r******y
发帖数: 9892 | 1 Rescue by Bus: China Sends for Its Own
The tour bus that arrived in Onagawa last week wasn't expected. After the
tsunami that crashed into the shores of this quaint fishing village,
communication was down and the fortunate few who survived had been holed up
in a cold, cavernous gymnasium and make-shift evacuation hall.
Not all of them were Japanese. Huddled under a mountain of blankets in small
groups around the center were Chinese laborers. The bus had come for them.
Liu Xueni, a Chinese citizen who has lived in Japan for 13 years, walked
into the evacuation center and said she was from the Chinese Embassy. Within
moments, dozens of Chinese, nearly all young women, had come out to form a
circle around her companion on the mission, Wang Lei, who works at a zinc
die-cast company in neighboring Ishinomaki. He told them that the Chinese
government was there to take them back to China. The women erupted in cheers
while many started to sob uncontrollably.
The laborers had been working in Onagawa's fish factories as part of the
Japanese government's training programs to help workers from developing
nations learn skills in Japan.
Critics say the program is now used as a way to exploit cheap labor. Of the
nation's roughly 175,000 foreign trainees, about 80% are from China,
according to 2009 figures from Japan's Ministry of Justice.
The infusion of foreign workers has helped slow a steady decline of aging
fishing villages along Japan's northeastern coast, but the devastation
caused by the tsunami and the lack of young Japanese willing to work rural
blue-collar jobs may make a recovery for towns like Onagawa nearly
impossible.
The Chinese on the tour bus—one of 20 such missions to evacuate Chinese
workers—were quickly ensnared in a diplomatic snafu with the town's leaders
, who were reluctant to let the workers leave with the Chinese volunteers
whose only documentation was the business card of a senior colonel working
with the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo and the names of 36 workers they were
assigned to collect.
Among the Chinese lined up outside the evacuation center was Zhou Shiying, a
24-year-old factory worker at fisheries company Choei Suisan.
After the earthquake struck, Ms. Zhou heard the faint sound of water
trickling like a small river outside the factory, a few kilometers from the
waterfront. Then, someone yelled "Run away! Run Away!"
"The men in the office ran up to the second floor of the building we were in
. We ran to the mountains. They died, we survived," said Ms. Zhou. She
watched from the mountain as the water rose from about knee-high to above
the rooftops in five minutes.
Outside the center, about 100 Chinese were lined up. Many were carrying all
their possessions in a single plastic bag or backpack. Mr. Wang and Ms. Liu
started calling out names from their list and individuals stepped out one at
a time. They didn't call the name of Ms. Zhou, who went back inside to sit
with other Chinese workers at Choei Suisan, making origami baskets.
Ms. Liu began to lead a group whose names had been called away from the
evacuation center. They walked at a brisk pace past the mounds of flattened
homes, twisted metal and flipped-over cars, with some women in the back
sprinting to keep up.
The town's mayor, Nobutaka Azumi, pulled up in a car. Wearing a white helmet
with a crest on the front, he confronted Mr. Wang. "Can you just say 'let's
go, let's go' and take people from here without telling their employers?"
he said. "This is Japan, you know."
"Can you ensure that you can protect their lives?" replied Mr. Wang. "This
may be Japan, but these are citizens of China."
The Japanese evacuees are free to come and go, only being asked to inform
the evacuation center staff if they leave for good. But the Chinese workers
face a more complicated situation. They are obligated to stay with the
fisheries for three years as part of the trainee program. In turn, the
companies are expected to look after them. With most of the town's fisheries
in ruin, these lines have blurred. What's more, the tsunami has washed way
most of their passports and other forms of identification.
Zhao Jun, the military attaché who is overseeing the evacuation of Chinese
nationals out of Japan, confirmed that Mr. Wang and Ms. Liu are working with
the government as volunteers since they are familiar with the area. He didn
't fault Mr. Azumi, saying it appeared he had acted in the best interest of
the workers.
Messrs. Azumi and Wang along with Ms. Liu and the presidents of several
Onagawa-based seafood companies drove back to town to call the Chinese
Embassy in Tokyo.
"I want to make sure that the Chinese government wants these people back
right now," said Yoshiaki Kimura, the president of YK Suisan, which produces
mackerel pike, salmon and squid and employs 29 Chinese "trainees." Hanging
up the phone, he told the mayor, "The Chinese said Japan is not safe so they
want to take them."
Mr. Azumi said he would release them if their employers agreed. The four
presidents who were present all approved, but in all 16 companies in Onagawa
had hired Chinese trainees. Mr. Kimura said at least two or three of the
other presidents were dead.
