Kumamoto, Oct. 28 (Jiji Press)–Young local government employees who experienced the devastating 2016 earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture are now engaged in relief efforts following a major earthquake that struck the same southwestern Japan prefecture in July this year. Drawing on their own experiences as disaster survivors, they are determined to support people facing hardships similar to those they endured. Ayu Nakase, 25, was a third-year junior high school student in the town of Mashiki when the town was hit by two earthquakes registering 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, the highest level on the scale, in April 2016. She was impressed by local government employees, who worked tirelessly to assist residents at evacuation shelters. In 2024, she joined the Kumamoto city government and was assigned to the gender equality division, where she had hoped to work. “There was very little privacy,” Nakase said, recalling her time at an evacuation shelter. She said evacuees slept in shared spaces regardless of gender or age, and she recalled seeing a boy, who appeared to be an elementary school student in the fifth or sixth grade, waiting in line with his mother for the women’s bath set up by the Self-Defense Forces. “To be honest, I didn’t like it,” she said, while also reflecting on the difficult circumstances the mother and son were facing. After the latest earthquake in July, Nakase visited evacuation shelters in Kumamoto, paying close attention to the layout of changing areas and the availability of sanitary products. Concerned that some children might be going through what she had experienced, she sought to improve conditions at the shelters. While acknowledging that thinking back to those days was painful, she said, “I was able to put my experience to good use.” Taishi Fujishima, 23, an employee in the Kumamoto prefectural government’s tax affairs division, was a first-year junior high school student when the 2016 disaster struck. He spent two to three months at an evacuation shelter in Mashiki. In April this year, he joined the prefectural government, hoping to “give something back” and “become someone who supports others.” Only four months after beginning his career as a public servant, another powerful earthquake shook the prefecture. Fujishima said he resolved to start by doing whatever he could, recognizing that there was only so much he could do in his first year on the job. In the town of Hikawa, where a maximum seismic intensity of 7 was recorded during the latest quake, he responded to consultations regarding publicly funded demolition projects and disaster waste disposal. Remembering how relief workers had checked on evacuees by asking whether they had enough body wipes when he was unable to bathe properly after the 2016 quake, Fujishima sought to respond to victims with the same care. Fujishima said that he was encouraged when affected residents thanked him for his work and that his own experience as an evacuee helped him better understand the feelings of affected residents. “I want to stay focused on my work while always thinking about what I can do for the people of the prefecture,” he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
