Eyeworld

EW NEWS & OPINION 14 pital to her home. On March 11 it took 12 hours. The line would creep forward, then stop, sometimes up to a half hour at a time. Dr. Bissen- Miyajima cut the engine during each stop to preserve gas. "It's strange, but I didn't want to go to the toilet," she said. "I thought, 'I should drink something,' but I didn't dare drink anything. I broke pieces of chocolate to have something while driving and sit- ting." Dr. Bissen-Miyajima arrived home at 5 a.m. on March 12, but the nightmare was far from over. The tsunami overpowered seawalls at the Fukushima I and II Nuclear Power Plants just 150 miles outside of Tokyo, destroying its backup power systems, causing the nuclear reactor cooling systems to fail. Multiple ex- plosions later, Japan found itself in the midst of a full-on nuclear crisis. It's lasted weeks. "The tsunami was the tragedy," Dr. Bissen-Miyajima said. "Over 27,000 people died and it's sad. But it happened and we're trying to re- cover. The nuclear reactor fear is al- ways there. It never disappears, and it might be worse than we know." The situation changes daily, but radioactive material has been found in fish and sea water, jeopardizing the county's massive fishing indus- try, produce such as broccoli, cab- bage, and cauliflower grown around the plant, and even Tokyo's tap water. Officials continue to try to cool the reactors by pouring tons of seawater into the plant, but no one knows how long they can, or will have to, keep it up. Electricity demand is still an issue, with power being cut in Tokyo a few hours a day. "The worst thing is [the lack of] traffic lights and train service," Dr. Bissen-Miyajima said. "During those hours, everything stops. We need to plan surgery around those hours and they change every day. We can't plan anything. We need to be ready to have life without electricity." It's hard to get back to normal under those conditions, but Dr. Bissen-Miyajima doesn't know what "normal" will mean now anyway. With the uncertainty of the nuclear radiation crisis, some people have left the city entirely and businesses have relocated to safer areas, such as Singapore. Dr. Bissen-Miyajima and her family have no intentions of leaving Japan as of yet, but they do have options if the situation be- comes dire. "Japanese people like to stay in Japan, no matter what happens," she explained. "If we need to leave for some reason like radiation, we say it is our destiny to stay till the end. That's the most Japanese atti- tude. Our family is very different compared to most of my Japanese colleagues. My husband is German and we have a house in Germany, so if we want to, we can always go. "It's a different world now," she continued. "Tokyo was a busy city with a lot of cars on the street and people walking and shopping. Now everyone stays at home. Everyday, I think, people start to become a little bit more depressed. We don't want to think about the future." EW Contact information Bissen-Miyajima: bissen@tdc.ac.jp May 2011 The Matterhorn, Wallis, Switzerland See the beauty! ADVANCED TO THE MAXIMUM The new FEMTO LDV Crystal Line for Z-LASIK and corneal surgery Engineered in Switzerland Ziemer Ophthalmic Systems AG a Ziemer Group Company Allmendstrasse 11, 2562 Port, Switzerland Z-LASIK, the obvious choice. www.ziemergroup.com he t e e S ! y t u a be he K a I S A L - r Z o f M E w F e e n h T E M H O T T N A VA D A e g r l su a e n r d co n K a l Li a t s y r V C D O L T M U M I X A E M D E C y r e e n l Li M U K a I S A L r Z o f r g er m e i z . w w w he ob , t K I S A L - Z e g r l su a e n r d co n K a m o c . p ou r . e c i ho s c u o i v he ob y r e Allmendstrasse , 2562 Port, Switzerland 1 1 Allmendstrasse a Ziemer Group Company phthalmic Systems AG O Ziemer Shaken continued from page 13

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