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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Aftershocks Rattle Earthquake And Tsunami Stricken Japan

Richi Shida, right, and younger brother Kento try to open their chest of drawers at Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan. (AP)

Richi Shida, right, and younger brother Kento try to open their chest of drawers at Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan. (AP)

An aftershock of 6.2 magnitude struck Tuesday northeast of Tokyo, near where an epic earthquake hit last week. Minutes later, a 6.0 quake shook the area southwest of Tokyo.  This comes as the country struggles to recover from last week’s deadly earthquake and tsunami, and deal with a nuclear crisis.

We speak with Tokyo-based blogger Joseph Tame, who went to a nuclear evacuation site just north of Tokyo and describes feeling nearly constant aftershocks.

We also speak with American teacher and martial arts expert, Jonathan Levine-Ogura, who lives in northern Japan with his wife and two children. He tells us how food and gas are in short supply.

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

  • Dorrie Kehoe

    Kudos to Robin Young for keeping her cool during phone call with blogger in Japan who, while talking, experienced severe earth trembling from today’s earthquake near Tokyo. He was being as calm as he could be—though clearly rattled—and Robin handled the interview with amaszing professionalism and human concern.

  • Ken

    The issue with “clean nuclear power” has always been implementing a safe way to dispose of the radio active ‘waste’ from the process. Even as we wring our hands over the Japanese tragedy we have not opened Yucca Mountain and we have not certified a safe way to get this dangerous waste to Yucca Mountain. So where is all that stuff today?? Anybody know??

  • Bpaine

    thank you for this story! My son is teaching English in Japan, on an island off the west coast, and virtually untouched by either the earthquake or the tsunami. Much of Japan also was also untouched – surprising to me, having grown up in Southern CA, where an earthquake up north could be felt down south. He’s surprised by the ‘life goes on’ attitude in his area – I think we in the West are far more affected. I have to say that the pictures of the destruction left by the tsunami look eerily similar to the pictures we saw of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Peace Museum in Hiroshima – and where will they be able to get rid of all that debris so that rebuilding can began????

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