Reflections on personal experience providing support to victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake (Part 3)

On 11th March 2011, massive earthquakes and the subsequent surge of a tsunami damaged and destroyed countless cities and towns along the coastline of northeast Japan, But in spite of these circumstances, we, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) have been making a lot of efforts to help to solve a pile of problems and also to help victims recover from the corruption since soon later disasters.

We began providing free legal counseling for victims in person or on the telephone, gathered monetary donations from members, and we have already distributed 43 million Japanese yen to the Japan Red Cross and another approximately 34 million Japanese yen to bar associations located in the affected areas. Moreover, we issued several statements to the government and other legislative bodies on the problems requiring urgent attention. Most of the requests contained therein have been realized as governmental provisions to aid in the recovery from the disasters.

These disasters, the total amount of fatalities from which will not amount to less than 20,000 according to official reports, also involved our members, attorneys at law, in the affected areas (Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures). As of 31st May, 2011, we had 30,485 members in Japan, with 153 of them being in Fukushima prefecture, 80 in Iwate prefecture, 360 in Miyagi prefecture. In spite of the disconnection of all telecommunications measures, thanks to our network of lawyers and the mailing lists which had been set up by our members, we fortunately succeeded in confirming the safety of all our members.

Despite the risk of exposure to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, some of our members have been struggling to save the victims, from a legal point of view. The following story is about a female lawyer in Fukushima.

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I began my career in Minami-Soma (southern Soma) city in Fukushima Prefecture in January 2010 with my husband. Prior to that, I had been working for a French law firm in Tokyo and mainly dealing with business law matters for French and Japanese companies.  However, together with my husband, we decided to set up our own office in Minami-Soma, my husband’s birthplace. The village of Minami Soma consisted of a population of 70,000 and was a very beautiful town filled with verdure. This city had been one of the many rural areas across Japan suffering from a shortage of legal practitioners, there were just like us young lawyers who just began working. Then from the opening our office, we found that many people had been longing for the services of legal practitioners.

That disasters of 11th March seriously damaged Minami-Soma, causing numerous deaths, with many more still missing. None of us, including our baby and office staff members have been physically harmed. However, after the disasters, we had to immediately close the office and allow our staff to  escape, then ourselves evacuated to Tokyo with our baby. The earthquake also hit a petrochemical complex, with many tanker trucks having been carried away by the tsunami, distribution of petrol was stopped. There were many people who were unable to see refuge due to a shortage of gasoline.

In addition, the day after the earthquakes and tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants exploded. Our office was located merely 25 kilometers away from those power plants, so it was included in the area in which the government instructed residents to take shelter. We could neither go close to our office nor access anything for work, for example, documents for litigation, databases of client information or anything else.

All courts in Fukushima Prefecture, in which most of our litigation matters were on trial, were closed from the day of the disaster for several weeks, thus no problems arose as far as the litigation procedures were concerned. However, our main problem was the inability to contact our clients. Of course, we were able to announce our cell phone number through the office’s website for cases of emergency, but that was of little effect as most of our clients were senior citizens who did not use the Internet. We were, in this manner, prevented from connecting with our clients, and several times heard rumors that some of them had perished in the earthquakes or tsunami. We were neither allowed to return home nor to work, and all we could do was watch the situation and wait with anxiety for information on the safety of our clients under those terrible circumstances.

We returned to our office in Minami Soma on April 11, just one month on from the earthquake. First of all, it was necessary to commence the re-arrangement of our office which had been destroyed due to the earthquake. However, needless to say, we were simply not able to deal with any daily business. As the village has been declared an indoor evacuation zone, due to fears of radioactivity, trucks avoided the area, physical distribution of goods had stopped, we could not even have access to gasoline or newspapers. Moreover, many clients, living within a 20-kilometer range of the nuclear plant, the region in which the mandatory evacuation was stipulated, were already away from their hometown.

Besides the damage wrought by the earthquake and the tsunami, we considered that it was necessary for us to do something once we saw the situation facing our suddenly uninhabited town. Thus, we travelled around the various city offices and shelters in the South Soma region with other lawyers of the area, and commenced providing free legal counseling nearly every day. In the beginning, consultation on legal issues was limited. Rather, the consultation mostly related to more pressing lifestyle issues, i.e., how tolls and rubble would be processed, or when the nuclear plant would become safe again. Attorneys from the Kinki region, where the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred, supported our activities. They provided valuable instructions on such “knowhow”  as how to make mailing lists and the correct document formats to be used etc. With their support, our legal aid services managed to run smoothly.

We have managed to regain a little bit of our former peace since around June. As for us, working hours in the office have increased but on the other hand, free legal counseling is still being conducted by seven alternative lawyers' associations even now. The aftershocks have been calming down little by little, However, the threat of radioactivity remains. The levels of radiation are broadcast daily on the radio just like a weather forecast. People have grown accustomed to this situation as the radiation is invisible regardless of how high its levels become. We feel a sense of horror in this custom and are always measuring the level of radiation in the office by using a dosimeter to continually monitor the radiation.

Recently, sheltering instructions have been released in the South Soma region. The region has become a shelter preparation district in the event of future emergencies, and the levels of radiation have now fallen. Before, we used to wear masks in the office, however, this is no longer the case.  On the other hand, the constant threat from the nuclear power plant still looms over us, the aftershocks still continue and it is still necessary to carry our valuables at all times, in case we suddenly need to take shelter.

Our peaceful days before March 11 have been lost forever. There is neither clean air nor clean water to be found. Still, the people of Minami Soma have begun returning to the village saying that the it is the best place in the world. Now, in some ways it is as if we have regained the normality of daily life, but our everyday life is still filled with danger. It is a great pleasure to be able to help the victims through the provision of free legal counseling. However, there also remain mountains of baffling problems to be solved by legislation. We vow to stand together with the people of Minami Soma, to share their fears and pain and to help reconstruct our hometown

Fukushima Bar Association Soma Branch
Hirama Sogo Law office
Attorney at law Ayumi Karouji