Regarding Kaori Shoji's April 20 article, "A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident": Thank you for the very touching comments from a person who survived the March 11 quake-tsunami and who now lives as an evacuee in a gym.
Why are so many evacuees fed cold food? Even at my local evacuation center near a huge mall packed with food and restaurants, the evacuees are living on rice balls. During these extreme times, barbecue kitchens and picnic ground-type grills could be set up outdoors at schools without kitchen facilities.
The elderly are not bonsai plants to be tended, but have learned many skills that they could be putting to use at the evacuation centers. Many know how to build a real house, cook from scratch, plant gardens, and would probably be eager to learn how to build do-it-yourself solar panels and wind generators.
Also, restaurants in Tokyo are dying and chefs are out of work. Why not send more volunteer chefs up north to cook nourishing hot meals? Although vegetables from Tohoku and north Kanto are free of radiation, they are hard to sell. Why doesn't the government buy them from farmers and feed the evacuees. It takes a village to build a new community. If everybody pitches in, things will recover faster.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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