believed right and something helpful for people who were in trouble while it was my choice to come back to Indonesia. Then I did realize that I would like to be an aid for people in the stricken area and also to finish writing my master’s degree thesis and work hard for job hunting. So I decided to go back to Sendai City and I did.
How is your current life since you came back from Indonesia?
When I came back to Japan on April 4, the university had not started yet. So I began job hunting while worked as a volunteer at the stricken area.
Lifelines, electricity, water and communication services, had already restored by the time I returned to Japan. Supermarkets and convenience stores had been open for business like before, which made me live my life with no particular problems. Though gas was not restored until the middle of April, I had been able to take shower at the fitness gym and at some other places, so I was not embarrassed much.
What kinds of volunteers did you do?
I participated with other members of Indonesia Student Association in Japan in the soup-run at the shelter at Ayukawa in Ishinomaki City, which is located fifty kilometers north of Sendai City. There I cook nasi goreng and served dishes to people there.
Many quake victims were old at the shelter I visited. I felt sad thinking about their lives hereafter. However, it made me happy to talk with them and see their face with pleasure when eating foods I served.
Please describe what you think about the recovery and reconstruction from this natural disaster.
I was amazed by the quick actions after this quake, from the disaster to the restoration. I found many other admirable points such as rebuilding of the highway within a week, the Shinkansen within about a month, and the Sendai station and the surrounding area soon. Also as I am studying on IT at the university, I was amazed at the maintenance of device of disaster prevention system, such as earthquake perception system which immediately stops trains automatically perceiving the earthquake, and also amazed at the technology which worked this time and made it possible to prevent the secondary disaster.
One reason I came to Japan to study was to find employment which supports Japan. I realize the job hunting is hard for the international students, but I am wishing to work at the Japanese company with my best. Moreover, I am wishing that I will be an aid to the revival of Japan.
