20110619

Temblor brings hope and tears to zoo

by Japan Times

The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on March 11 affected the animals in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo in both negative and positive ways. The most negative impact was the death, on April 16, of a female hippo named Satsuki, who succumbed to inflammation that spread through her body after she injured a front leg in the quake's immediate aftermath. Toshiaki Inoue, the keeper who looked after Satsuki and her partner, Jiro, said that Satsuki was in the enclosure's main pool when the temblor hit at 2:46 p.m. (Japan Times)

Toxic truth about Japan's 'miracle': Post-tsunami harmony is a myth and the reality is startlingly different

by Daily Mail

It is an inimitable picture of Japanese order and contentment. Passengers throng Sendai Airport. In the fields and market gardens close by, farmers are tending their crops. In the city, the bullet trains are spitting out businessmen. It is almost impossible to imagine the colossal earthquake that unleashed first a tsunami and then a nuclear nightmare just 100 days ago. The north-eastern seaboard was devastated. Some 28,000 people are dead or missing. Sixteen towns, 95,000 buildings and 23 railway stations have been destroyed. The town of Minamisanriku has simply vanished. (Daily Mail)