The Untold Story of Japan's Tsunami Refugees

MORELAND HILLS, Ohio, March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Kimin: Japan's Forgotten People is the dark, depressing story of Japan's 300,000 tsunami refugees.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140303/MN74809)

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake struck Japan's main island, Honshu. The temblor's impact was devastating - destroying or damaging nearly 1,000,000 buildings and homes - but the subsequent tsunami was much worse. A tremendous surge of black water pounded the northeast coast, devastating more than 400 kilometers of the shoreline. Nearly 500,000 people chaotically fled from the tsunami. More than 20,000 died. Over 300,000 residents lost everything – their homes and all belongings – swept away by the raging torrent. The government was shocked and frustrated because a tsunami of this magnitude was considered too unlikely to be anticipated. Of the Tohoku region's 300 anti-tsunami barriers, 200 utterly failed – a fact publicly presented here for the first time.

The devastation of the tsunami was the top news story in the world until the wee hours of March 12, when the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi began to emerge. Within but a few days, news of the tsunami's aftermath and the condition of the refugees had vanished from the popular Press, supplanted by the evolving nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi. For two years following 3/11/11, the international Press regularly reminded the world of the plight of Fukushima's evacuees, but virtually nothing was reported concerning the dire situation with the tsunami refugees.

The tsunami victims are people who will never go home because their homes are gone. These are people who receive little or no compensation to help pull them out of their misery. More than half of the refugees did not have tsunami insurance because they lived behind tsunami barriers that met national protective standards. Those who qualified for coverage will only recoup half of their property value.

This is the story of how the worst natural disaster in the history of Japan became buried beneath an avalanche of popular Press exploiting apocalyptic nuclear accident scenarios and radiation fears. Kimin follows the chain of events in Tokyo that caused the world's Press to focus entirely on the Fukushima accident at the expense of those who suffered the far-more horrific aftermath of the tsunami. The narrative also covers the terrible conditions in the cities and towns crushed by the giant waves, two years after the torrent had subsided. Finally, Kimin asks the question "Since when are 20,000 deaths and 300,000 permanently homeless people less newsworthy than the hypothetical risks posed by a nuclear accident?" While the situation with the Fukushima accident is worthy of Press coverage, the condition of the tsunami refugees is at least worthy of equal attention. Sadly, it has not been the case. This is why the tsunami refugees call themselves Kimin: Japan's Forgotten People.

Media Contact: Leslie Clorrice, The Hiroshima Syndrome, 440-893-0764, [email protected]

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SOURCE The Hiroshima Syndrome