Keeping Taylor Anderson’s Dream Alive and Well | Nippon.com

In the Great East Japan Earthquake we lost our daughter and our sister—Taylor Anderson, an American English teacher—as many others in Japan lost their loved ones. We lost her in a foreign land, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. Safe across the ocean, we were detached from the unbelievable destruction. The people of Tōhoku lost their whole world on March 11, 2011, and we lost only a part of ours. But it only takes a part to link us to Japan: one person who loved a distant land, who loved its people, who loved to teach its children, who loved its unique culture. To cope with our loss, we have sought to emulate the person we loved and to be the shadow of her passion. It was Taylor who taught us, through her study of Japan and its literature, that solving problems can best be done by connecting with others.