14,000 people lost their lives and 12,000 are still missing. More than 130,000 are in refugee including evacuations from radiation from Fukushima Daiichi. We expect more refugees from radiation because the Government announced the coming evacuation plan. Cattle are dying because no one feeds them in the evacuated areas. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd.) says it will take 6 to 9 months to bring the nuclear reactors under reasonable control. But we perceive that there is no guarantee. No body in Japan was prepared to have such a huge natural and human catastrophy.
Sendai Diocese Support Center has taken a pivotal role in restoring the church communities.
In Japan normal school year starts in April. In the earthquake/tsunami stricken areas, they started late this year by combining two to three schools into one school buildings, etc. The children are now happy to see their friends and teachers, but they are unable to see their lost friends and teachers.
We hear a 7 year old Japanese girl asked the Pople why this sad thing happened in her video letter. The Pope wrote her back, “This may not be a direct answer, but God is always with us.”
Unfortunately, we do have very little English information on churches in Japan. The best one, so far we have found, is “UCANEWS” from our Asian friends. You may go direct to their URL: http://www.ucanews.com/ and check Japan.
Or you may go to “Japan Catholic News on the web” and pick up the articles, majority of which are linked to “UCANEWS” on Japan. URL:http://www.cbcj.catholic.jp/eng/jcn/index.htm