Sri Lankans return after harrowing ordeal in Japan

Manjula Fernando

First batch of Sri Lankan evacuees on arrival at the BIA. Airport Pix: Kumarasiri Prasad

They lived in a town north of Tokyo, towards the midlands, many miles away from the disaster-hit Sendai and the nuclear danger zone at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

“We were in Oyama, about 150 - 160 kilometres from the nuclear plant, but did not want to take a chance,” a woman who did not want to be identified told the Sunday Observer. She arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport on Friday, on board the first SriLankan Airlines emergency flight from the disaster struck Japan.

She said the situation grew uncertain by the day and they decided to leave, although it meant leaving behind almost all their belongings.

They feared a possibility of a bigger explosion at the nuclear plant.

Sharing her feeling with us over the phone she said, “the Japanese government made announcements from time to time warning the people to stay indoors all the time. If we were to leave the house for some emergency, we had to cover the body entirely and wear face masks. The feeling of uncertainty was unbearable. The disaster struck on Friday and we felt the earthquake fairly strongly.”

But there was no tsunami impact as Oyama is in the middle of Japan.

From that day onwards everyone was glued to television for news of some improvement. But then the news of explosions at the nuclear plant arrived. Later food and fuel became a scarcity. We had to languish in queues for nearly four hours to pump 1,000 yen worth of petrol.

Another family with tiny tots

We were told they had to send the supplies for affected people in Sendai and this was the reason petrol had to be used sparingly. No one protested against this. Everyone was grief stricken and sympathetic.

We had been living in Oyama for five years and I am married to a Japanese. My son was also employed there. In the rush to catch the special flight we grabbed just a few belongings we could put in a suitcase.

The rest had to be left behind. The house was on lease but there were so many valuables. It was a tough decision.

My husband came along too. He was issued an on-arrival visa which will last for one month. We don’t know what to do after one month. Our Japanese friends who have had experience and are better informed of nuclear disasters told us that the impact of the blasts at nuclear plant would be felt for over may be two years.

After the explosions at the plant the fumes drifted into the sky, then there was rain and snowfall. This rain water may be contaminated. I am not an expert but this is what I heard from our Japanese friends.

But we all have enormous faith in the Japanese Government that they will look after our friends and relatives in Japan. They will avert any major crisis.

We are not sure when we will be going back to Japan although our whole life is over there.

She said there were more Lankans who are waiting to come to Sri Lanka but are unable to pay the airfare. These are mostly workers without visas.

They send all their money to Sri Lanka and live on a pittance until the next month’s salary. These people are in a real crisis.

There are a lot of Sri Lankans working there without visas. Processing their return journey is not easy. They have been asked to produce a lot of documents from Sri Lanka. Given the fact that the postal services are not so regular after the disaster, it will not be so easy for them to get out of there. I think the Government should get involved and help them to come back. After all every cent of their earnings has been sent here to their loved ones.

When I heard that a specially chartered flight from Sri Lanka is arriving here on Thursday to evacuate Sri Lankans I got in touch with the Airline’s Ticketing Agent on Wednesday.

It seems “the Travel agent doing the ticketing on behalf of SriLankan Airlines is over charging. Here, people were frantically trying to get back to our country safely. It was a real crisis.

These people were trying to fish in troubled waters. The authorities must investigate this and take action.”

From Wednesday to Thursday she had been trying to confirm her flight but until they reached the airport she could not get any confirmation and neither was she convinced that they could board the flight.

Nonetheless they decided to brave the journey, a risk that would not have been so serious if there had not been an acute fuel crisis. A friend offered them a lift for half the journey. They could travel in his vehicle as far as his fuel quota permitted.

“He had to save fuel for his return journey. Our town was about 80 kilometres away from Tokyo’s Narita airport. We came in his car half way and got into a taxi from there.” The flight was waiting for them. It was a sigh of great relief.

“We must thank our President for arranging this special plane to bring us back home,” a mother of two young children, Thamashi (30) said.

She is one of the evacuees who returned from Japan with her five-year-old son and five month old daughter. Thamashi with her family was residing in Yodoku, a town not very far from Tokyo for the past ten years.

“I had to leave my husband and come. He was not given leave from his workplace.” Tamashi was compelled to come to ensure the safety of her two kids.

According to her the Japanese authorities have warned the radiation could be particularly dangerous for young children. She says her husband could get official leave if the Sri Lankan authorities issue them a letter acknowledging their plea.

If the situation turns worse, my husband and his brother will also return to Sri Lanka. Our future is so uncertain as we had to leave all our belongings and the well paid jobs, she lamented. She said most of those who arrived in the first flight were pregnant mothers and mothers of young children.

She had paid Rs. 113,000 for her air ticket and Rs. 89,000 for her five year old son and Rs. 35,000 for a one way ticket for her infant daughter. Tamashi also confirmed that there seem to be a racket involving tickets. She had booked her ticket from the same agent as the other lady on the instructions of the SriLankan Airlines office at Narita airport.

“This has to be looked into to make sure that the same fate will not befall other passengers,” she stressed while adding that if the Sri Lankan mission in Tokyo could take over the ticketing and facilitating the emergency flights it would be an immense relief to stranded Sri Lankans.

The Airbus scheduled to depart at 4.20 p.m. from Narita airport on that day took off behind schedule at 8.00 that night. After a six and a half hour journey it touched down in Bangkok. There they spent over two hours.

Then after a three and a half hour journey the flight arrived in Colombo with 280 evacuees from Japan around 6 a.m. on Friday the 18th morning.