With the slow pace of rebuilding from the 2011 natural disasters causing some victims to worry about being forgotten, an American woman is working in Iwate Prefecture to ensure that a global audience will continue to remember them.
With the slow pace of rebuilding from the 2011 natural disasters causing some victims to worry about being forgotten, an American woman is working in Iwate Prefecture to ensure that a global audience will continue to remember them.
Amya Miller, who returned to Japan after 25 years following the Great East Japan Earthquake, has been volunteering as the global public relations director for Rikuzentakata, which was devastated by the tsunami, since last November.
Part of her efforts were evident on Jan. 24 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.
Futoshi Toba, the mayor of Rikuzentakata, spoke to about 50 journalists and foreign embassy officials about the rebuilding process in his city.
After expressing gratitude for the assistance provided by various nations, Toba also touched upon the slow pace of the rebuilding, brought about in part because of the bureaucratic tug of war conducted by Japan's central government ministries.
Miller urged the FCCJ to invite Toba to speak prior to the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011, earthquake so that a foreign audience would be reminded of the long way the Tohoku region still has to go for recovery.
The day after his FCCJ appearance, Toba went to the U.S. Embassy for a 30-minute meeting with Ambassador John Roos, who asked about some of the problems Rikuzentakata was encountering in its rebuilding process.
Miller was in Japan until 1985 because her parents worked here. She returned to Japan in March 2011 to work as an interpreter for volunteer organizations in parts of southern Iwate Prefecture that were hit by the earthquake and tsunami.
After obtaining the consent of her family who reside in the outskirts of Boston, Miller has continued with efforts to help the disaster-stricken area.
In Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, she served as a liaison between disaster victims and overseas volunteer groups.
For Rikuzentakata, she translated into English the city government's website as well as writings by Toba about the disaster as well as his Facebook postings.
Miller said the most important information is difficult to grasp unless one is at the actual location, and added that it is important to continue to transmit information about the disaster-stricken areas to a foreign audience.
Toba has left much of the work of informing those overseas about the situation in his city to Miller.
"She is just incredible because not only is she very friendly and fluent in Japanese, but she also has gained the trust of the U.S. Embassy," Toba said.
She has also spent a lot of time helping children in the three hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. She has visited temporary housing sites and day-care centers to play with children and hand out candy.
After the FCCJ session by Toba, six overseas media organizations decided to visit Rikuzentakata to gather their own stories.
Miller said by having foreign media continue with their reporting, it should encourage the central government to do more for the rebuilding process as well as prevent people from forgetting about the victims.