I know it's cliched to have an entry on one of the hottest topics around the world at the moment -- the Japan earthquake, but reading up on it has left me tear-filled. Well honestly my chords weren't tugged as hard yesterday, but as I woke up to the aftermath of it today, to see how Japan has been torn apart, and picturing how so many lives have been broken, it shattered me.
It all happened when my brother sent me an SMS saying that an earthquake had just struck north of Japan, and that he was unable to reach my sister-in-law, Connie, who had left for Tokyo on the 10th. Worried sick, he tried to call her again and again, and also contacted her colleagues here to see if they were able to get hold of any of their Japanese counterparts. I tried reassuring him that after a disaster of such scale, phone lines would usually be affected. Sure enough, about half an hour later, he SMS-ed me back to tell me that Connie was ok. THANK GOD.
As family and friends of mine follow up on this catastrophe, one that's labeled the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, it really isn't hard to imagine how scary and painful it is for any of the victims who is going through this first hand. We just have to magnify that imagination by like a million folds. I keep telling J that the thought of being caught under a rubble, without having any water, food nor company is simply depressing. Or how about those whose houses were uprooted by the Tsunami, leaving them with no home, and a majority of them with few or no family members left? The thought is just so painful, isn't it? Now with the explosion of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, it can only get tougher.
Connie is still stranded in Tokyo. The situation there is under control, but since flights are still cancelled, and the airports closed, she can only depart early Monday morning (hopefully with no further changes). This incident has left her a little shaken too, as it is her first time experiencing an earthquake, what's more it being one of the worst. But my dear sister is a toughie, all she's hoping for now is that she comes home soon, and that McDonald's reopens ASAP :)
I really pray that by the grace of our dear Lord, the sufferings of our Japanese friends will be minimized, and that through this, the world is able to see the light behind nations joining hands. So what if you have the world's most powerful firearms or nuclear plants? That may be able to win us mortal wars, but it certainly will not put us in God's mercy books.
God bless Japan.
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