Japanese stoic and resilient

Fears about radiation clouds from Japan's damaged Fukishima nuclear complex are continuing to grip the attention of the world's media . But this is just one element in the country's ongoing triple disaster unleashed by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th that devastated many coastal areas of northeastern Japan. With about 21,000 people dead or missing, over 300,000 evacuated and 2.4 million people without access to water, the scale of the humanitarian crisis is huge.

Father Daisuke Narui is the Executive Director of Caritas Japan and is currently in the earthquake- hit city of Sendai. He told Susy Hodges that despite the scale of the devastation, the local people are not panicking and are helping others in need: "They're very calm, they encourage each other, they are generous .. and give food to others."

Father Daisuke says that in the areas devastated by the Tsunami "they still need more food and blankets... more fuel to get heating" and goes on to say that one of the main problems facing the relief effort is the difficulty "in distribution" because "there is no phone network" and "the roads are still blocked by debris."

In the evacuation centres, he says: "there is no hot water, no gas, no showers service" and many people are getting "the flu" and "it's difficult to wash their hands due to the "shortage of water." Father Daisuke says "the doctors are afraid" of major epidemics due to the overcrowded and unhygenic conditions.
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