14,000 still missing, 151,000 in shelters in Japan

From Kyodo News:

Over 14,000 people remain missing and there are few signs of the crisis at a crippled nuclear power plant ending soon as Japan on Monday marked one month since a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern and eastern regions.

About 151,000 survivors are staying in 2,300 shelters following the country’s worst ever natural disaster, but work to build temporary housing has made little progress amid massive amounts of rubble, including boats left on the rooftops of destroyed buildings.

The world is facing the consequences of an exceptional catastrophe. The apocalyptic dimensions of natural events and the consequences of the nuclear accident in Japan are reminiscent of the biblical description of flood, destruction and the will to survive.

Exceptional situations bring about exceptional ideas:

Under the direction of DELTUR Art and Music Agency in Germany and AMOCANTI Inc. in the U.S. within one week, an international music project was conceived, developed and implemented.  The ingredients for this are quite spectacular: 

Daniel Leo Simpson, one of the great composers of our time made his 2009 composition AVE MARIA available. The Israeli pianist Igor Naimark, one of the great maestros of the classical music scene intoned the piano in a studio in Jerusalem. Jeanette Stenson, principal cellist in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall or with the Minnesota Orchestra, made her way, together with a master of the concert flute, Brandon Patrick George, soloist of the famous Oberlin Chamber Orchestra into a studio in New York.  And finally tenor DavidMichael Schuster, former tenor soloist with the Bavarian Staatsopera and the Radio Televisione Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, equally at home in major concert halls in the U.S. and Europe, or on Broadway came to the microphone and gives his inimitable voice to the AVE MARIA in a sonorous bravura performance.

However, to bring all of these elements together in one single recording, took the work of recording engineer master Sean Swinney of Swinney Studios on 54th Street in New York who presents us with a memorable, almost inappropriately harmonic anthem, underscoring the will to survive through days of bewilderment, the helplessness and the realization that the world today is barely larger than the distance between the artists of this AVE MARIA.

AVE MARIA will be available in stores beginning Monday 11 April 2011 and on iTunes and Amazon mp3.com.  Each download purchased at a price of 0.99 € on iTunes will result in .49 cents given directly to SUPPORT JAPAN, who, in cooperation with the German Red Cross (Berlin) and the Association of Aviation without Borders (Frankfurt / Main), will provide direct aid to the Japanese disaster areas. 

For background information, press inquiries and interviews with the project participants, DELTUR Art and Music Agency is available to assist.

Kesennuma: Swallowed by the sea

Absolutely horrifying footage of the port town of Kesennuma being completely swallowed by the tsunami in minutes.  From The Atlantic:

All along the northeast coast, town after town was struck first by the earthquake and then by the tsunami, but [in Kesennuma] there was a third element. 

Having been first shaken and then inundated by water, Kesennuma was finally burnt, in a fire kindled by the first two disasters. Large tuna fishing ships in the harbour smashed into one another and caught alight. They were carried by successive waves into neighbourhoods that burnt tot he ground after the waters had withdrawn. As the tsunamis rose and then receded, those who survived witness an unprecedented sight: the sea overwhelming the land, not only with water, but with fire. 

Kesennuma and other towns and villages affected by the earthquake and tsunami still need your help. Click here to learn more about what you can do.

Horrifying Tally

I just received an email update that the death toll in Japan has reached over 10,000 people, with another 17,443 still missing.  

May the people of Japan get through this.  May we all do what we can to contribute.  And may we not let our attention span pass on to other crises and simply forget the damage done here, and the need to rebuild and bolster Japan, for quite some time to come. 

I pray for Japan From Germany.

I pray for Japan From Germany.
I hope all your loved ones are ok and are safe and peopel still missing will be found soon and safe never give up Japan thers still hope never give up and all the people that perished will be remember and never forgotten I send all my love from the depths of my heart for Japan
I pray for Japan …that things change and things get better and not worse love you all stay strong.

Best Regards from Germany

Marcel Schöne - Dentsu Düsseldorf

How to use Voices from Japan (re-post)

This site was created to connect the rest of the world to what the people of Japan are seeing, hearing, and feeling in the wake of the March 11 disaster, and to offer all of us tangible, immediate ways to help. 

Click the “SHARE YOUR VOICE” link above if you:

- Have a story to share

- Have a photo (or video footage) from on the ground in Japan

- Want to offer up encouraging words of support for the people of Japan

How you can help:

- Text “REDCROSS” to 90999 from your mobile phone to automatically donate $10 to the Red Cross relief efforts in Japan

- Visit the Red Cross Website

- If you are a Japanese speaker, please help by translating Japanese responses as they come in

- Share Voices from Japan on the web and on Twitter (you can follow us at @VoicesFromJP; hashtag #VoicesFromJP)

- Offering the people of Japan encouraging words, thoughts, and prayers

Thank you for your support, thoughts, and prayers. We hoppe this helps the world understand what the people of Japan are going through at this time, and that through connection and contributions, we can ease their suffering in some way.

My thoughts and my deepest sympathy are with all the Japanese people. I hope you can unleash all your internal force and positive energy that will help you to succeed in overcoming this tragedy. Annie Hanke, Dentsu Düsseldorf

My heart goes out to you.

Dear Dentsu friends and family,

I wake up thinking of your country and praying that you hold on tightly to hope during this very dark time. I know the rest of the world is doing the same.

Stay strong.

Candice from San Francisco, CA

Heroes: Teacher Saves 42 Students from Tsunami

The 27-year-old British national has lived in Ofunato for four years with his wife, Mai. In a twist of fate that may have saved his life, Bailey wasn’t scheduled to be at school last Friday, but went in anyway on his day off to teach a fun cricket lesson. He told Sky News that when the earthquake struck, he and his students “first heard a weird cracking noise, then came the violent shaking.”

When the tsunami warning sirens sounded, the quick-thinking teacher knew he only had eight minutes to act. Thankfully, he hustled and was able to guide his class to safety on top of a nearby hill. He says he was “terrified” but could only think about keeping the kids safe.

Once at the top of the hill, Bailey says the students cried and huddled together, waiting for the massive wave to approach. “We didn’t know whether we were safe. All we could do was to watch it come towards us and pray we were high enough above it to be okay,” he said. As you can see from the photo above, the village is completely devastated and Bailey and his students are lucky to be alive.

(read the full story at GOOD)