I remember watching a rerun of some show when mum crashed through the door and told me to change the channel. And we sat there, on the couch, watching in devastation as a single wave wiped out great cities like little building blocks. A lot of the buildings were still in tact and that is perhaps one of the marvels of Japanese architecture but we knew deep inside that everything those strong houses represented were crumbled to pieces.
As much as it felt like the world was in a stationary state, we heard that the tsunami might hit other parts of the world. Not as powerful as the one that hit the North of Japan surely but mum quickly rushed to her phone, trying to tell everyone she knew to stay away from the coast --which made little sense because most of them lived far away from the predicted affected areas.
At the time there weren't too many casualties and all we could do was sigh from relief even though in the back of our heads there was that constant fear that the number was to grow. We were glad too after hearing that most of the people have been warned and told to evacuate but all I could think about was the moment where they would return to their homes, after the storm has passed to find nothing but debris. Memories of a happy childhood would be gone and the artifacts of an ancestry that dates back to the olden days when your great, great, great, grandfather had lived in that very house vanished like dust in the wind. What would you do then? After you've realised that a whole lifetime you've spent building this family was wiped out within minutes.
But then my thoughts turned back to a clip on the tv where 2 people, trapped in the top floor of their home, waving white pieces of cloth to attract attention from the news chopper that flies above them desperately screaming at the top of their lungs 'please, please save us' and I sat there, knowing that I couldn't help them.
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