One Month after the Earthquake Disaster

I can't find words for the Tohoku people who have been facing quadruple tragedies, a big earthquake which is said to happen only once every millennium, the associated tsunami, a nuclear accident, and groundless rumors.
Their experiences are not the kind which one can get used to.
They are forced to live in shelters, deprived of their ancestral lands, jobs, pride and everything else.
What did they do to deserve this?

The words “earthquake disaster”, to be honest, sound very old-fashioned to me like the Kanto earthquake.

On the afternoon of the 11th March, I had just come back from a rehearsal from morning at Ueno for a concert on the following day. The earthquake happened when I was sleeping off my jet lag and lasted an unusually long time. The concert, scheduled for the 12th, was finally cancelled. However, I performed another one on the following day in Rune-kodaira. It was before the preplanned blackouts started. I couldn't tell whether the stage was shaking or my knees were trembling from tension in front of the full audience. Preplanned blackouts were announced by fire engines which went around the town, as if it were just after the war, though I did not have that experience myself. My family was worried in this atmosphere of real emergency. I went back to Brussels on the 16th as my children pleaded. Narita airport was full of people who were trying to get out of Japan. It was crowded as if it were a shelter with people sleeping on the floor because they arrived two days before because they were worried about transportation. This was only temporary for them, but it is the everyday life of the people in the stricken area. Politicians should experience this for just one day.
Entrust a child for a day, before complaining that men do not understand how hard it is to raise a child. There is no need for explanation.

Having had hesitantly left Japan, I started hurriedly planning a charity concert in Brussels with my friends in a hurry.
It was named "Play and Pray for Japan".
In the middle of jet lag, midnight is just a morning after a good night's sleep for me. I called Martha Argerich, who usually stays up late at night, and tried to persuade her. She was very sympathetic to the Japanese disasters as if they were her personal concerns, and willingly consented to participate in this charity concert, saying "It's only natural".
The date of the concert happened to be set on the 11th April, exactly one month after the disaster, and fit with Martha's schedule, the concert hall schedule, and my own schedule, as I had to leave for Japan on the 12th.
It was quite a task to organize a charity concert. With friends' support, we inserted written messages into the 2,800 handbills like an assembly line in order to sell tickets.
There were friends working for the European Parliaments, Mrs.Nishimoto with Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank, and the copy machines. The President generously offered the hall for free. He also kindly arranged staff for the day, a reception, and handbills which described beautiful Japan with cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji in spring, which I wanted to promote strongly. Parents’ organizations of my children's school and students helped provide snacks and sell CDs.
I thank all of these friends.

The concert was a great success. The magnitude of media coverage including TV was as large as that on the occasion when I won the Queen Elisabeth competition, and I even spoke Dutch. There were unexpected responses.

Martha’s greatness cannot be described in words. When she appeared 40 minutes before the opening, the atmosphere changed instantly.
I immediately started rehearsal with Akiko Ebi for Ravel’s "Ma Mere l'Oye". We tried to produce a sound which described each note with tender loving care. We tried loudness, balance, and tonality for the sake of the music.
I played one of Schuman's sonatas. The piece is in the world of heaven, surpassing the level of a concert or a performance. I thought I did not want to miss even a moment with my whole body and soul.
To be honest, I could not sleep until 8 o'clock in the morning on the day of the concert. The earthquakes were scary, but I thought playing for this concert was far more frightening for me. This was a fact. We are fighting under such tension all the time.

The concert started with my husband Bart's speech.
He said "This is not a problem of Japan, or Japanese people. This is a problem of all humankind verses nature and God." I thought his statement was persuasive.
I played Michio Miyagi's "The Spring Sea" with koto. I participated in an event called "the collaboration between Europe and Asia" last year in Hitachi. I was given a ride to Hitachi station after my performance, and I had a glimpse of the calm sea, "Hinemosunotarinotarikana,(relaxedly calm all day)".

There were fully bloomed cherry blossoms in the handbills. I couldn't help thinking how many bodies were underneath.

Conversations continued after the concert.
Mr. Maruyama, the Ambassador to the EU, was busy coping with Japan-bashing then. He was visiting individuals and trying to persuade them that the rumors were groundless. He tried to solve misunderstandings about radioactivity, and spent time persuading political parties that tried to take advantage of the occasion. They were the frontline battles, so to speak. I hope that we are able to avoid a situation where the European Parliament passes a bill to curb Japanese imports.

There were things Argerich and I talked about. "We cannot help getting rid of debris, nor be politically active. Contributions probably wouldn't mean much. But, we might be able to share fear, pain, anger, innocent hope and admiration for beauty by means of music. ""For human beings, a life in a shelter must be painful not only because of the lack of things, but also because they have to bow their heads saying "thank you" all the time." "Lack of things for everyday life." “This means that it becomes difficult to keep one's pride in respect of human dignity. To keep pride is evidence of being a human being".

We continued such conversations until morning.

On the following day, I flew to Japan.

When I was in Brussels for three weeks, I thought about Japan all the time, but I was shocked when I arrived at Narita. It was not Japan, where everything was arranged neat and tidy.
Due to electricity saving, the whole airport was dark. About the half of the shops were closed, and so were the banks. I immediately went to the station for a rehearsal at Ueno, but I was told that there would be a delay due to earthquakes. Here we are. I have forgotten the difficulties.
I got on the train, which was also dark. There were shining cherry blossoms in full bloom outside.
What irony! I held my violin vertically and walked, rounding my back, as silently as all the others. I had not felt like this since before the 1980s.
We have been taking electricity and convenience for granted for the last thirty years. Were these really necessary? People on the train shared various questions, I felt.
I also felt that people started feeling that we have to carry on looking upwards. This is a feeling which I haven't had for a long time.

This time I came back for a chamber music concert at JT hall.
It was a good experience. We played Beethoven's late quartets, which were colorful and full of feeling. It was a great pleasure to be capable of playing these pieces with superb friends. I thought how happy I was.

On the following morning, I went back to Brussels on the long flight. During that period, there were continuing cancelations by foreign artists, and the aftershocks didn't die out. There were 5 aftershocks during my stay in Japan. I packed my things near my mother and younger sister, who were watching TV to find out how to survive aftershocks.

Freedom to come, and freedom to leave. My heart was torn.

I am getting sick of long flights, which might be because of the tiredness generated by radioactivity.
I thought of this every time, but I was surprised again at the Brussels airport.
Normally, I don't see many people and feel a lack of liveliness, as if it were Sunday, but this time people expressed pleasure because of Easter and the joy of spring.
It was a great contrast to Japanese people, who are facing difficulties, tensing their bodies and closing their minds.
I happen to remember the pride and richness of Europe at the time when a dollar was 360 yen. I grew up in the 60s and 70s when we admired Europe and tried to get closer to Europe and to climb up.
Once we seemed to have climbed to the top, but were we really happy?

Possibly, possibly, Japan might be reborn into a better Japan. More beautiful, things which are produced with scrutiny and wisdom which consider every possibility, and mind, ・・human beings.

It seems that conferences aiming for these things are being convened.
Japanese have great potential.
All the Japanese living all over the globe must share the same feeling.
Let's do what we can do.
And let's be thankful for being capable of doing it.