The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (higashi nihon dai shinsai) that hit Japan on March 11 was the greatest natural disaster in Japan’s recorded history. At the time of this writing, the northeastern and eastern parts of Japan’s main island (Honshu) are still coping with its aftermath. Although initial recovery and reconstruction is already underway, it will probably take years for the most hard-hit areas to fully recover from the devastation caused by the earthquake and the tsunami that followed.
<p>Yuki Tatsumi addresses several important aspects of the JSDF's role in organizing relief efforts one week after 3/11. First, the level of mobilization of Japanese forces was the largest since World War II: 100,000 JSDF personnel were immediately mobilized, including 10,000 reserves. Secondly, the response operation was considered to be the most complex undertaken by the JSDF at the time, involving peer assets mobilized by U.S. forces, including the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Battle Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, and air assets. Also, the JSDF was planning to take a lead role dealing with the crippling of the reactors in Fukushima by helping with cooling treatments, radiation detection and decontamination efforts among the residents in the surrounding area. Finally, the Tatsumi notes that the role playing by the JSDF was demonstrating a degree of legitimacy and support of the JSDF among among the Japanese public which was in stark contrast to the anti-military sentiment experienced during the Great HashinA-waji Earthquake in 1995.</p>