Reading through my classmates' posts makes me feel like I got off easy because I had been home, safe with my housemates and with a good amount of food, unlike Tomoka369 and Rena, who were both out of their houses when the quake happened. The imagery of thousands of people walking is incredibly powerful to me and served as a harsh reminder of how reliant we have become on our technology — a few of my classmates mentioned how chaotic the transportation situation became and posted photos.
Some of the most interesting posts in my opinion were from the people who had not actually been in Japan during the earthquake itself. Though many of them shared what they had been doing at the time of the quake, many of the exchange students spent their time discussing the role that the mass media played in spreading awareness (and perhaps fear) outside of Japanese borders. Tani brought up some good points about how many people outside of Japan remained unaware of what was actually going on, and Simen from Norway reiterated the sensationalist nature of the media, which leads me to believe that many people who decided to either leave or return to Japan may not have been completely informed about the current situation.
My classmates' posts definitely helped supplement the excerpts of Quakebook, which I've been reading recently. For those who don't know, Quakebook is a crowd-sourced-from-Twitter ebook that was published just last week and chronicles the earthquake from multiple perspectives, some from inside Japan, some out. All of the stories I've read so far have one thing in common: They highlight in some way, shape or form the fact that Japan has united itself as one, whether it be by talking about the people helping strangers or the massive relief effort that everyone seems to be contributing to. It's beautiful (perhaps in some twisted way) how such strong bonds can emerge in such a disastrous situation.
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