Thursday, November 14, 2024, 7-9 PM, Mercer Island Community & Event Center
Only a few times in a life does one have the chance to sit down and chat with someone whom has made a difference in US/Japan relations as a single individual. I had one such opportunity when Amya Miller and I met in early October to discuss setting up a talk to present her new book “Tsunami” to Americans. Her story is one that is of special interest to Northwest communities facing the Pacific Ocean between British Columbia and northern California. Most such populations lie in the paths of future “The Big One” earthquake and tsunami couplets.
Miller’s credentials for writing the book are rare. Born and raised bilingually in Japan, she was the sole American on U.S. early-response teams invited to stay on in the hard-hit Tohoku region of Japan. Notably, she would end up working side-by-side with Futoshi Toba, the young new mayor of Rikuzentakada, one of the hardest-hit cities of the entire Tohoku coast (2010 population, 23,000). Toba and Miller labored on city recovery for ten years, including raising the base-level of its flat substrate 10 meters (33 feet).
The second, exceptional thing that Amya (pronounced “A-mi-ya”) did was to come home and write a book of her experience for Americans.
She did it as, in her words, “we are just not ready.”
Registration (needed for event planning):
Japan-America Society of the State of Washington – Amya Miller “Tsunami” Book Talk (jassw.info)
