Staff Writer
When Angie Brammer went on the Internet on Friday, March 11, she was shocked to see her former home of Yamagata City, Japan, in the middle of a terrible natural disaster.
Brammer taught English to high school students in Japan in 2001 through the Japanese Exchange Teaching Program. She said that upon reading the terrible news, she quickly called her husband, Chris Davidson, who also taught in Yamagata City in 2001.
“We just kind of freaked out,†Brammer said. “We didn’t really understand the scope of what happened. It was just unbelievable.â€
Japan was hit by a devastating 9.0 earthquake, leaving a country with thousands dead, thousands more missing and the threat of widespread radioactive exposure.
Yamagata City received little damage from the earthquake or tsunami, but Brammer and Davidson have heard from their friends in the city that it has become a safe haven for refugees of the disaster.
Brammer says that from one of the most devastated cities of the disaster, Sendai, there is really no way to go but west.
“If you go north, you’re going to run into more hard-hit areas, and if you go south, you’re going to run into the nuclear reactors,†Brammer said. “So the only way to go is west to Yamagata.â€
Davidson says that they initially received good reports from their friends still living in the city. However, recent updates have illustrated a lack of electricity, a shortage of food and a high demand for gasoline.
“Their biggest problem seems to be getting supplies to all those people,†Davidson said.
The hardest part of the situation has been being so far away from the people who need aid, said Brammer.
“It’s difficult to watch it on the TV or the Internet from halfway around the world and to feel like you wish you could do more to help,†she said.
But despite the 13-hour time difference separating North Carolina and Japan, the Carrboro couple has found a way to give back to the country that gave them so much. Through their online-operated photography business, ABCD Images, they’ve started donating 100 percent of the profits earned from the purchase of any of their Japanese photo prints.
The photos are comprised mostly of bustling city landscapes and snapshots of everyday Japanese life that the couple took during their year teaching abroad.
“Both of us felt compelled to do something to help,†said Brammer. “The whole situation is overwhelming. I wish we could do more.â€
Photos can be purchased by signing on to abcdimages.com.
Brammer says the inspiration for their charity work has come from the hospitality they received from the locals during their year in Japan.
“Everyone we met treated us like royalty,†she said.
While looking at the pictures of the destruction left behind by the earthquake and tsunami, the couple felt they had a close relationship to the strangers featured in the photos.
“Even though I didn’t know those particular people, I felt like I did,†Brammer said. “I wanted to go and put my hand on their heads … just to say that it’s OK … that there is someone here thinking about you.â€
