www.theleaven.com | Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas | Vol. 32, No. 31 march 18, 2011
Crisis in Japan By Joe Bollig Leaven staff
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — They knew it was coming, the “Big One.” Yoshi Gerner’s relatives in Japan had known it for days. Japan experienced a 7.2 earthquake on March 8, and Gerner called relatives in Tokyo and Sendai, northeastern Japan, to see how they fared. “They were sayYoshi Gerner ing [they] were supposed to have a big one coming, but they didn’t know when,” said Gerner, a member of Most Pure Heart of Mary Parish in Topeka. “They knew
it was coming for a long time.” Just three days later, on March 11, it hit. At 2:46 p.m., a 9.0 megathrust earthquake erupted about 80 miles east of Sendai in the ocean, where the Pacific and Asia tectonic plates meet. The shaking was followed by an enormous tidal wave – a tsunami — that surged over sea walls and poured inland, far along the coast of northeast Japan. Gerner’s sister in California was on the phone with the sister in Tokyo when the line suddenly went dead. It was an ominous development, and the reason for it only became clear when early news reports hit the media outlets. As the hours passed, subsequent news bul-
letins began to paint a canvas of terror, horror, destruction and death. “The first 48 hours I couldn’t get through,” said Gerner. “I almost went crazy.” Yoshi Gerner was born in Sendai. Her family moved to Manchuria, part of China, during World War II. They returned when the war was over. She married Frank Gerner, an American, 40 years ago and they moved to Topeka. But she still has relatives in Fukushima, an inland city approximately 25 miles west of the nuclear power plants near Soma on the coast; in Tokyo, to the south of Sendai; in Sendai, a city on the coast with a population of one million; and in Shichigahama, a town on
Turn to “Japanese” on page 3
How to help In support of the humanitarian efforts of Catholic Relief Services, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann has asked that a special collection for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief be taken up on the weekend of March 26 and 27. Donor envelopes marked “Disaster Relief” will be sent to each parish as soon as possible. Parishioners should make out checks to their parish and indicate it is for Japan earthquake relief. The parishes will send the contributions to the archdiocese, which will direct them on to CRS.
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Topeka parishioner prays for Japanese relatives