Japan

I had a banging headache. I don’t often get them, but when I do, I get them bad. It really hurt, so much so that I could have cried, but didn’t because it would have made it worse. I was after some sympathy so started whinging to Chris. He seemed in capable of caring and pretty much blanked everything I said apart from the odd grunt because he was too preoccupied on his phone. I sat back feeling a bit sorry for myself and as I did so I leant on the remote control which changed the tv channel. It went to Sky News. Japan was on. I was suddenly over come with guilt. There I was sat in my house, on the sofa in front of the tv moaning about how my head hurt when hundreds of thousands of people have had their lives totally destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami that had recently hit.

Having studied for a journalism degree for 3 years you’d think that I’d be an avid watcher of the news. I’m afraid I’m not. Don’t get me wrong I know what’s going on in the world but that’s more down to looking on the internet. Nowadays watching the news isn’t high on my agenda. It’s filled with sadness and horrific stories which although are important to know about, I sometimes don’t want to physically watch them. The disaster in Japan is a prime example of this. Our tv screens have been filled with horrifying images and videos from the disaster, which hasn't made for an easy watch. Chris and I sat in silence for a good ten minutes before I had to turn it over. It was terrifying. I couldn't, and still can't even begin to imagine what the people over there are going through. Now, although I'd rather not watch footage of the disaster, that doesn't mean I don't care or am not interested. In fact it's the complete opposite.

For those of you who, like me don't always enjoy watching the news, and subsequently aren't aware of the full devastation that has occurred I'm going to briefly sum up what has happened over the last 6 days in Japan for you..

It all started with a series of powerful earthquakes struck north-east Japan on Friday 11^th March, (5.46am our time) one of which had an insanely high magnitude of 9.0. In Tokyo (which is hundreds of miles from the initial quake) skyscrapers swayed and terrified workers fled out onto the streets. The first earthquake struck at 2:46pm local time and measured magnitude 8.8, the severity of the quakes caused a tsunami. The waters height of which was measured as high as 10 metres. Within 30 minutes the same region was rocked by two more big quakes of slightly lower intensity. The first quake that hit was Japan’s biggest for seven years. More than 50 aftershocks followed, seven of which registered in at, at least, 6.3 on the Richter scale. Tsunami warnings were then issued for Russia, eastern Indonesia, the entire western coast of the United States and Canada from the Mexican border Alaska. Now geography has never been my strongest subject but even I know that America isn’t overly close to Japan as there’s the huge Pacific Ocean between them (I definitely did not just have to google that!) So I knew there was bound to be more bad news to follow...

Sure enough the bad news kept rolling in. On Saturday Japan's government launched a rescue mission mobilising thousands of troops and there were fears that more than a thousand people had died. The tsunami was so strong that ships were being swept away. Towns, cities and whatever else were being instantly destroyed by the powerful water. And as if the numerous earthquakes and a tsunami wasn’t enough, then came the news of the explosions at several Japanese nuclear plants. By Sunday the 13^th of March Japan were now on nuclear alert. There was a hydrogen explosion at Fukushima (one of their main Nuclear plants). On Monday the 14^th a second hydrogen explosion occurred resulting in there being dangerous levels of radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant by Tuesday the 15th after a third explosion.

Amid the mangled towers of wreckage and flooded debris, Japan is a country in despair. They along with the rest of the world who are watching are obviously grateful for any cheerful news. Luckily there was some yesterday; the discovery of a four-month old baby girl who was found alive under heaps of rubble. She had survived the ordeal for three days all alone after the tsunami swept her away from her family and their home. They had believed her to be dead. Now, not only was she found alive and well but she was later reunited with her father. I for one, have never really believed in miracles, but that truly is one.

With the crisis still unfolding, celebrities have started to get involved, trying to encourage their fans to take action and help them collect relief funds. Lady Gaga has designed a bracelet with the words “We Pray For Japan” printed in both English and Japanese on them and is selling them for $5 each, all of the proceeds will be donated to relief funds. Not one to be out of the news, Charlie Sheen has announced that some of the revenue from his upcoming live shows will be donated to help Japan. His website says that $1 of every ticket sold will be donated to the Red Cross Japanese Earthquake Relief Fund. Whilst many have taken to Twitter, including Katy Perry, P Diddy, Chris Brown and Alexandra Burke to spread the word of the Red Cross Appeal.

There have now been 4277 confirmed deaths throughout Japan (as of 5pm, on Wednesday 16^th march) this number will sadly but obviously increase over the upcoming days and weeks, and there are also still over 9000 people missing. Suddenly that “awful” headache I was moaning about doesn’t seem so bad.