M Responding to Japan’s disasters
oments after Northeastern Japan was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami
on the afternoon of Friday, March 11, Marine Corps Bases Japan began planning our response to the likely calls for assistance by the Government of Japan. I serve as the deputy assistant chief of staff for the Community Policy, Planning & Liaison Office in Okinawa. After phoning my wife to tell her to
evacuate with our children from our ocean- side home and get to high ground as a pre- caution, I entered our base’s command center to begin advising our general and coordinate with the local communities. I learned I would deploy as the political advisor to the Marine Expeditionary Brigade commanding general, who was establishing a forward command in the heart of the devastated area. Although we are located 1,125 miles from
the affected area, we already had aircraft and teams on the way the next day. We established our forward command post at Camp Sendai, where the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force’s Northeastern Army Headquarters is located, on March 14. One of my duties, in addition to serving
as an advisor and interpreter for our com- mander, was to facilitate the embedding of our Marine staff within the Japanese Joint Task Force responding to the crisis. There was a visible look of relief on
their faces when I walked into their com- mand center.
by Robert Eldridge ’90
I was fortunate that I had known the
commanding general on the Japanese side and several of his senior staff for al- most a decade and had worked with sev- eral of them on other projects in the past. Two of them had even been to my home. Personal relationships are everything in Japan, and trust and friendships are critical in crises such as these. We did not have time to reminisce,
however. The earthquake was the fourth largest in recorded history. The focal area was 279 miles long and 124 miles wide. The movement of the plates
There was a visible look of relief on their faces when I walked into their command center.
produced an earthquake that had about 1,450 times the energy of the Great Han- shin Earthquake of 1995 — one that I ex- perienced as a graduate student at Kobe University and helped respond to as a civilian volunteer. Having flown in on Marine helicopters,
we had seen the wide expanse of devastation, but seeing and smelling it up close on the ground was beyond words. Ships were de- posited on tops of buildings or overturned on roads; houses were moved and wedged into gas stations; cars, bodies, and debris littered the runway of Sendai Airport.
Our work in the forward command
was to coordinate the U.S. military efforts in support of the Japanese. Eventually some 20,000 American personnel from all the services ended up contributing to Operation Tomodachi, or Friend, over the coming days and weeks. In addition to using special operations
to open and operate Sendai Airport, as well as clear it out of all debris, we estab- lished an air bridge, flying in provisions and distributing them on the ground. Moreover, U.S. forces helped clean up schools and other evacuation centers. I was honored to be part of it and
proud of the generosity of the United States in responding unconditionally, as well as impressed with my adopted coun- try of Japan for its brave response in the face of nearly 24,000 deaths and an ongo- ing nuclear crisis.
Fall 2011 LC MAGAZINE 25
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