The Daily Tar Heel was able to conduct an interview with a former UNC student who is now teaching in Japan. The interview was conducted over Skype.
Name: Cameron Manning
Occupation: Teaches English at an elementary school, in the Shiga prefecture, which is about 350 miles from the epicenter.
Education: Graduated from UNC in 2009 as a Japanese and women’s studies double-major.
Jo Nixon: Can you describe the feeling of the earthquake?
Cameron Manning: Usually, in Shiga, we don’t have very many earthquakes. I was in my staff room, and there were only a few other teachers there, and one asked me, “can you feel that?” And I stood up, and it felt like being on a rocking boat, but very gentle, not very scary. I have felt a few other earthquakes here, but this one lasted a couple of minutes – usually they are about 30 seconds. The principle got over the PA and said, “this is an earthquake, get under your desks.” The kids were not worried – they had not felt it.
JN: When did you hear about the tsunami?
CM: Right after [the earthquake] we turned on the news in the teacher’s room, and that was before the tsunami had even hit. I actually went back to my desk and saw on Facebook someone had posted “hey, check out the tsunami,” and [the teachers and I] went back and watched [the tsunami] as it was happening.
JN: What are the concerns for the area where you are currently located?
CM: None at all. I know they’ve had constant aftershocks, but we’ve only felt a small aftershock yesterday night.
JN: Do you know anyone affected by the disaster?
CM: I don’t know anyone personally. I’ve looked at friends on Facebook who have shared their friends’ blogs. The worst thing I heard was that a friend of a friend who lived in Fukushima had a graduation ceremony at the high school, and he was afraid that some of his students had gone home and been caught up in the tsunami. All the other English teachers and everyone who has been connected to people I know have been fine, maybe some damage to their houses, but no one is hurt.
JN: Are there ways for the Shiga Prefecture or other areas in Japan to send funds or aid to the places hit hardest?
CM: Yeah, absolutely. People have been going around, asking teachers for donations. Otherwise, in the English teacher community, we’ve been sharing links for charity organizations.
JN: How did you pupils and others react?:
CM: The people have been a little more tense, I think, than usual. Everyone is worried about friends that they might have or obviously, everyone who has been affected. Because we are so safe here, no one has said anything about moving to go home or anything like that.
JN: What are your plans are for the future?
CM: I decided to earlier, in February, I decided to head home after my contract was up, so I will be heading back to America in August.
Manning provided links for charity organizations that gather donations for relief:
Second Harvest Japan
Japanese Red Cross
International Medical Corps
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
