The Devastating Earthquake And Tsunami In Japan

It was ten years ago

Neighborhoods were destroyed (Image is author’s)

So many lives were lost and ruined

Ten years ago on March 11, 2011, a terrible earthquake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast of Japan. More than 20,000 lives were lost, and the damage was beyond imagination. It was a huge natural disaster of gigantic proportions. Changes can come quickly to bring problems to life.

During that period of time, I was working as the National Executive Director/CEO of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), which is the oldest and largest Asian American civil and human rights organization in the United States. Since the ancestors of most of our members are from Japan and many of us have relatives living there, the JACL wanted to do something to help in a meaningful way.

Cars were damaged (Image is author’s)

I happened to be traveling from my office in Washington, D.C. to our JACL building in San Francisco at the time. Immediately upon learning about the disaster in Japan, we became involved. People were calling our JACL offices wondering how they could help.

A close friend of mine was also a friend of Thomas Tighe, the President and CEO of Direct Relief…