West TN Japan Affect
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Henry Countian, Susenette Meeks and her friend, 76 year old Yasuko, who lives in Japan, have been friends since the 1960’s. “My first husband was stationed in Japan and there was a lady who worked near him who wanted me to meet these friends of her’s named Yaskuo. I think you will like each other.” “I’ll never forget what she said to me when I left the first time, we were crying that night, hated to leave and she said I never thought I’d cry to see a foreigner leave,” recalled Meeks. Meeks visited Japan once in 1970. Yaskuo visited Paris in 1986. Just a few weeks ago, Meeks flew 19 hours to see her friend again. It was during her eight day stay that the earthquake hit. She said as she and Yasuko were waiting for the subway, she snapped a picture and then it hit, an 8.6 earthquake. “I know we grabbed each other cause it was quite a bit to hold each other for comfort and balance,” said Meeks. Luckily the earthquake and devastating Tsunami hit much further north than where she was in Tokyo, still she is overcome with compassion for her friend’s homeland. “I hate it I just really hate it for them,” said Meeks tearfully. Susenette said she reads the Japanese newspapers on-line and talks to Yasuko every three days. She said right now due to damaged nuclear reactors, Yaskuo and her family are not drinking water, but are not complaining. “I’m glad I was there because if I had not been I’d be worried even more.” Officials in Japan calculate the death toll at more than 89 hundred people, with more than seventeen thousand people still missing.
