Volume 6, Number 3 | Fall 2011

Editorial
What Did Happen At That DisasterAround 14:46:18 of March 11 of 2011, an incredibly strong earthquake that measured 8.0 on the Richter scaleattacked our Tohoku district. The earthquake caused massive tsunami, engulfing and destroying a number ofcities and towns on the Pacific coast. Even now, December 2014,the15,889 persons were killed and 2,594 weremissing. In the immediate aftermath, more than 500,000 people abandoned their houses and were forced to flee
for refuge. All of express ways, railroads, and arterial roads, and Sendai International Airport, most of ports,power stations including Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, the Gas Production Plant of Sendai-city Gas
Department, and many of the sewage treatment plants –these were all destroyed. Electricity, gas, water supplies,fuel, transportation, telecommunications (information gathering) were disrupted. Not to mention telephones,
Internet and cellular phones did not get through. The city functions of Sendai, a mega city with a one million
population, were completely shut down. People could scarcely get water and meals required for the day. Not
even a single convenience store was open. The reservoirs of heating oil, and gasoline were depleted by quickly.
People in the dark without electricity were listening to radio, the only information source, enduring hunger andshivering in the cold. Having strong earthquakes each and every day, everyone was trembling with fear. Tohoku
University Hospital secured electricity for three days usage by the in-house power generation system. However,water supply systems, laboratory testing facilities, the radiation room, and the operation room were damaged.
All we could do in the condition was to measure hematological blood counts and electrolytes with blood gas
analyzers left scattered to the corners of the dialysis room. The operation of all heaters including the ones in thehospital ward was stopped and even the toilet water did not flush. Food for inpatients started running out ofstock. As well as the University Hospital, Sendai Medical Center, Sendai City Hospital, and Kosei Nenkin
Hospital concurrently suffered a great deal of damage and the medical systems were in the state of crash as awhole.
At this time, tragedies beyond our wildest imaginings were happening from east roads of Hachinohe, Miyako,Kamaishi, Rikuzentakata, Kesennuma, Shizugawa (Minamisanriku-cho), Onagawa, Ishinomaki, Shiogama,Sendai-city to all areas on the ocean side, Natori, Iwanuma, Soma, and Iwaki. Following the earthquake, tsunami
waves reaching the highest water level of 38.9m (Miyako-city) travelled through the inland 5-6 kilometers fromthe coast and ran up Kitakami River to the point of 50km from the sea. Everything was swallowed. The lives ofnearly 30,000 people were taken away in a heartbeat. Tidal waves of tsunami cyclically rolled on two or threetimes, continuously breaking down a gigantic breakwater, a several hundred tons ship, plants, petroleum tanks,and buildings. Ships and tanks were floatedand the crashed concrete lumps were drifting around and completely
destroyed remaining few structures and other things. Furious fires broke out and flames were rising up on thesurface of the water. Coastal plants exploded one by one. Oil leaking from petro tanks and ships covered the water
surface and ignited. Several days after the main quake, people were helpless. No one could do anything and noone could tell who evacuated to where and whether who was dead or alive. There were no roads. As telephone
calls didn’t get through, we here in Sendai had no ways of getting the information about coastal area, Ishinomakiand Kesennuma. The DMA (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) gathered from all over Japan got stuck at anairport and could not move at all. In the coastal areas, the buildings of fire fighters, emergency services, police,and government offices and hospitals were sunken by tsunami waves in a wink, so people could not have amethod of calling for help. Helicopters could not approach the people seeking help on the roofs floating here andthere on the burning water surface. At five degrees below freezing-point Celsius snow was falling thick and fastand survivors died one after another. Nearly five days since the main quake, the water receded at last and thefires went out after burning down everything. Then, a heap of wreckage, ruined houses, and a countless numberof dead bodies - all these were covered with the sludge - were floating in lines of several hundred kilometers on
the water surface in north and south along the Pacific coast in Tohoku.

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

1

Volume 6, Number 3 | Fall 2011

On March 16 when the road toward the central city of Ishinomaki, the senter city of coastal region opened up
at last, Tohoku University Hospital dispatched the first group of the medical assistance team. By their reporting,the horrible and devastating situation in the coastal region got through to us here in Sendai as a living reality. Thus
the University Hospital immediately decided to send medical team members on a daily basis. On the following
day (17th), the author headed for the coastal regionas a member of the team. From the day, members of theDepartment of Internal Kampo Medicine of Tohoku University Hospital took turns to provide medical assistance;
18th and 19th of March, physician Reina Okitsu who was then a postgraduate student; and 28th March, lecturer Shin
Takayamaf acupuncture and moxibustion. And they still continue to provide medical assistance in the devastatedsites. Kampo was finely effective for many diseases and symptoms that we experienced and acupuncture wasexactly useful to relieve severe stiffness that developed by their lying down on hard floor of the shelters.

Koh Iwasaki
Director and Chair, Center for Traditional Asian Medicine
National Sendai-Nishitaga Hospital,
Professor of Clinical Science, Tohoku University Hospital

2The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)