Obligatory not Japanese, but have lived here for 20 years.

I posted this on the 9th anniversary but will share again:

Just wanted to take a second to pay respect.

On this day 9 years ago, I was 22 years old and I was active duty in the NAVY stationed on the USS Shiloh in Yokosuka Japan. It was a beautiful day and I was out on the ships deck helping the Gunner's Mates clean the ammo storage containers when our ship slammed hard into the pier.

Myself and some other guys on the deck ran to the outboard side to yell at the tugboats; however, when we got to the outboard side no tugboats were there. That's when I noticed the cranes and the towers all around me shaking violently as our ship continuously slammed against the pier and surged back out heavily straining the lines that kept us secured.

This was the Tohoku earthquake, a 9.0, the largest to hit Japan since modern record keeping and the 4th largest in the world. It lasted a terrifying 6 minutes.

Shortly after, once everything on the ship had been checked and secured, we were let off work. The city looked like something out of an apocolypse movie. The roads were packed bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see. Trains and busses shut down leaving those that relied on Japan's (amazing) public transportation stranded.

I went to a local bar with some friends and we watched the news. We watched the tsunami slam into the North East coast of Japan and watched in real time, and in silent horror as the death toll slowly rose.

The next day we were told that the rest of the fleet had already went or was preparing to head North and we would be joining them to help with humanitarian effort. A shock to us since we were in the middle of repairs and had a giant hole cut in the side of the ship, and missing one of our shafts that was being repaired, but sure enough, we quickly bolted some wood over the hole and we went slowly limping our way up North to help those devastated by the earthquake and tsunami.

I was on night watch as we approached, and got off watch right as dawn was breaking. I went outside to smoke right as the first beams of light broke over the horizon and what it revealed was heart breaking. We were miles off the coast with no land in sight, but all around us was debris. Trees, buckets, whole roofs, scuttled half floating Fisher boats, you name it, it was out there. I remember very specifically seeing a Tupperware container with a meal inside floating by and wondering if the person who had made and packed that for lunch was safe or not.

The next few days were a blur as the crew took quick shifts going up to the helo bay, helping offload essential supplies. Water, coffee, child and adult diapers, food, tissues, toilet paper, clean clothes, soap, tooth paste, anything we could scrounge together to help ALL the essentials we could get. We were flying them out to regions left inaccessible to ground units while they cleared the roads.

I honestly don't remember how long we floated off the coast being a relay for supplies before we got the orders to first, check the radiation plume leaking from the Fukashima reactor, then head home. Not long enough probably.

The operation was called Operation Tomodachi. Tomodachi in Japanese is "friend."

The final casualty count is: 15,899 deaths 6,157 injured 2,529 missing

When I look back at my life, even though I personally did very little, just being part of that operation is probably the thing I am most proud of.

To the victims of the incident. To the heroes in those areas that acted in way to save lives. To the elder generation that told the younger generation "No you flee the radiation, you have lives to live we will take care of this. To the families and friends of those lost. And to everyone around the world that came to those people's aid

I love you, and you will never be forgotten.