Rescue

Rescue
Originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

The casualty figures from the earthquake, and also the typhoon, can so easily become merely dehumanized statistics. But yesterday the tradgedy of the disaster was brought home to me and all who watched the rescue attempt of a mother and her two small children, trapped in their car for the last 3 days.
I turned on the TV and almost all channel were showing live pictures of the rescue workers trying to reach those trapped in the car, which lay almost completely buried under large ugly rocks.
They pulled out the little boy, aged 2, and it looked like this was going to be one of those fairy tale ending they like to show on TV... but it was not to be. The mother was brought out next and was pronounced dead. I read later that they think she died almost instantly. Then work continued on trying to reach the little girl. That was 4:00pm and I had to leave for work. When I got home later yesterday evening they were still working... and they were still there this morning... As I write this at 12:30 lunchtime Thursday they are still trying to reach her, but it looks increasingly as if she is already dead. The Japanese news media doesn't not like to report bad news and so will wait until it is all over and the little body has been taken to the hospital and the doctors at the follwing news conference announce their news.
That little 2 year boy, Yuta, was trapped in that car under those rocks for 92 hours... When I looked at my own son sleeping peacefully in bed last night, not much younger than Yuta, it was just heart breaking and very upsetting to think of what has happened to that poor family.
This has not been a good week.