9th Anniversary of 3/11: Personal Reflection

I was not in Japan during the earthquake, but my whole perception of Japan changed after it happened. I was about to go to Japan a couple of weeks later for my spring break, but I never ended up going. Being so young, I didn't completely understand what was going on, but my idea of Japan as a perfect place where I could see my family and friends changed. As soon as I came downstairs to watch the disaster on the news and my parents started to get calls from friends asking if our family was okay, or my teachers at school asking me if my family got hurt, I knew that those in Japan were not living in the idea of Japan that I always thought of. After moving to Japan three years later, I tried to put myself in the shoes of those that lived through the earthquake. I've done this by taking advantage of all the Japanese history classes at my school that teach about the earthquake so I can truly understand the disaster that occurred and try my best to understand what it felt like to live through it.