Ms. Zhou, the factory worker who ran from the tsunami, said she worked five
days a week at Choei Suisan filleting fish. She made 5,300 yen ($67) a day,
or about 662 yen ($8.39) an hour, slightly below Miyagi prefecture's minimum
wage of 674 yen.
She said the work was easy, although it took time to learn how to handle a
knife. She was expected to pay 12,000 yen a month for the dormitory. The
women shared groceries and took turns cooking. On her days off, she watched
Korean dramas on TV but her favorite show is an NHK biographical drama
series about a famous Japanese manga artist.
In China, where her parents run a family corn farm on about 1.3 acres of
land in Shandong province's rural Linqu county, her 54-year-old father Zhou
Lixue learned from television about the disaster that had struck the region
where his daughter was. For five days, the family worried whether she had
survived.
"We couldn't eat, we couldn't sleep," Mr. Zhou said. Only days later did Ms.
Zhou's brother find her name on a list of survivors on the Chinese Embassy'
s website.
Back at the bus, Ms. Liu and Mr. Wang were getting impatient. If the bus,
adorned with a sign that read "China Rescue Bus 8," didn't leave before dark
, it would be hard to navigate the twisting mountain roads or the partially
flooded, debris-covered coastline streets that run across the coastline
since there is no electricity in the area.
When a group of workers arrived, Ms. Liu read the names off the list and let
them on the bus. Many cried and embraced their Japanese employers. At one
point, Ms. Liu abandoned the list, allowing a trio of women who begged to
come along to board the bus.
With about 40 Chinese workers on board, Mr. Wang and Ms. Liu got on and the
bus pulled away as the sun started to set. Mr. Kimura, the portly fisheries-
company owner, watched the bus leave and said: "Wow, that's the Chinese
government for you."
—Yoree Koh in Tokyo and Kersten Zhang in Beijing contributed to this
article. | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 2 "Wow, that's the Chinese government for you." | S********8
发帖数: 4466 | 3 The town's mayor, Nobutaka Azumi, pulled up in a car. Wearing a white helmet
with a crest on the front, he confronted Mr. Wang. "Can you just say 'let's
go, let's go' and take people from here without telling their employers?"
he said. "This is Japan, you know." | r******y
发帖数: 9892 | 4 日本人就是比较死板呗。幸好在场的老板还都答应放人走了，不然还不知道啥发展。
helmet
's
【在 S********8 的大作中提到】
: The town's mayor, Nobutaka Azumi, pulled up in a car. Wearing a white helmet
: with a crest on the front, he confronted Mr. Wang. "Can you just say 'let's
: go, let's go' and take people from here without telling their employers?"
: he said. "This is Japan, you know."
| b**********n
发帖数: 2812 | 5 又不是人贩子，员工逃命需要跟老板请示么？
helmet
's
【在 S********8 的大作中提到】
: The town's mayor, Nobutaka Azumi, pulled up in a car. Wearing a white helmet
: with a crest on the front, he confronted Mr. Wang. "Can you just say 'let's
: go, let's go' and take people from here without telling their employers?"
: he said. "This is Japan, you know."
| l**m
发帖数: 5113 | 6 其实日本人内心挺绝望的
很多工人和科研人员走了，可能永远不会再去日本了。。。。
日本未来的经济怎么办。。。?
helmet
's
【在 S********8 的大作中提到】
: The town's mayor, Nobutaka Azumi, pulled up in a car. Wearing a white helmet
: with a crest on the front, he confronted Mr. Wang. "Can you just say 'let's
: go, let's go' and take people from here without telling their employers?"
: he said. "This is Japan, you know."
| S********8
发帖数: 4466 | 7 看完了全文，觉得日本人的确一板一眼，这市长还向中国使馆确认这个援救行动，也算
是日本人契约精神的体现吧，虽然这种研修听起来也就是廉价劳工，好在，他们也没虐
待工人，工人挣得也算不错了。
【在 r******y 的大作中提到】
: 日本人就是比较死板呗。幸好在场的老板还都答应放人走了，不然还不知道啥发展。
:
: helmet
: 's
| d*****t
发帖数: 7903 | 8 上次谁说过，日本社会就像个机器人，遇到bug, 僵硬的体制就不能主动修复。
当然，这是JY的理想。
【在 S********8 的大作中提到】
: 看完了全文，觉得日本人的确一板一眼，这市长还向中国使馆确认这个援救行动，也算
: 是日本人契约精神的体现吧，虽然这种研修听起来也就是廉价劳工，好在，他们也没虐
: 待工人，工人挣得也算不错了。
|
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