[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 15, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H1803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI THAT HIT JAPAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. McDermott) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, 4 days ago, a huge earthquake and tsunami 
hit Japan. I was sort of surprised last night when we came in and there 
was no resolution recognizing the problems of the Japanese people and 
the terror and the difficulties they are dealing with at this time. So 
I want to come today to rise in support of them as they cope with this 
tremendous tragedy and the challenges that both the earthquake and the 
tsunami have created for them.
  For the last 10 years or so, I have been the chair of the Japanese 
American exchange between the Diet and the Congress, and I've gotten to 
know many Japanese members of the Diet very well. I was a member of 
this commission some years ago when Kobe had a huge earthquake and 
devastation that took a hundred billion dollars to recover from.
  So I was sort of brought up short by what happened when I saw it on 
television, and thought of my friends. And I immediately started trying 
to call them. I couldn't find them. I only this morning got in touch 
with a friend of mine named Matsuda San. We've been friends for a long 
time. In fact, I have been to his home a very few miles from Sendai 
City, where the earthquake--the center of this whole event was. He's 
well. His family is well. He said his friends are also safe and his 
house is still standing. So for many people, they have escaped the 
terror of this. But there are thousands and thousands of people who are 
struggling with this.
  The Japanese people have shown a resilience that is amazing. When the 
government said there's going to be rolling blackouts in Tokyo, we need 
to conserve electricity, the Japanese conserved electricity so quickly 
that they didn't have the rolling blackouts. That's how they came 
together in the interest of the common good in Japan.
  Washington State, where I come from, has the third largest Japanese 
population in the United States. Only California and Hawaii have more. 
As I said, we have a sister city with Kobe. When that hit, it was shock 
for everyone in Seattle because we also live on the ring of fire around 
the Pacific Ocean that we've seen strike so recently not only in Japan, 
but in New Zealand. Sometimes you can't believe that you live in a 
place like that; you know it can happen any time, but you still go on 
with your life, sort of denying that it's real.
  After the Japanese earthquake in Kobe some years ago, there was a lot 
of criticism of the government: you didn't plan enough. Well, they have 
been planning for this for the last 10 years. But nobody can plan for 
an 8.9 Richter scale earthquake. That's just too much. I think that it 
is important to remember the Japanese are not just good allies. They're 
good friends. To many of us, they are brothers, sisters, fathers, 
mothers. Some of them are among my very best friends.
  This tragedy, as it continues to unfold, just think of what life is 
like for those people who are alive and under the rubble, or the 
homeless. Imagine, you have a life; it's a nice life. You're working, 
going to school, you're kids are growing up. And, suddenly, you have no 
food, no heat, no water, and you're in the freezing cold.
  The United States has responded. We have had military bases in Japan 
for a long time. Luckily, they were close by so they could immediately 
move some of the aircraft carriers and other ships in to deliver relief 
aid. It is at that time when you realize--in fact, their government has 
actually realized--that fighting about some of the things politically 
they fight about are not so important. What is really important is the 
basics of life being provided to everyone in the country.
  This is a national disaster that has been complicated by another 
factor that we have to consider in the United States, and that's the 
whole question of nuclear power and what happens to nuclear power 
plants. We have nuclear power plants in this country that are sitting 
near earthquake zones. So this is not something that we can say, Well, 
that's over there in Japan; that's 9,000 miles and 12 hours away.

                              {time}  1040

  That is, in fact, very near to us here in this country. For the 
Japanese, the threat of nuclear contamination, of radiation, is a 
special horror because they suffered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki--the 
only use of nuclear weapons--and the fallout that followed that. Today, 
millions of Japanese are still trying to absorb what they are seeing 
and are valiantly fighting to control the damage.
  Our thoughts and prayers go to the Japanese people.

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