Feature image by Stephen Jarvis
As Japan gears up for the start of the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 23, 2021, the world turns its attention to the Olympic torch relay currently traveling across the country. For the little coastal town of Kamaishi, the arrival of the symbolic flame and the international spotlight it brings will be much more than an important moment in its history. It will be another sign of how sports and the values of heart, resilience and union strengthens the town’s future and lifts the spirits of a community that was left in ruins after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. What follows is the remarkable story of that community and how the 2019 Rugby World Cup, along with the 2020 Olympics, can bring hope to the resilient locals who survived one of the largest natural disasters ever recorded in Japan.
ambulance after ambulance pull up here being prepared to take in the injured. i have susan greg with me to harbor view. how many patients so far have been brought here? we have six patients that have arrived and we re expecting five more. those six patients are critical. they are in the emergency department and being assessed and kwooel do a full workup on each one and have more information as time progresses. i saw more than that come in here because i saw sometimes two per ambulance. . where did the other patients go? as the disaster control center for the area, we triaged ten other patients to other hospitals. harbor view is a level one trauma and is going to take the most seriously injured. we had six more seriously injured and then we have five other coming. so the ten that went to other hospitals had injuries that were not as serious. what kinds of injuries are