Bad News and Good

March 11th, 2011

By now, most of you have heard that there was an extremely powerful earthquake in Japan. It measured 8.9 and is considered to be the worst ever recorded in Japan, even surpassing the Great Kantou Earthquake of 1923. This has been followed by strong aftershocks and more earthquakes. Tsunamis measuring 10 meters high hit the coast of Sendai and Fukushima. And unfortunately, but not surprisingly, fires are breaking out in some areas.

I spent the morning contacting our friends, colleagues and acquaintances in Japan. So far, we’re receiving positive responses from everyone. Even our friends in Hokkaido seem to be safe at the moment.

Of course, we all are sending good thoughts and prayers to everyone in Japan.

If you are not philosophically opposed to supporting the Red Cross, you can Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the international relief fund for Japan. I am not endorsing the Red Cross and there are other reputable rescue and relief organizations. Please follow your conscience and do what you think is right and best in regards to offering relief.

In a masterly bit of bad timing, today was the day that Anime News Network announced that ALC Publishing has been honored by the Kyoto International Manga Museum by having a number of our manga included in their permanent collection. For a very spiffy picture of our dear friend and staffer Komatsu-san handing over the books to Watanabe-san of the museum, check out the ANN story.

Of course, we are very pleased by this, but also wish it had been announced on some other day, because it is a little hard to feel very good about it today. Nonetheless, we thank Komatsu-san for his assistance, and the Kyoto International Manga Museum for allowing us to contribute to their research collection!

8 Responses

  1. Felix says:

    I’m glad so far everyone you know in Japan is ok so far, and I hope it stays that way.

    Made my donation through the Red Cross’s website right when I got home from work.

    Also congratulations for having some of ALC works chosen to be added to the museum’s collection.

  2. punistation says:

    um…

    http://www.users.on.net/~prime/puni/okazu1.jpg

    You really should do something about those ads.

  3. socchan says:

    Once again, the fannish community responds to the crisis by creating bidding communities, where one can win fanfics/art/other things in exchange for making pledged donations to relief efforts. The two I know about so far are:
    http://community.livejournal.com/help_japan/
    http://help-japan.dreamwidth.org/

    Neither is open for offers or bids as of me writing this, but I imagine that they will be soon.

  4. @punistation – I can’t predict which “contextual” ads will appear. I have it set up so I don’t get stuff like that. I’ll try and teak the settings if I can.

  5. Anonymous says:

    “…I spent the morning contacting our friends, colleagues and acquaintances in Japan. So far, we’re receiving positive responses from everyone. Even our friends in Hokkaido seem to be safe at the moment…”

    That’s a huge relief!

    I hope that these links may be of use:

    http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en for finding people ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12711244 describes how it works)

    Links to relief organizations (not just Red Cross/Red Crescent either) and reminders about giving (how help will be needed in the long run, how Japan has some needs Haiti doesn’t and vice versa – one has a massive economy, one doesn’t have broken nuclear power plants, etc.) http://blog.givewell.org/2011/03/11/japan-earthquaketsunami-disaster-relief-donations/

    More resources and context (such as why this is *not* just yet another Japanese quake):
    http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12711226

  6. Felix says:

    Just saw ANN’s “Alive and Well” post.

    I know it just might be worrying too much but but any word about Ikeda Takashi, Morinaga Milk, Shimua Takako, Fujieda Miyabi and all our other favorite Yuri manga-ka? What about the staff of Yuri Hime?

    Fujieda’s website is the only one I could find with updates the last couple days.

  7. @Felix – Yes, many of them have been posting on Twitter for a number of days. Don’t expect blogs to be update there is little computer access, phone lines are down and there are electrical shortages now.

  8. Felix says:

    Ok thanks.

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