As you know, at 14:46 of March 11, 2011, huge coast area of Northern and East Japan was attacked by great earthquake of Magnitude 10, which human being has ever experience in previous 1000 years. Most coast area was attacked by subsequent Tsunami that apparently took 20,000 lives at once. That area got unbelievable damages. Atomic plants in Fukushima prefecture got injured by this quake and tsunami and nuclear contamination has started. All the people in North and East Japan have suffered from shortage of electricity and planned power stop has started since March 11. That has given huge damage to our industries. Therefore, even Tokyo is unstable. Even psychiatrist like me has been psychologically unstable. My patients are still fearful of quake and more fearful of nuclear contamination. They suffer from so-called quake sickness and situational anxiety disorders.
On March 30, I went to Soma city in Fukushima area that has suffered from both Tsunami and nuclear contamination and so many people have to be evacuated. All psychiatrists were evacuated and there were no psychiatric facilities functioning. 2,100 people are staying transient shelters. They are facing hunger, coldness, huge loss and fear of nuclear contamination The situation there is a hell.
Japanese Society of Transcultural Psychiatry(JSTP) organized emergency committee that is called Transcultural Mental Health Emergency Committee. This committee, working with Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (JSPN), will focus on the support for foreign citizens who directly suffer or got psychological trauma from this disaster. They include Asians, Americans, Europeans, Hispanics, Oceanians, Africans and others. Even though they are not direct victims of disaster or sometimes live in safe area, quite a few of them lack in information by their mother tongue and feel very isolated and scary. We will try to provide them with most appropriate information. We also will give consultation for supporters for the foreign sufferers. Although there are so many international rescue teams are raising their hands to come to Japan, there are few good coordinators to be able to locate them to the most appropriate places. JSTP is thinking to assume this task as well.
If you have a chance, please let world psychiatrists know what JSTP and JSPN are doing and if you know some of your nationals staying in Japan feeling isolated and afraid, let them know our society will be of help. To do this project, we need manpower and funding. They should be handled by ourselves but some donation for this activity will be most appreciated. I greatly appreciate it if you can transfer this message to the organization members and call for support.
JSTP account is as follows.
Bank Name: the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
Swift code: BOTKJPJT
Bank Branch Name: Mejiro Branch
Bank cord: 0005
Account Name: Japanese Society of Transcultural Psychiatry
Account Number: 0092302 (Ordinary Deposit)
Branch Address: 3-13-6 Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan (Zip 171-0031)
With warm regards,
