1、Its one year since the earthquake and tsunami that decimated much of Japans northeast coast. Over the last 12 months the countrys been trying to come to terms with the tragedy that cost over 15 thousand lives. CRIs Dominic Swire recently traveled to Japan and felt his own ground-shaking experience.S
2、o, Im just stepping into this earthquake simulation van and theres a small room here with a table. Im kneeling down underneath it. Theres a small light above me. And I guess we just wait for the earthquake to startThis simulation van shows visitors what its like to experience an earthquake.Not that
3、many of them need reminding.The one that hit northeast Japan on March 11, last year was the biggest ever recorded in the country.Sendai university student Risa was coming home when it struck.I got home but electricity and water and gas - we couldnt use. That day was very cold. So we made a fire near
4、 the house. That situation lasted for two days.Thousands like her were in desperate need of help.Eventually supplies did arrive. And much of this came from charities such as Tokyo-based food-bank Second Harvest.Head of the charity Charles McJilton was one of the first to deliver aid in the area.2.56
5、 The disaster you saw came from the tsunami itself. It was almost as if a giant hand had come over and just swept things away. It was just unimaginable.McJilton says last year they delivered 16,000 tones of food. But this wasnt always easy.8.33 What we found with this is that its really more importa
6、nt for us, when were doing that outreach - we have a national care van traveling throughout Japan telling people about who we are - is to reach out to the local government units.Because, if the local governments not understanding who you are, theyre less likely to work with you when you can provide
7、the aidUp in Sendai, the largest city in the affected area, buildings survived without much damage. A relief to some, maybe. But the bad news is that its still impossible to know when the next big one will come. Naoshi Hirata is Director of the Earthquake Prediction Research Centre at Tokyo Universi
8、ty. He says experts were expecting a quake in Tohoku of up to magnitude 8.But in reality it was a magnitude 9 earthquake. The difference is only one but the energy is more than maybe 100 times larger than what we really expected in that area.Professor Hirata says Japanese earthquake researchers need to work closer with foreign counterparts in order to increase our global understanding of these natural disasters.For CRI, Im Dominic Swire in Japan.
