Seven years after the Japan March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami

We remain shattered by the terrible destruction and loss of lives resulting from the Great East Japan Earthquake.  Even though we had been conducting numerous disaster training workshops in Tokyo and Korea, we never imagined disasters of this magnitude.

Peace Winds America responded immediately, delivering relief supplies (food, water, blankets, hygiene kits, sleeping supplies, heating fuel, cooking kits, and telecommunications equipment) to Minamisanriku, Ofunato, Kesennuma, and Rikuzentakata.   We then delivered more than 160 tons of goods to the survivors displaced in evacuation centers.

Peace Winds quickly began to focus on economic recovery, helping to reopen the fish markets, a salmon hatchery, and ice-crushing tower.  We partnered with the two fishing cooperatives in Minamisanriku (Udatsu and Shizugawa) and helped reconstruct their buildings and provided necessary equipment.  Working with the cooperatives and their 1,500 members and families, we helped clean the harbors and seas of wreckage and waste.  We assisted the wakame seaweed, trout salmon, octopus, oysters, saury, abalone, and sea urchin fishers.  We purchased equipment for abalone and sea urchin fishermen.  For wakame farmers, we provided buoys, ropes, seeds, nets, and drying equipment.   We built a windbreak at the frigid waterfront protecting the women working in the oyster plant.  We constructed LED lighting at six Minamisanriku ports to expand the operating hours of fishermen and enhance nighttime security.

We began partnering with the district leaders and local fishermen to build fishing sheds.  Fishing families faced a twofold dilemma; their houses had been destroyed along with their boats, moorage, and work spaces.  PWA assisted fishing families in temporary housing providing them with work and storage sheds constructed of rugged aluminum built on concrete foundations and wired for light and power.   PWA assistance helped families recover their livelihoods, homes, and way of life.  After building a community center in 2015 in Minamisanriku for neighborhood seniors and others, Peace Winds continues to fund administrative operations.

We have learned and shared many lessons over these past seven years in conferences, seminars, and publications.  One lesson is how critical it is for the “whole of society” to be prepared, even for the worst imagined disaster.   A second lesson is how essential it is to have individuals, governments, military, NGOs, and private sector all involved in supporting the relief and recovery.

We continue to lament for the people of Tohoku.  Yet we have been encouraged and inspired by the strong support of the many individuals, companies, foundations who have aided the people of Japan.  Thank you for your continued support.

Charles Aanenson
CEO, Peace Winds America

READ MORE about Peace Winds’ work in Tohoku, Japan.

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