Book 2 - Ebu

Learning Resource Kit: Book 2
Only, unbeknownst to the residents, one of those members is a lawyer specializing in
women’s issues, including sexual assault and domestic violence.
“Just a sympathetic ear and sensitive touch can elicit some heartrending revelations,”
says Yuko Kusano, cofounder of Miyagi-Jonet (an abbreviation of a more extended title
meaning Miyagi Women’s Rehabilitation Support Network).
“Many women say that no sooner had they begun to recover from the grief of loss and
sense of guilt at surviving the traumatic events of March than they are subjected to a new
kind of terror, a different kind of hell,” she says.
That hell includes numerous instances of sexual abuse, harassment and even rape, she
says.
One Miyagi Prefecture woman in her 20s, who lost her home and family in the tsunami,
has been forced to move to several different shelters after being subjected to sexual
harassment, physical and mental abuse and stalking, Kusano says.
“Some shelter residents apparently even broke into the bathroom while she was bathing.
She moved to other shelters, but sadly her torture continued.”
Traumatized, the woman eventually was forced to move away from her hometown of
Ishinomaki to Kyoto.
A woman in her 30s, meanwhile, was physically abused by her husband while staying at
a shelter also in Ishinomaki.
The couple eventually secured temporary housing where, away from the communal
shelter environment, the abuse worsened. The woman begged local authorities to let her
back into a shelter, Kusano says.
“Like many women in shelters and temporary accommodations, she feared for her life,”
she says, adding that with the assistance of a Jonet lawyer, the woman was able to start
divorce proceedings. “Without help, their predicament is not going to improve.”
Miyagi-Jonet was established in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the
brainchild of Kusano and Setsuko Yahata, two members of an existing Sendai-based
NPO run by doctors, nurses and other health specialists for victims of domestic violence.
[…]
The news story tackles a crucial but still relatively under-researched aspect of
disasters— psychosocial support for survivors. Female activists in Japan and Sri
Lanka reported higher levels of post-disaster trauma among women survivors which
they attributed to social stereotyping. 2 The reports from Tohoku document the
pressure on women to be stoical, putting the needs of others ahead of their own
needs.
2. Japanese website documenting women in disaster areas in Tohoku. http://risetogetherjp.
org:80/p=1867--.
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