SHIRAKAWA, Fukushima Prefecture--When she felt the earth shake, Gemma Juanay was chatting in her not-so-perfect Japanese with residents at the Komineen home for the elderly.
SHIRAKAWA, Fukushima Prefecture--When she felt the earth shake, Gemma Juanay was chatting in her not-so-perfect Japanese with residents at the Komineen home for the elderly.
The building groaned and creaked and Juanay, a 45-year-old Filipino woman undergoing on the job training to become a certified caregiver, nearly froze with terror.
It was an event outside her experience; the shaking seemed endless.
But Juanay rushed to a window to secure an exit if it became necessary to evacuate her charges from the building.
"I was really scared," she said. "But I knew I had to be fast on my feet to look after the residents."
The intensity of the quake in the city registered upper 6 on the Japanese scale of seven.
When the shaking stopped, she gave a jacket and a blanket to all 80 residents at the home, asking, "Are you OK? Aren't you cold?"
It has been a year and half since she came to Japan.
Back in her home town on Luzon island, her husband and two sons--13 and 16--were concerned about her after they learned of the devastation the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami wreaked northeastern Japan.
Her sons want her to return to the Philippines, but Juanay told them she can't.
"How can I leave these people who are relying on me?" she said.
Fanai is not the only Filipina who chose to stay on at the home despite the natural disaster and the aftershocks, coupled with the ongoing crisis at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Sandra Otacan, 35, said she had no idea the nuclear plant was situated in the same prefecture.
Shirakawa sits well beyond a 30-kilometer radius from the plant, the zone the central government asked people to evacuate or stay indoors due to potential radiation exposure.
Still her family in Mindanao island said repeatedly that Japan is dangerous when they talked to her on the telephone.
Otacan said she tried to reassure them, saying readings of radiation levels are low.
She has worked hard to acquire Japanese conversation skills through interaction with residents and employees of the home.
"Our colleagues and the residents are all nice to us," she said. "I don't want to give up my dream of becoming a certified caregiver."
Three weeks after the earthquake, Mercedes Aquino, also from Luzon, helped one resident eat lunch.
"I should not leave Japan for safety alone after it was struck by a great disaster," Aquino, 27, said.
She arrived in Fukushima Prefecture in November after leaving her husband and 6-year-old son.
She said her family's message that they pray for her provides emotional support.
Four Filipino women work for the home.
After their apartment was damaged in the quake, three of the four moved into a vacant room in the home.
Yoshio Sugiyama, who heads the general affairs division of the home, said he is grateful to the women for staying on.
"I was preparing for the eventuality that they would immediately return to their country," Sugiyama said. "But none of them said they would go home. They are dedicated, careful and kind. I take my hat off to their approach to their work."
Yukie Noda, an 88-year-old resident, also expressed appreciation for the women's devotion. "They must be feeling anxious, being away from their family," she said. "They are really kind and do their job with passion. I have great respect for them."