They will rise again

Picture from The New York Times

"Do we know anybody in Sendai?", asked hubby.
"Luqman used to live in Sendai, but he's been back for past one year or so"
"Do we know anybody in Iwate?"
"Hafiz, but he's back in Malaysia too, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, Abang Azrain's son Firdhaus is in Iwate..."
"Have we heard from him?"
"No, but the Malaysian Embassy have issued a statement saying that all government-sponsored students in the areas hit by the tsunami and jishin are okay..."
"Have we heard from other friends in other cities?"
"I've read from FB that the jishin in Tokyo lasted longer and stronger than the 'normal' ones like we used to experience..."

Our thoughts, prayers and wishes are with Japan and the people in Japan right now for a speedy recovery. Not only Japan, the whole world was shaken by the calamity due to the devastating tsunami and jishin. When we were living in Tokyo, we had heard of the prediction of the Big One - a massive earthquake - coming. Alhamdulillah, we left before it actually happened, but never in our mind we imagined that it would be this massive - 8.9- magnitude, the strongest in Japan's history, causing more than 350,000 to be homeless, and perhaps more than 10,000 death toll.   


It was utterly heartbreaking to see houses, shop lots, offices, cars, trucks and ships being swept away by the tsunami, causing whole town or village to be wiped off the map in the blink of an eye. And now, with the nuclear troubles, it is no wonder at all that this might be after all, just what Prime Minister Naoto Kan described - Japan's “worst crisis since World War II.”

Still, if there is something I've learned about the Japanese during the three years I called Tokyo 'home', they will rise again, insya Allah. With their strong discipline, their never-back-down "gambare" spirit, they will
pick through what little was left in the rubble and start building again. Relentlessly. Resiliently.