SAITAMA--With access to quake-hit areas in northeastern Japan still limited, volunteers and relief supplies are pouring in to a mammoth event hall here that has become a well-functioning community for evacuees.
SAITAMA--With access to quake-hit areas in northeastern Japan still limited, volunteers and relief supplies are pouring in to a mammoth event hall here that has become a well-functioning community for evacuees.
About 2,500 evacuees, most of them from Fukushima Prefecture, are staying at the Saitama Super Arena, close to JR Saitama-Shintoshin Station and surrounded by high-rise buildings.
On a Sunday or a holiday, more than 1,000 volunteers offered a hand in providing meals, classes for children, nursery care and music concerts, among other services.
Supplies of diapers and toilet paper arrived in such large quantities that they won't be used up before the shelter closes at the end of March, officials say.
On one morning, a group of 15 junior high school students from Fukushima Prefecture were taking a math class in the first-floor corridor.
Mayu Takahashi, 14, from the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, joined the classes Tuesday after arriving at the stadium a few days earlier.
"I felt a little relieved because I could prepare for the new school year," she said. "I will keep attending this class."
The teacher on that morning was Sonoko Okada, 24, a former junior high school teacher. "Children are listening in earnest. I'm being encouraged (rather than encouraging them)," she said.
Next to them were about 30 elementary school children studying with materials donated by a nearby school.
About 40 people, including former teachers, take turns giving classes or tutoring the children.
On the night of March 16, Saitama Prefecture decided to turn the facility into a shelter for those who lost their homes in the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11 as well as evacuees from areas near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
About 1,200 people from Futaba were relocated along with the town government to the Saitama Super Arena because of the nuclear crisis.
Fuko Ishii, 3, from Futaba, was playing with building blocks in a third-floor "nursery," with teachers and student volunteers watching over the children.
Because evacuees are spending most of their time in the corridors with no partitions, parents with small children try to keep them quiet so as not to disturb the others.
"Here, children can be loud. It will help get rid of stress," said Fuko's mother, Yukari.
Lawyer Toshihiko Watanabe, 40, himself an evacuee from Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, visited the arena to offer legal advice to evacuees.
Although their home was more than 30 kilometers from the nuclear plant, Watanabe and his family evacuated to the home of relatives in Tokyo.
He said he was wondering how he could help as a lawyer when he learned that legal experts were needed as volunteers.
Among the many legal problems they face, evacuees asked Watanabe what to do with their savings or unpaid housing loans.
Leaving his family behind in Tokyo, Watanabe on Thursday returned to Iwaki "to visit evacuation centers in Fukushima Prefecture to offer legal help to those hit by the earthquake."
The social welfare council in Saitama Prefecture, which opened a volunteer center on March 18, initially planned to manage the arena shelter with about 50 volunteers.
But many more came after the relocation of Futaba town was reported the next day.
Convenient access was one apparent reason behind the overwhelming support.
"Many of my neighborhood friends are taking part," said homemaker Etsuko Nomoto, who lives only 10 minutes away on foot.
Volunteers use Twitter and Facebook for quick exchanges on what is needed.
When someone tweets that "Underwear and tape are in short supply," another quickly writes, "At a drugstore now. Will deliver some in an hour." Still another responds, "I will buy some and come."
In no time, volunteers arrive with the supplies.
Tomohide Atsumi, a professor of volunteer activity studies at Osaka University's graduate school, says an urban shelter like the arena is a very "special" case.
"The evacuation center is at a location where city functions are maintained. Those living in surrounding areas can serve as volunteers while continuing their daily life," he said. "That's a special environment."
In stricken areas, volunteers still have difficulty reaching many of the shelters.
Atsumi, who leads the Nippon Volunteer Network Active in Disaster, offers advice to volunteers on the basis of his experience in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
"At the reconstruction stage, it is important to involve evacuees in activities they can handle so as not to turn them off in their attempt to return to their daily life," he said.
(This article was compiled from reports by Yoshitaka Unezawa, Noriko Kobayashi, Ayako Fujita and Yoshichika Yamanaka.)