Unsung Heroes: Part 1

There has been a lot of talk about the Japanese sense of resolve, patience and the country's willingness to pull together for assistance. This is all true. Today I want to write about the huge number of people who work behind the scenes who might not be known to the media and thus the public. These are real people, many of whom I know personally and others whom I see only in passing. The group I will highlight today is the latter. More specifically, today I want to talk about two groups of people: cops and the SDF guys.

Simply put, the cops are everywhere. They direct traffic when the power outages kill the traffic lights, they block traffic through the roads where rubble removal is taking place, they do general patrol and they look for bodies. They're there to be of assistance however they're needed. These cops are from all over the country. I've seen cops from Hokkaido, Fukui, Tochigi, Osaka, Kyoto, and beyond. Just to be clear, these cops have come from all over Japan. They stay where they're told to stay until they're called back home. They leave families behind, too. They've been on the ground from shortly after the earthquake. They've seen some pretty horrific things.

Same with the SDF guys. SDF stands for Self Defence Force which is Japan's version of the military. It's not a military because Japan is not allowed to have a military (read World War II history) but it's similar. These guys have also been around from day one, leaving behind families and doing work that much of the public couldn't handle. They also deliver food to the shelters. We see convoys of their trucks all over and they all, every single one, says "disaster relief" which brings me to my last point. It's kind of odd looking at a Humvee that's camoflouged that says "disaster relic" on it. Anyway....

There has been some press recently about how tired these cops and SDF guys are. The same press coverage mentioned high rates of PTSD among these same men. This is not fun work. It's work that gets very little thanks. For that and more, I'm grateful for men who drop everything to come do some of the hardest work out there. In particular, the respect they have for the bodies they find is truly something to behold. My hat goes off to them with deep gratitude.