She survived fire bombings by the United States during World War 2, she survived three smaller tsunamis, and she survived the March 11 tsunami.

“But this tsunami was the worst of all.”-84-year-old, TSUYAKO Ito

The recent tsunami destroyed most of her belongings.

“I found a car and a dead body in my house.”

Ito says her first memory, from when she was a child, is of her mother carrying her, and running from a tsunami. She became a Geisha at the age of 12, after her father became to sick to work. Ito lives in the steel town of Kamaishi. She says she is the last Geisha in Kamaishi.

Even at 84 she still has, or had, clients: “The hardest thing was that a lot of my fans passed away.” (due to the tsunami)

Ito wants to work until she is 88: “…I still have my performing skills and spirit. This is my pride. Even a tsunami cannot take them from me.”

International help is pouring into Japan, but, according to officials, distribution is slow because some of the help is not adequate for the needs, or, relief personnel are not prepared to accept the help.

The Foreign Ministry has accepted contributions of personnel, including rescue teams, from at least 21 nations, territories and international organizations. Also, it has accepted aid supplies from 26 countries.

You can’t blame the Japanese for the slow distribution of aid, some countries are slow on getting the help to Japan. For example: Singapore took eight days, after their announcement of support, to actually send aid. And that’s not to bad, getting huge amounts of aid out can be a logistical nightmare.

Add to that, the recipient country has to have personnel in place, ready to accept the aid.  Many countries, and aid organizations, that want to send help say they have to wait until the get the go ahead from the Japanese government.

So, next time you hear how much aid your country is sending to a disaster area, realize that it’ll likely take weeks before it actually gets there.

The official death toll from the March 11 tsunami went over 10,000 on March 26.  The number of missing is more than 16,000.  These numbers are misleading because they are based on “reported” cases.

The Japanese National Police are saying that actual numbers will be much higher, because those numbers being officially reported are only those bodies that have been identified by family members, or, reported missing by family members.  Police know that there are thousands of bodies not being identified, and even more people not being reported as missing. Why? Because, according to police, entire villages and towns were washed away, so there is no one, no relatives, alive to make the reports.  Also, official local records of residents were washed away as well.

It’s as if Mother Earth literally erased humans from her surface.