What can we do to help from here? When I wrote on March 18 about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, I had the biggest postbag I have had for quite some time, many from people who, while not Japanese themselves, had previously lived there or still did. One lady wrote to tell me that her Cost Centres were all born there and that they think of the journey on the Narita Express from the airport as “a beautiful ride home”. She went on to say: “I remember sitting on the rocks by the sea in a little bay in Ofunato, now completely ravaged. Japan’s indescribable difference flows in our veins and, like you, I am sad, very sad, about what happened in the Tohoku region. It is some comfort to know that the Japanese have a rock-like resilience. But what can we do to help from here?”
我們能幫忙做些什麼呢？3月18日寫下那篇關於日本地震和海嘯的文章時，我收到了相當長一段時間以來最大的信件包——很多寫信來的人本身並不是日本人，而是以前曾在日本居住過或仍然住在日本。一位女士寫信告訴我，她的幾個成本中心都出生在那裏，他們把從機場乘坐成田特快(Narita Express)當做「美麗的歸家路」。她接著寫道：「我還記得在大船渡的一個小海灣，我坐在海邊岩石上的情形，現在那裏已經徹底毀了。日本的巨大變故牽動著我們的心，和你一樣，我也對日本東部地區發生的事感到非常非常難過。聊感寬慰的是，我們知道了日本人有著如磐石般堅韌的順應能力。但我們能幫忙做些什麼呢？」