政府無策の六日間:東日本大震災

| コメント(0) | トラックバック(0)

110323.refugee3-nyt.jpg

3月11日の地震発生以来一週間近くがたった。この間福島原発の大事故が重なり、政府はそちらの対応に追われて、肝心の被災者の救援活動が滞っているのではないかとの憶測と、怒りの声が聞かれるようになった。「政府無策の六日間」と題する読売の記事は、そうした声を代弁するものだ。以下、記録の意味で引用しておきたい。

 「東日本巨大地震の被災地に十分な食料や生活用品が届いていないことについて、政府の取り組みの不十分さを指摘する声が出ている。

 「菅首相らは東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故への対応に忙殺され、十分な手だてがとれていないのが実情だ。

 「16日に開かれた政府の緊急災害対策本部で、首相は「食べ物、水、燃料に関して各地から不足の声が上がっている。全力を挙げてその原因を取り除く努力をしてもらっているが、一層の努力をお願いしたい」と述べた。首相は12日の国民へのメッセージで、「避難所に食事、水、毛布、暖房具を送り届ける態勢を進めている」としていた。しかし、実際には発生から6日目の16日になっても、物流が滞ったままであることを認めざるを得なかった形だ。

 「被災者対策の司令塔である同本部は11日の発足以来、計11回の会合を開いた。しかし、会合後の枝野官房長官の記者会見で、物流正常化に向けた具体策が発表されたことはない。

 「枝野氏はそのほかにも何度も記者会見に臨んでいるが、大半は原発事故の現状と政府の対応の説明に終始しているのが現状だ。与党内でも「首相も枝野氏も原発の事故に集中し過ぎて、被災者支援が手薄になっている」(民主党中堅議員)という声が出ている。

 「今回の巨大地震で鉄道がストップし、港湾施設も被害を受けたが、緊急輸送道路となる東北自動車道などは利用可能だ。各地のトラック協会などが物資輸送に協力すると申し出ても、政府が被災地から帰るための燃料の確保に策を講じようとしないため、断念するケースもあるという。「優先的に燃料を補給する措置を取ることなどで、輸送を増やす手だてはまだある。物資が足りていないわけではない」という指摘もあり、政府の対応が問われる状況となっている。(2011年3月17日03時07分 読売新聞)」

緊急避難している地震の被災者は43万人にのぼる。このほか原発騒ぎで避難した人の数が十数万人にのぼる。彼らのほとんどは、厳しい寒気に震えながら、物資の不足をはじめとした窮乏生活を余儀なくされている。

そんな日本人たちの、冷静で、沈着で、礼儀正しく、お互いを慮る崇高な感情が、外国人の記者たちには奇跡的に映るようだ。以下紹介するニューヨーク・タイムズの記事は、そうした驚きを伝えた典型的なものだ。

Misery and Uncertainty Fill Up Shelters By MARTIN FACKLER

OFUNATO, Japan -- For the past five days Takiko Kinno has slept on a crowded gymnasium floor, without electricity or running water and living on food rations that in the beginning amounted to one and a half rice balls per day.

But the toughest part, she says, has been the uncertainty about how long she will have to stay here after last week's tsunami destroyed much of this small port city in northern Japan.

"We are stuck in limbo," said Ms. Kinno, 69, who shares the gym with 500 other residents, most in their 60s or older. "We don't know where we will live, how we will live, how long it will take to leave here."

It is a predicament shared by tens of thousands across northern Japan. In stricken communities like this one, tsunami refugees have gathered in hundreds of schools, hospitals and public gyms that have been converted into makeshift shelters. In Ofunato, with a population of 41,000, there are 61 such shelters housing 8,437 people, officials said.

Shelter residents often live in desperate and primitive conditions with little more than a roof over their heads. They have endured days of living in the dark and cold, an ordeal made even worse on Wednesday as a winter storm brought heavy snow and below-freezing temperatures to many devastated areas.

The privations underscore the difficulties that Japan has faced in responding to the 700,000 refugees created by Friday's earthquake and tsunami, the nation's largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. While national news media and opposition politicians have been quick to criticize Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of it, at least some residents said they had low expectations of the central government to begin with.

"The central government has a big debt, no money, so we can't rely on it," said Noriko Kikuchi, 71, in Ofunato's gym.

But some help is finally starting to trickle in, usually in the form of food and water brought by Japan's military, after many shelters were cut off from the rest of the world in the first days after the disaster. At the gym in Ofunato four portable toilets arrived a day ago to supplement the two over-used restrooms. A cheer went up in the early afternoon when electricity was partly restored, giving the refugees their first electric light since the waves hit.

