Lived through it. Spending the night stuck in a subway with freaked out Japanese, sleeping under emergency blankets, eating crackers for dinner and breakfast. Was part of the massive US Armed Forces response to it. Those rolling blackouts, oy. All those Geiger counters on our planes. Our hangars turning into massive aid storage and shipping centers. Japanese friends sharing stories of loss, a few of their grandparents volunteering to clean up some of the worst affected areas, thankful we opened our base to them, as most US bases in the country did. We were already on their soil, in their daily lives, working every single day with the JDF.

Still are.