JKTS: A Japanese medical aid worker's diary

The other day, were finally able to submit a report on our medical assistance in the disaster sites over the past year, as well as the issues we will be facing from now on and specific cases ...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2012/06/to-winter-different-than-usual.html

I went to Minamisanriku in the end of September to perform health check-ups and to help with night shifts at a hospital.  The role of medical workers seems to have changed quite a bit from t...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2012/06/for-my-new-friends-in-minamisanriku-cho.html

In the midst of these terribly hot last days of Summer, half a year has passed since the earthquake. Since then, I have returned to the basics and studied disaster medical care all over again...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2012/06/half-year.html

Five months have passed since the earthquake.  As I spend these hot summer days, I find myself thinking back to those days of shivering in a bath towel and feeling the transition of time and ...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2012/06/five-months.html

I received a letter from an evacuation site in Rikuzentakata today.  They say that things are moving toward restoration, albeit slowly. They wrote about the unchanging landscape and about t...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/06/letter-from-disaster-site.html

As of today, two months have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake.  One month went by in no time at all, but it feels as though it took longer for the second month to go by. Time th...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/05/two-months.html

'DO NOT CRY': A NURSE'S BLOG BRINGS COMFORT TO JAPAN'S TSUNAMI SURVIVORS An anonymous blog written by a Japanese nurse as she cared for victims of the tsunami has given strength to survivors a...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/05/press-coverage-guardian-g2-may-9-2011.html

Taken by Operation Blessing International in Rikuzentakata, Iwate, Japan on March 17, 2011.  Click here to see all 65 photographs.  (NOT BY JKTS.) Wreckage and R...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/reference-photographs-by-operation.html

I’ve finally been able to read most of the comments just recently.  Thank you, to all those who have left these kind words.  There are still many comments being left here, one after anothe...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/over-and-over-again.html

Time seems to be passing faster than ever before since the earthquake, and since I’ve come back from Iwate prefecture.  Thank you for all your comments.  I wanted to respond to each and ev...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/and-i-thank-you-in-return.html

March 23 Our medical team will be returning to Tokyo today. In spite of having headed here making confident remarks and with a strong attitude, the reality here that was far, far beyond my im...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/14-from-tokyo.html

March 22 It's now our last day here at Rikuzentakata. We're very much like a family now. I have seen countless people who have lost their families in this disaster, but I think we can call an...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/13-family.html

March 21 Today, I went to help at a hospital in Sanriku. Ten days have passed since the earthquake, and all the people who had been keeping a stiff upper lip must have been running out of ene...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/12-standing-in-someone-elses-shoes.html

Our cell phones had no reception and there have been many situations where being unable to use them proved inconvenient, but there was a certain warmth there, too—going where someone else is to...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/11-smile.html

May 20 The streets have been fixed, and many heavy machinery have finally come into Rikuzentakata. And as the rubble is cleared, many bodies have emerged. The bodies were carried away on truc...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/10-tomorrow-will-be-better-than-today.html

March 19, nighttime It seemed like we could get some rest tonight, but there are a lot of people with fevers or with stomachaches, so we decided to take turns resting in the first-aid car. I ...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/9-moonlight.html

March 19 The schoolyard is full of noise this morning. Trucks coming in one after another. I asked what's going on, and learn that they have come to build temporary housing. High-five with a ...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/8-temporary-housing.html

Within three days of sleeping in the gymnasium, I made a cute little friend. She follows me as I bustle about measuring blood pressures and giving intravenous drips. A friendly, adorable six-ye...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/7-luna.html

March 18, nighttime There is a time limit, but the gymnasium operating as an evacuation site has electricity once again!! The moment the lights came on, the whole gymnasium was full of applau...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/6-lifelines-and-bonds.html

March 18 I transferred to a hospital where they are accepting emergency patients. The doctors, nurses, pharmacists, radiation technicians, laboratory technicians, nutritionists, nurse's aides...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/5-disappearing-lives-newborn-lives.html

March 17 I joined a medical team that is operating a first-aid station and hospital in one of the evacuation sites, where ambulances were coming in. Their beds were already full, and the wait...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/4-children-and-elderly.html

My first impression upon setting foot in Rikuzentakata is a muddy ground and mountains made of rubble. This area was wiped out by the tsunami. There really was nothing left, and even the buildi...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/3-red-flags.html

March 16 I was told where I will be heading. "You will be sent to Rikuzentakata ." I was assigned to join the medical team heading for Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, where the damage wa...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/2-myself-on-day-one.html

March 11, 2:46PM.  The Tohoku Pacific Earthquake. To all those in the affected areas, and to all those who are not in those areas but are affected by the disaster in many ways—I sincerely wi...

http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/04/1-to-affected-areas.html