Trauma

In 2011, a few months after the East Japan Earthquake, I traveled to Hong Kong. Scheduled power outage for saving electricity or radioactive contamination by Nuke power plant's explosion ... I was exhausted and wanted to be free from the gloom. The four hour flight brought me to the city of blight light. When I laid on the bed in air-conditioned room, my mind was released in the first time after the disaster.

After Hong Kong, I headed for Shanghai. I don't remember why I entered Hong Kong by air and then I went to Shanghai by train. However I clearly remembered what I talked to a passenger from Indonesia. He took his old mother to the travel and looked happy to mother pleased it.
"Indonesia doesn't have big industries like your country. We are not wealthy. So I had to save the money for years to travel abroad" I must be blessed because I can escape from the tough reality.

Seven years has past since then. Now a days, I saw a lot of Indonesian tourists in Japan. It's a few month ago that I took a flight to Bali from Tokyo. Full of Indonesian passenger who had souvenirs of Japan. If Indonesian people are getting rich, I guessed so. I had stayed in Indonesia for a while. And I actually felt power of growing country here and there not only in big city like Jakarta.
Some day in future, it's possible that Indonesia will catch up Japan in economy. I picture in my mind the Indonesian guy in the train plays role reversal to me.

In late 90s, Japan had remaining warmth of economic bubble, and many migrant workers came to the country. Indonesian people was not exception. In Indonesia, I met some people who used be in Japan. Chris-san in Maumere of Flores Island was one of them. He had worked until 2003. (For Some reason, I met a people who left Japan almost same period in Iran or Bangladesh. Japan's immigration control could be strengthened in the year)
"Chris-san, so you didn't experienced the East Japan Earthquake?" "No, I didn't" He answered.
"But I got a huge earth quake here in Flores Island" I didn't know it but there was a big earthquake near Flores in 1992. Tsunami took 2000 lives in this very city of Maumere.

The news on natural disaster in another country is broadcasted quite temporally in Japan. So we misunderstood as if only Japan got a serious disaster. But the natural disaster can be occurred at any time around the world.
Recently I heard the news about consecutive earthquakes in Indonesia (Lombok Isl. and Sulawesi Isl.) Maybe I feel the people who had the disaster. Because we always have unsecureness on the same type of disaster like earthquake, Tsunami and volcanic eruption too. We live on the edge of continental plate.

Natural disaster surely leaves trauma in the people's mind. The people who experienced the East Japan Earthquake might feel something had changed in their mind on the day. In positive meaning? Yeah in some points. We learned importance of preparation. We learned no day can be wasted. But above all Japanese people got a huge trauma. We were getting to see ominous shadows in the life that we believed secure forever.
Nevertheless Japanese government try to keep operating the nuke power plant and even selling it to the another country. Where were you guys on the day, Mar. 11, 2011? For me, I don't wanna have such a terrible experience any more. Same for the Indonesian people and any people on the planet.