S.F. Prep student studying in country recounts earthquake

By Charlotte Smart

Generation Next

As Japan suffers a myriad of aftershocks after last month's the big quake, one Santa Fe teen remains both unshaken and unshakable.

Carter Howell, a junior at Santa Fe Preparatory School, has been studying in Nagoya, Japan, for the past year in a program known as School Year Abroad.

Howell recounts the catastrophes through his eyes — not the view of a television spectator or of a Japanese citizen — but the perspective of an American student who got to experience the disaster firsthand.

Luckily, Howell lives far enough from the quake's epicenter that he didn't experience any major tragedies.

"I only remember feeling slight shaking, not enough to do any major damage, though, just enough to knock the clock off the wall, if that," Howell wrote in an email from Japan.

However, that didn't stop him from emotionally experiencing the catastrophe.

"The real point of concern from the people around me (the Japanese people and the American students) was the sense of desperation seen when the Fukushima workers began to dump water onto the power plant from buckets attached to helicopters," Howell recounted. "Only at that point, though, did I see that the situation became very serious."

Howell looks at the incident with both a sense of dismay and hope.

Many students returned to America after the quake, but Howell was one of the handful who chose to stay. Since the earthquake and tsunami, Howell has been volunteering with the school program as well as the citizens.

"I feel more attached to that which is around me," Howell said. "I now realize how valuable the simplest of things are, and I realize it can all disappear in an instant. I see that one cannot rebuild alone, we have to work together."

What started out as an opportunity to delve into science and math in a foreign country became a chance to join a community for Howell.

"I believe this first-hand experience helped me to connect with Japan on deeper level," Howell explained. "Experiencing the earthquake and being in Japan, watching the TV live as the tsunami hit, helped Japan and I form a bond."

One doesn't have to be in Japan to actively participate, however. Opportunities await right here in Santa Fe.

On April 2, the Santa Fe Japanese Cultural Network, a program that promotes Japanese culture in Santa Fe, held a fundraiser and donated proceeds to recovery aides in Japan.

Several restaurants and stores in town are also setting up charity boxes for the disaster. In addition, people have also set up a fundraisers of their own, proving that even the smallest donation counts.

Like Howell, Santa Feans can get involved and bring the dawn to Japan once more.

Charlotte Smart is a junior at Santa Fe Secondary School. You can reach her at charchar@cybermesa.com.