A Young Teacher's Journey Through Post-Quake Japan

Ken Seagreaves looked out the bus window at the Japanese countryside, staring at the destruction caused by the earthquake.

There were once-prominent rice-paddies, now, as he put it, “dried out, looking like God himself had come down, carved out sections of earth, and lifted them off the ground.”  

It was March 12, the day after the massive quake and tsunami devastated the country. Many people were traveling south, away from the damage. Seagreaves -- a native of Bethlehem -- was heading toward it, thinking about his students. He told his story last week, in a presentation to students, and in an interview with Patch.

'Ken Sensei'

In 2008, Seagreaves -- whose father, Ken Sr., works for the Easton Area School District -- had just graduated from New York University.  Like many recent graduates, he was facing a difficult transition and a bleak job market.  

Unsure about his future, Seagreaves spoke to a friend who had just returned from a year in Japan, teaching English, and decided to try the program for himself.

Seagreaves was stationed at Iwakiri Junior High School and Iwakiri Elementary School in Sendai, a city in northern Japan.  At first signing up for a one-year position, he immediately fell in love with the country and culture, and chose to extend his stay through 2010.  

Teaching in Japan was a thrill for Seagreaves said, because the students -- who referred to him as "Ken Sensei" were so enthusiastic to learn.  

The students, as well as Japan's culture, left a lasting impression on him, so much so that when his middle school students recently reached the point of graduation this spring, Ken decided to return to Japan and surprise them.

Little did he know his return to Japan would put him in the middle with one of the largest natural disasters in the country’s history.

The Sound Everyone Was Dreading

Ken landed in Japan on March 10, and planned to head north to Sendai for the graduation, scheduled for March 12.  After the ceremony, Ken would return to his family’s home to meet up with his father, Ken Sr., and grandmother  -- who is Japanense -- to do a bit of traveling.  

He was on the bullet train when the quake hit. Ken remembers it lasting close to two minutes, forced the train to stop in the middle of a tunnel.  

With little knowledge of what was going on, Ken and the rest of the passengers waited on the train for six hours.  Having very little light and only a partial grasp of the language, Ken could only focus on whatever everyone else was doing.  

“My speaking Japanese is pretty good and my listening Japanese is alright, but my disaster Japanese isn’t too great,” Seagreaves said.

One thing Ken did know was that tsunamis follow earthquakes, and if he were to hear the siren indicating one was on its way, he and everyone else could be in big trouble.  Luckily, the sound everyone was dreading never came as they sat and waited for directions.

"If This Happened in America..."

Finally, in the sixth hour, everyone grabbed their bags and started to evacuate. Ken followed suit, and the group made their way down the pitch-black tunnel on train tracks that rarely, if ever, are graced with the footstep of humans.

After a long walk and an even longer bus ride, the refugees finally ended up at a middle school gym that was prepared, like all Japanese schools, for an emergency situation and would house them for the night.   

Looking back, Seagreaves remembers the absence of any type of panic in the Japanese people.  

“The response was amazing.  I didn’t see a single person shove, I didn’t hear a single person shout,” he said.  “Throughout the whole thing I just kept thinking, ‘if this happened in America, I would not expect this sort of public response.’”

Before beginning his trip, Seagreaves had baked about three-dozen banana nut muffins for his former class.  Unsure whether or not he would see the intended recipients, Seagreaves began handing the muffins out to the other refugees in the school gym.  In turn, they kept him updated on the situation.

Back to School

Concerned about his students, Seagreaves wanted to get back to the school, so he got on a bus. Travel in that region of Japan was at a standstill; what would normally be a two hour trip stretched into a 12-hour journey.

Piles of rubbish lay where homes once stood and a five-story building sat demolished alongside the road.  

“When you see these things on the news, you think to yourself how terrible it is,” Seagreaves said.  “But I lived in Japan so when I saw these homes, I thought of people I knew and wondered if their home was like that.”  

Finally, Seagreaves arrived at his school at 1:00AM.  Sticking out as a “tall, skinny, white guy” in a small gym filled with nothing but Japanese refugees, he pulled two folding chairs together and did his best to catch some shuteye.

In the morning, while waiting in line for food and water, he noticed two of his former co-workers in the distance.  With his trip being a total surprise, the two men were shocked to see him.  

When Seagreaves asked about damage to the school, they said it had suffered little structural damage but looked like “a child shaking a present on Christmas morning” inside.  Soon, he had gone from refugee to volunteer, handing out bananas and bottled water to those in need.

Although graduation was postponed, Seagreaves was able to see about a half-dozen of his former students, who were shocked to see him

"Are you really here?" they asked, mouths agape.

Seagreaves says now he realizes how lucky he is to be alive and to know that all the people he cares for can say the same.  Knowing that his students, co-workers, and friends from Sendai were all right, Ken began the long journey back to meet up with his family.

Panic At Home

Meanwhile, Seagreave's mother Judy was back in Bethlehem, frantic with worry. Knowing her son was in the region where the quake hit, she began searching for a way to get in touch with him her son.

Without electricity, Seagreaves knew international communication would be difficult, if not impossible.  Luckily, while taking refuge the first night after the quake, he found a businessman who let him send an e-mail to his concerned mother from his Blackberry.  

While the brief message calmed Judy’s fears for the time being, the news about the tsunami brought fresh panic. What if Ken survived the quake but was  lost in the massive wave?

Seagreaves had no idea his mother was trying had activated international calling on his cell phone, and was trying to reach him that way. He wanted to conserve battery power, and thought the phone was useless for calling, using it mainly for its translating apps that were helping him converse in Japanese.  

Still in Japan,  Ken Sr. and his mother, having been in the country for nearly two days with no contact from their son, were thinking the worst for almost 48 hours. Throughout Seagreave’s entire journey, he had no idea his family thought he was gone.

Reunited

Another marathon bus ride landed Ken back where he started, south of Sendai at at the home of his Japanese relatives at around 3:30AM.  

As he walked through the door, his dad – shocked and ecstatic – greeted him on the other side.  Quickly, Ken would realize how concerned everyone was. It was a bittersweet moment: full of relief that he had survived, and grief for Japan's horrific loss.

Seagreaves, now home but still jet-lagged and thanking his lucky stars that he made it safely, will always look back on the hospitality and love shown by the Japanese people during his time in their country.  

"They that helped me get home," he said, "that is something I will never forget."