Regrowth in Fukushima: Restoring Order After the Triple Disaster, Part 2

Apr 3, 2015 | 2017, Through My Eyes

(Continued from Part 1)

In Soma City, too, we saw how the tsunami had flattened the land, destroying whole communities in addition to the city’s infrastructure: the train to the regional capital in the north still wasn’t running, but a bus service was held in its place. The old fish market was now empty, with rows of unused boats bobbing up and down. At the Nagomi Care Clinic, a mental health outreach center established after 3/11, I folded paper cranes with the town’s fishermen who had lost their livelihood due to the radiation and now had little to do.

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Regrowth in Fukushima: Restoring Order After the Triple Disaster, Part 1

Apr 1, 2015 | 2017, Through My Eyes

Last summer, I was lucky enough to spend two months in Fukushima, Japan and conduct research there as part of a project funded by the Arnhold Global Health Institute at Mount Sinai and Rotary International. During the first week, fellow Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) medical student David Anderson and I participated in a class at Fukushima Medical University on radiation and disaster medicine. After that, we conducted a survey along with Japanese medical students to examine post-traumatic stress and growth after the 3/11/11 “Triple Disaster” (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident). The experience was incredible and the research is still ongoing!

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