風鈴さんの おぼえた日記 - 2020年7月25日(土)

Helping each other in times of emergency　Saturday, July 25
災害時の助け合い

Various areas across Japan, particularly Kyushu in the southwestern part of the country, have suffered extensive damage due to days of torrential rains. Those who were hit hard by the disaster must be exhausted far more than they would have been had it not been for the fact that evacuation, rescue and cleanup have had to be carried out with novel coronavirus countermeasures in place.
連日の大雨で、九州を中心に各地が大きな被害を受けた。とくに今回は、避難や救助、あと片づけなども新型コロナウイルス対策を取りながらであり、被災者や関係者の疲労は何倍にもなるだろう。

Those who escaped and have arrived at evacuation centers are facing harsh conditions while helping each other out. Watching scenes on TV of people who are moving on to relatives' homes or elsewhere and those who are remaining at evacuation centers exchange goodbyes and words of encouragement as they shed tears, I feel a tightening in my chest. There seems to have been a lot of people who had been a part of each other's lives as neighbors for a long time.
なんとか難を逃れて避難所などにたどり着いた人は、みな助け合いながら過酷な状況に耐えている。親戚宅など次の場所に移る人と避難所に残る人が、「また会いましょう」「お互い元気でがんばろうね」と涙しながら別れる映像をニュースで見ていると、こちらもつい胸が締めつけられる思いがする。昔から親しく近所付き合いをしていた人たちも多いようだ。

As I thought to myself, "It must be a relief to know someone at the evacuation centers," I remembered the heavy rains in Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan 10 years ago. In October 2010, mudslides that occurred as a result of intense rainfall had cut off roads. It was widely reported in the national media.
「避難所では顔を知っている人がいると心強いだろうな」と思いながら、いまから１０年前の奄美大島の豪雨を思い出した。その年の１０月、奄美大島で発生した豪雨により島のいたるところで土砂崩れが起き、道路が寸断されたことは全国で大きく報道された。

At the time, there was a nurse who was from Amami Oshima at the clinic where I work. Our colleagues all suggested that she go back home to help out her elderly mother, who lived alone.
私が働く診療所には当時、奄美大島出身の看護師がいたので、同僚たちはみな「早く実家に帰った方がいい」と言った。彼女には高齢の母親がおり、島でひとり暮らしをしていたのだ。

But the nurse smiled and replied, "I checked by phone that she's fine, so it's OK. And in any case, her neighbors are much more reliable than I could be. In fact, when the rain was particularly bad, the people living across the street from my mother carried her on their backs and evacuated to a safe place."
するとその看護師は、笑顔でこう答えた。「電話で無事を確認したのでだいじょうぶです。私なんかが帰るより、近所のみなさんの方がよほどたよりになるんです。実際に、いちばん雨がひどかったときは、向かいの人が母親を背負って安全なところに避難してくれたそうです」

According to her, community ties are very strong on the island. Young people sometimes leave the island because they find those very ties to be a bother, but when necessary, everyone apparently comes together to help each other out.
彼女が言うには、島では隣近所の結びつきがとても強く、若い人はそれが面倒になって島を離れることもあるが、いざとなったときは必ずお互い助け合うのだそうだ。

"Wow, that's amazing," one of our colleagues said. "Maybe I should leave Tokyo and go live in a place like that." Meanwhile, another colleague suggested, "No, it's much freer when people are uninterested in each other." For a while after that, we were constantly talking about whether it was better to live in a city or in a regional place.
私たちはそれからひとしきり、「それはすごい。私も東京を離れてそういうところに住もうかな」「いや、ちょっと冷たいくらいで、他人に無関心な方が自由だよ」などと、「都会か地方か」という話をしたのだった。

Of course, no matter how much we discuss which is better, we'll never reach the correct answer. But in a country like Japan, which is highly prone to disasters, "mutual assistance in a time of need" is essential.
もちろん、いくら話し合っても「都会か地方か」という問いに答えが出るわけではない。ただ、災害の多い日本では、「いざというときの助け合い」は欠かせない。

The best kind of relationship would be if we kept to ourselves for the most part in our everyday lives, but came together like relatives and close friends to encourage and help each other when circumstances required us to evacuate, or otherwise take action. But building such relationships is not easy. Watching the news about the series of disasters taking place across Japan, I wondered how I should be preparing myself.
(Japanese original by Rika Kayama, psychiatrist)
いちばんいいのは、ふだんはクールにしていても、避難が必要なときなどは親戚や親友のように助け合い、励まし合える関係だろう。でも、そんな関係を築くのはむずかしい。次々に報じられる災害のニュースに胸を痛めながら、「次の準備をどうすればいいのか」と考えてしまった。（香山リカ精神科医）