Those living there say they still face severe shortages. They say have not bathed or changed their clothes in five days -- and for Japanese, who look forward to a nightly ritual of immersion in a hot bath, that is particularly distressing. For many, their clothing was all they brought with them as they fled, leaving them essentially marooned in the shelters because they had no money to hire a taxi or go shopping.

The waves swept away everything else they owned, and in many cases their savings as well, because many older Japanese keep their savings in their dressers, not a bank. Those who have bank accounts could not withdraw money because power problems froze A.T.M. networks.

"I would leave tomorrow if I could," said Emi Sasaki, 64, a homemaker living at the gym with her daughter and granddaughter. "Access to phones and money would let me at least try to find a place to live."

Those in the shelters try to maintain the orderly routines of normal Japanese life, seen in the tidy rows of shoes and muddy boots at the doorway to the shelters, where everyone is in socks. But there are also stressful differences: the lack of privacy, the growing odors of hundreds of unwashed bodies and the cries of fear every night during the countless aftershocks.

They also feel cut off from their families and the outside world, with no phones or newspapers or Internet access. Meanwhile, the closure of highways and lack of goods have slowed government efforts to deliver more supplies.

"We have no idea what will happen to us next," said Ms. Kikuchi, 71, whose home and cigarette stand were destroyed by the waves. "I cannot call relatives or friends to ask for help."

Even those whose homes were spared have found themselves living in a state of privation that this modern and wealthy nation has not known since World War II. Entire areas of northern Japan remain without electricity, water or cellphone service.

Chronic shortages of everything from rice to gasoline have led to empty or closed stores, and lines at filling stations that extend a mile or more. Maki Niinuma, a 30-year-old homemaker, said her biggest anxiety was providing for her children, particularly her seven-month-old son. While the waves spared her home, fuel shortages have made it hard for her to shop because she wants to keep enough gas in her car to drive the baby to an inland hospital if he gets sick.

As a result, she has had to ration baby formula and try to fill the gap with less nutritious substitutes like rice porridge. She also said she had tried to make his disposable diapers last longer by waiting till they filled up before throwing them away.

"If I don't have enough to eat, I can endure it," she said. "But I'm worried about my children's nutrition."

Many Japanese have endured the privations with a similar mood of quiet stoicism, and the strong sense of community that still prevails in these northern rural areas. Even the hardest-hit areas have remained orderly and friendly, and crimes like looting are largely unheard of.

This communal spirit is apparent at many shelters, some of which are run by community volunteer groups who donate and cook the food, and even clean the overused toilets. In Ofunato, about a third of the shelters are run by volunteers with the rest administered by the city.

Mamoru Mikami, a city official who oversees the refugee centers, said the government was beginning to take over the volunteer-run shelters as it now appears that it will take weeks or months to build temporary housing for those left homeless.

He said doctors had volunteered to check shelter residents for disease or stress, though the city had a chronic shortage of medicines for common ailments like cold and flu, or medicines like insulin for those with preexisting diseases like diabetes. In the longer term, he said, the bigger challenges would be depression and stress, both from living in the shelters, where people have no privacy as well as no water and electricity, and also from the shock of the destruction that they have witnessed.

Mr. Mikami said some symptoms were already appearing, such as denial, or emotional swings between giddiness and tears. "It is happening to me, too; I still feel like I'm in a dream," said Mr. Mikami, who barely survived the tsunami by running uphill. "So many of my co-workers at city hall died."

Those who do leave the shelters have little choice but to live amid the debris of their homes. Osamu Niinuma, 68, was ejected from one shelter because he insisted on bringing his dog. With many of his friends lost, he said he could not part with the best friend, a beagle named Pan.

Now, he lives with Pan in the shattered shell of his home, wearing four layers of clothes to stay warm at night.

"I didn't want to stay in the refugee shelter forever anyway," said Mr. Niinuma, a former teacher. "People need to get out and rebuild their lives." (写真は避難所の光景:NYTから)


関連記事:
横浜で大地震に遭遇す:東日本大震災の記録
東日本大震災
福島原発炉心溶融(Meltdown)を巡るプラウダ記事
困難を極める救出作業:東日本大震災
日本の原子力危機(Nuke Crisis)
福島の原発事故世界を揺るがす
見えない恐怖:放射性物質





≪ 見えない恐怖:放射性物質 | 東日本大震災 | 遺体を運ぶ:東日本大震災 ≫

トラックバック(0)

トラックバックURL: http://blog.hix05.com/cgi/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2999

コメントする



アーカイブ

Powered by Movable Type 4.24-ja

本日
昨日

この記事について

このページは、が2011年3月17日 20:15に書いたブログ記事です。

ひとつ前のブログ記事は「見えない恐怖:放射性物質」です。

次のブログ記事は「遺体を運ぶ:東日本大震災」です。

最近のコンテンツはインデックスページで見られます。過去に書かれたものはアーカイブのページで見られます。