chomyn

Hiromi Chomyn and her son Keenan moved to Canada from the Tokyo region in 2007 (Photo: DiscoverMooseJaw.com)  

It was news that rocked the world. Almost 16,000 dead, over 6,000 injured and many more still missing. It was back on March 11th 2011, that a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit the Sendai region of Japan, with a tsunami that followed soon after.  

Hiromi Chomyn and her son Keenan now live in Moose Jaw, but lived just two hours inland from where the disaster hit, up until moving to Canada in 2007.  

Hiromi Chomyn recalls being in a state of shock when she heard the news. "I was shocked. I phoned my mom and dad who lived in the Tokyo area at the time. I was panicked because I couldn't reach them. I remember having to go to work the next day but my mind was definitely not on the task at hand."  

Thankfully all of Chomyn's family was safe and sound. Hiromi's son Keenan added that tremors were felt on a routine basis, even farther inland towards Tokyo, where he grew up. He says students took part in earthquake drills regularly. "In school we would practice drills by getting under desks and protect our heads from falling objects and keep away from windows. I remember tremors happening once a month, sometimes while we were at home eating dinner."  

4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity, 1.5 million were left without water. The tsunami near the Sendai region left over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed.  

The closures of nuclear power plants, prompted by the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi a year ago in the Tohoku region, have continued as more reactors are taken offline for inspections. All must pass recently introduced "stress tests" and win local approval before they can be restarted.