Many Bangladeshis living in Japan spent a night and a day of nightmare in the aftermath of the most devastating tsunami in the Pacific nation's history. Members of many families staying in different locations could not contact each other, plunging into a worrying situation.
Agony of many parents escalated as they could not know the whereabouts of their children, who went to schools in the morning. Many attending their jobs in Tokyo walked or cycled all night long to reach their home, according to Bangladeshi expatriates living in Japan.
Nishat Sultana Shikha lives in Saitama, a city some 60 kilometres from Tokyo, while her husband works in the capital. Her husband Hoq Emdadul works in an international travel agency named Travel Pore. He left home for office Friday morning.
Shikha's five-year-old son was in school when the devastation hit the country. Shikha herself was in a shopping mall. She told The Daily Star over the phone that upon getting the information of the earthquake she rushed to their son's school.
The school authorities told Shikha that a woman took away her son when the disaster hit the area. She was informed that a neighbouring Japanese woman took her own son and Shikha's in her car to their place.
Electricity and gas outage and shaking buildings coupled with the government warnings that the earthquake may hit anytime again, she gathered her belongings and waited on the ground floor of their two-story duplex building.
They went without food as nothing could be cooked. Shikha could talk to her husband through the telephone only for a little while after making several attempts. He could only tell her that he had come out of office and was searching for safety when the line went off.
Alone in a post-disaster situation, Shikha started her day engulfed in panic. When the earthquake hit at 3:00am Japanese Standard Time, Hoq Emdadul's office told the employees that they should seek safety themselves.
Emdadul came out of his office and found that trains, buses, cars and other public vehicles were off the streets. The government stopped traffic movement as the earthquake may cause splits in the roads leading to accidents.
Emdadul started on foot and after walking about seven kilometres he reached Tokyo station to catch a train to his house. He found no food in any restaurants. In the community food centres, all the food they had was sold out in a very short time before Emdadul arrived.
He told The Daily Star that Tokyo is not safe as there are tall buildings in the city. He said risking his life he started walking again for home. At one stage, he was too tired to walk anymore and tried a bicycle but could not find any to hire.
After some time he managed to buy a bicycle at an exorbitant price and reached home after midnight braving the biting cold. Like Shikha and Emdadul many Bangladeshis spent the day and night amid horror. Emdadul told The Daily Star over the telephone communications system could not be restored yet. But as far as the information he could gather, no Bangladeshis were killed during or after the disaster.
On other Bangladeshi expats he knows, he said Ahsan Rajib went to a coastal city Chiba which was hit by the tsunami and later reached Tokyo on foot. Md Arif and Md Anwar Islam live in Tokyo. Arif's daughter and Anwar's son attend an English medium school there. But their parents could not contact the school authorities when the earthquake hit. Panic gripped both the parents.
Later around 2:00pm the school authorities sent their children to them. Another Bangladeshi Sayeed Chowdhury said three members of his family worked in different areas in Tokyo. They could not contact with each other. By dawn they could reach their home much to their relief.
News Source: The Daily Star