Kesennuma Toastmasters Club

My eyes have been full of tears recently whenever I watched BS1 (Japanese satellite TV) broadcast the Northeastern Japan devastated by earthquake 311. I was so moved by many inspiring stories of the heroes and heroines of mankind facing the disasters.

A senior gentleman decided to risk his life to cool down the nuclear reactor regardless his retirement in six months. A young lady announcer informed people of the tsunami in front of the microphone till the last minute. School children decided to live for their deceased classmates when they received the graduation certificates. Many volunteers walked from door to door to help the residents of the unprecedented catastrophe in Japan.

I visited the coast of Northeastern Japan in November 2007 and March 2008. I visited Sendai Toastmasters Club in 2008, but I didn't make it to Kesennuma Toastmasters Club! I was relieved to receive the following email from Toastmaster Rio Immamura this morning that Toastmaster Daniel Ross and family are okay!

When I found the name Kesennuma among the cities hard wrecked by the Tohoku Earthquake, I immediately thought of Daniel Ross, founder of Kesennuma Toastmasters. I met him years ago in one of the District Conferences featuring speech contests in Tokyo. His name card read "Owner of Pine Rock School".

Perhaps it was before the Kesennuma club was founded. Quite a likable man. So I asked him, "I only know Kesennuma by name as a famous fishing port of saury and the bygone gold mines. How do you Like it?" He told me that the city is small (pop. 73k) all right, but he likes it because it has retained a natural beauty and small town charm with all the amenities than a bigger city has to offer.

I was happy to hear he was "OK" from a fellow Toastmaster. But that was just one word on the people finder website. Today, I got the newest message through the same source of information and felt really relieved to read it written by him.

Partial quote from the message to his mother in Florida.

"We are OK. House is OK (on high ground). Japan’s relatives Ok except for one elderly aunt still missing. Big Earthquake, Humongous Tsunami. Houses & business completely wiped out. Then huge oil & fuel tanks for huge ships exploded & burned oil All night @ seaport. No power – phones – internet – water etc. Even cell phone signals completely out or use blocked so emergency Services can use them exclusively. 15,000 dead in Miyagi. Many others missing. Innumerable now in evacuee shelters . We are extremely lucky to be alive. Sirens and helicopters sound constantly. No way to send-receive email or phone."

Because of the unprecedented magnitude of 311 earthquake and subsequent breakdown of Fukushima nuclear power plants, many social events in Japan were postponed. District 76 decided to change the spring conference venue from Tokyo to Kyoto for the sake of the safety of the contest participants. And D76 Spring Conference will be downsized to only international speech contest and council meeting on May 14th and 15th.