I've often been suspicious of news reporting scenes of vast destruction. Haven't they exaggerated? Haven't they taken one picture and implied destruction greater than the reality?
But when it comes to the devastation visited on the northern coast of Japan by the recent earthquake-tsunami, quite the opposite is true. It's impossible to photograph or describe the extent and capriciousness of these waves as they moved through town after town shredding everything in their wake.
We drove through town after town starting in the north at Miyako and ending in Sendai: the striking beauty of the Sanriku coastline alternating with scenes of utter desolation. Whole neighborhoods reduced to matchwood. Cars, buses, and ocean-liners up-ended, strewn about, balanced on the remaining half of a building, deposited unceremoniously in graveyards clinging to the side of a hill.
The sheer scale of the disaster--devastation up and down nearly 500 miles of coastline--can be mind-numbing. But as we listened to the stories of several families during that fateful day--3/11, as it's referred to here--the terror and tragedy strike home.
We talked to Mr. Abe and his wife, the 70+ year old who has lent his small guest house for use as a base of relief operations. He was pinned in the first-floor kitchen of his house by a collapsing wall; his fragile wife swept into the basement by the waters. But both survived. Broken bones are healing and they are moving around with surprising strength.
We visited another family in Ishinomaki--a mother and her six year old son. With a wall of water advancing, they ran down an alley-way and into their home, climbing frantically to the second-story, wondering if they would be high enough to survive the rising water. There they sat for more than three days while husband and father searched desperately through every evacuation center. He was overjoyed, finally, when he found them alive. Their elderly neighbor had died in the entry-way of her home a few feet away.
The news reports have moved on quickly. The war in Libya, the Arab uprising, the tornadoes in Alabama, and--just a few minutes ago--the final operation against Bin Laden.
But the story of this disaster is really just beginning. Some estimates say the losses will go as high as 40,000 lives. For the families of each, those few hours of terror and destruction may mean a life-time of re-building and coming to terms with loss. Will we who call ourselves followers of Jesus--both in Japan and elsewhere--respond with love and sensitivity to this hurting part of our world? We have an opportunity now, with God's power, to write this story.
