Neighbors Come to Each Other’s Aid

Quake disaster draws residents closer together


By BRIAN COVERT
Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo — As new residents to the area, Charlotte and Greg Kirwin have gotten to know their neighbors perhaps a little better and under more chaotic circumstances than they could have expected.

What the American couple from Texas has seen and experienced in the 48 hours since Tuesday’s massive quake has been a real lesson in community spirit in the midst of total disaster.

“Everyone has been really kind,” said Charlotte, 36. “The difference between here and say, Los Angeles, is that there’s not been any kind of looting or even selfishness. Everyone has been real patient to wait in line to get water or whatever,” she said, referring to last year’s quake in southern California.

“We’ve gotten so many calls from Japanese friends and other friends, saying ‘If there is anything we can do or anything you need, just let us know,’” she said. “That’s been real encouraging.”

While the Kirwin’s residence, a modern two-story house located in a residential area between Hankyu Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi and JR Koshienguchi stations, stands intact, it is surrounded by the ruins of Japanese-style wooden houses destroyed in the quake and so far left untouched by rescue teams.

Charlotte, who moved to Nishinomiya from nearby Takarazuka last November with her husband Greg and their three young children, quoted a neighbor as saying that at least three people in the immediate vicinity are believed to be dead as of Thursday.

Like many others in the area, the Kirwins have been without gas and water since the quake hit but consider themselves lucky to have access to electricity and phone service.

They have been able to obtain drinking water from a neighbor with access to a well and undrinkable water elsewhere that can be used to flush the toilet.

But other than that, supplies are dwindling.

Greg, 37, an English teacher for an Osaka subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., headed for Osaka Thursday by JR in an attempt to bring bottled water and food supplies back to Nishinomiya.

But he telephoned later to say that such items were hard to come by in downtown Osaka stores and would try to get water from his company, where fellow teachers were planning to set up a makeshift relief-supply center for their colleagues.

Just after the quake, Greg helped a next-door neighbor clear a narrow street of chunks of stone from a wall that collapsed in front of the neighbor’s house.

Such cooperation was the norm among friends and neighbors of the Kirwins who called or dropped by to see if everybody was safe.

One touching moment after the quake came when the Kirwins received a sudden introduction to one concerned visitor who arrived by bicycle.

“There was a guy standing out there and he was looking at us and we were looking at him. He says, ‘Are you OK?’ and we said, ‘Yeah, we’re OK.’ And he says, ‘By the way, I’m your landlord’ (and we said) ‘Oh, well, nice to meet you!’” Charlotte recalls with a laugh.

“But that was really nice of him to ride his bike (from nearby Amagasaki) because all the roads were out and the trains too. He couldn’t get here any other way.”