This happened several weeks ago: I cried. But it's not because someone stomped on my toe :-). There was something that touched my heart and moved me (to the extent that I couldn't hold back my tears). You might find the situation to be just ordinary though, but anyway, I want to share it here.
One of the visiting researchers in our lab would return to her country (I won't mention any name or country, but anybody in the lab should be able to guess who), and we needed to have a wrap-up meeting with JICA who provided the financial support for her stay here. She'd been working hard during her stay (and almost took no vacation at all), so basically my professor was glad to give a good report on her. Even the JICA person, a tough-looking lady in her mid-40s (I won't mention her name here, too), was also impressed with what she had done (and judging from how professional she was, I think it was quite an accomplishment to be able to impress her).
Anyway, to make it short, the wrap-up meeting was over, and we prepared to leave the room. Our visiting researcher took 10000 yen from her purse and handed it to the JICA lady and said, "Can you give this for donation for Fukushima (earthquake affected area)?"
I saw the JICA lady cried. I also found myself fighting back tears, and eventually I gave up and just let it flowed. I think that was the first time in years that I cried in front of people.
Well, even though I believe that most people would be touched if they were to witness the scene, I don't know how many would shed their tears. I cried myself, but I don't expect that everybody would cry like me. Like one of my friends once told me, 'a song will sound differently once you know the singer', the scene looked different for me (and the JICA lady) because we 'knew' the persons involved, not only the researcher, but also the people in earthquake affected area.
I talked with the researcher several times during her stay in our lab, so I knew about her living and how much she made every month in her country. Maybe for some of us, 10000 yen is not worth that much. But that amount of money would make a big chunk of the researcher's salary back in her country. Moreover, she could have used it to have some vacation to enjoy her stay in Japan even more, but instead, she chose to gave it to help someone she never met before in a place she'd never been before.
Well, I think the fact above would be enough to made us touched, but I think the main thing that pushed me and the JICA lady through the brink of tears was that both of us were connected to Tohoku. The JICA lady was a Tohoku native, and her hometown was one of the earthquake hardest hit area. The scene made me, who only spent around 4 years in Tohoku, to be touched that much, so I couldn't imagine how was the JICA lady, who was born and raised in the area, feeling at that moment.
I don't mean to be sarcastic, but I'm really grateful that I was given the chance to be in Fukushima during the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, so that I could witness that humans are capable of selfless acts. I saw a man gave all of his clean water supply to another man because that man had a little kid (there was rumor of radioactive contaminated water at that time). A man who emptied his wallet for the donation of earthquake victims. And even there was a supermarket chain store that sold the whole of their inventory for only 100 yen the day after the earthquake, so that everybody have enough supply for that time of uncertainty. Maybe their reason was simply similar to the reason that made me and the JICA lady cried: they felt connected.
Back to the researcher, when she was asked why did she do that, she said that if she had not visited Japan and performed her research here, there was a possibility that she wouldn't be able to get her PhD, that's why she wanted to give back, even though it's just in a small thing. It made me started to ask myself, who literally earned from Tohoku for more than 4 years, had I done enough to help Tohoku? Perhaps the researcher didn't have a direct connection with Tohoku area, but she chose to be 'connected', and that's what made the difference.
More than 1000 days had past from the day of the disaster (December 5th was the 1000 days memorial for the 3/11 earthquake), however, the reconstruction project of the area is still far from over. And from time to time, I saw a person or groups of persons who, like the researcher I mentioned above, didn't have any direct connection with Tohoku, volunteered in many ways to help rebuild the area. There was a company that supplied bottled drinks to people lived in refugee camp monthly. There was a group that frequently visited the area for free concerts. There was even a manga series that donated one character to be used in reconstruction activity. You will have a hard time finding news about their activities in the newspapers or televisions (let alone gossip tabloids :-) ), because they didn't do it for publication. Perhaps they didn't have direct connection with Tohoku, but by doing that actions, they created a emotional bond with the area. It's not something visible, and we even can say that it's not real at all, but like most of the abstract concepts, it will be there, and we will be able to feel its warmth if we believe that it is there.
Maybe it doesn't sound rational at all, but I found now that I prefer to buy thing from supermarket chain who opted to sell all of their stock for 100 yen the day after the earthquake. I almost always put songs of the group that continuously visit earthquake affected area in my music playlist. I even started to read the manga series that donated their character for reconstruction activity again. Perhaps it was simply because I feel connected to Tohoku, and thus to the groups of persons mentioned above.
You might wonder whether small things like donating an anime character for reconstruction activity would make a big difference. To be honest, my answer would be 'I don't know'. But as long as we never try it, we'll never know how it will be. And even small thing like that, which came out from an abstract concept of emotional bond, will matter and make difference, however small it is, compared to real bond or connection that is not put into action.
