Earthquake in Japan

[Lesley Cox]

Now that at last I have my computer problem under control, I'd like to add that my thoughts and prayers too, are with all in Japan and especially our Japanese Forumists and their families. This devastating event makes our own Christchurch quake pale into insignificance. There is so little we can do to help. The wonderful USAR team of Japanese who have helped here for a couple of weeks have just arrived home to their own appalling disaster and thankfully and with much gratitude, we are happy to send our own people to Japan but it is so little.

It seems there are two or maybe three nuclear stations affected and all the world must hope they can be contained and cooled effectively. I feel not only for the Japanese, but for the people of those tiny Atoll nations of the Pacific, like Tuvalu and others whose total land mass is literally just a meter or two above calm sea level. Tsunamis can wipe them from the face of the earth, and any release of radioactive steam, blown, as we are told it will be, eastward over the sea, could affect them too.

All of us who live on the Pacific's "Rim of Fire," the cordon of fault lines around the Pacific ocean, are all feeling on edge now.

[John Kitt]

One of our television station coverages on the weekend claimed that the whole island of Honshu was moved 8 feet to the right (into the Pacific) by the shock. Can't vouch for the accuracy of the report but it does give a sense of the power of the event.

[Maggi Young]

The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts invites you and your friends to a very special exhibition.

The Way To Northern Cherry Blossoms
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Charity Exhibition
A group of Scottish artists, whose work has been inspired by Japan, are staging an exhibition and events to raise money for the stricken country.



Wednesday 6th April, 11am
Japanese Consul General, Mr Masataka Tarahara, will officially launch The Way To Northern Cherry Blossoms, along with the RGI President Gordon Macpherson at the RGI Kelly Gallery.


Wednesday 6th April, 5-7pm
An evening event at the Kelly giving those who couldn't make it along during the day a chance to come, see and support this charity event.


Saturday 9th April from 1pm
Saturday get-together at Blair Thomson's studio with demonstrations by the artists at 1pm, including aspects of Japanese traditional art forms.



Exhibition times and locations:
Kelly Gallery, 118 Douglas Street, Glasgow G2 4ET        
Wednesday 6th,  10.30am-7pm          Thursday 7th, 10.30am-5pm

Blair Thomson’s Studio, 143 West Regent Street, Glasgow        
Friday 8th & Saturday 9th, 10.30am-5pm      Sunday 10th, 12noon-5pm

Artist Blair Thomson came up with the idea for the exhibition which will donate 70% to 80% of sales to the Japan Red Cross to help the people of the Tohoku, the area worst hit by the recent earthquake and tsunami, and also to the Japan Society appeal.


Other participating artists include Campbell Sandilands, glass artist Keiko Mukaide, American photographer Laurel Casjens, and illustrator Stuart Kerr.

 Exhibition for Japan.pdf (96.87 kB - downloaded 226 times.)

[Lesley Cox]

I hope this exhibition will be well supported. People all over the world - including Japan - have been so generous to Christchurch with their terrible events but the Japanese quake was on a scale, especially with the tsunami and subsequent nuclear plant problems, that helping seems almost beyond us.

I suppose aftershocks are still on the cards in Chch but in a way we think of it as a past event now, yet in some ways the worst is still happening and yet to come with hundreds of previously thriving businesses gone tempoararily or forever, and thousands of people out of jobs as well as their homes. The central business district will never be the same and the city's character, however it is re-established, will be totally different from what we all thought of as a beautiful and entirely stable city and society.

I had an email yesterday from a Japanese contact thanking me for some seed I'd sent. He thanked me too, and was grateful to NZers for the help WE had been able to give to JAPAN. That he and they could even think of us in their sad circumstances, almost made me weep with humility.

[Maggi Young]

Dear me, just heard the news that another big earthquake has hit Japan and that a Tsunami warning has been issued.