No one can truly be prepared for a calamity like the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, even for Japanese who have gone through disaster drills regularly since childhood to learn how to react.
But for non-Japanese residents who don't speak the language, the experience could be horrifying, not being able to understand news or instructions provided at evacuation centers that may prove critical to survival.
And that was exactly what Motoko Kimura, 37, witnessed during the unprecedented quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in March 2011, where damage in the Tokyo metropolitan area was minor compared with hard-hit Tohoku but fear was sky high.
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