2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake [Kindle Edition]

William Gibson (Author), Yoko Ono (Author), Barry Eisler (Author), Jake Adelstein (Author), The quakebook community (Author), Our Man in Abiko (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.

“The primary goal,” says the book's editor, a British resident of Japan, “is to record the moment, and in doing so raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society to help the thousands of homeless, hungry and cold survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. The biggest frustration for many of us was being unable to help these victims. I don’t have any medical skills, and I’m not a helicopter pilot, but I can edit. A few tweets pulled together nearly everything – all the participants, all the expertise – and in just over a week we had created a book including stories from an 80-year-old grandfather in Sendai, a couple in Canada waiting to hear if their relatives were okay, and a Japanese family who left their home, telling their young son they might never be able to return."

If you'd like to make a donation to aid the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, please visit the Japanese Red Cross Society website, where you can donate via Paypal or bank transfer (watch out for the fees, though!) or the American Red Cross Society, which accepts donations directed to its Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund (but only accepts donations made with U.S.-issued credit cards).

And of course, if you like the book, please tell your friends, and tell them to give generously as well! Thank you! Japan really does appreciate your help!

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1435 KB
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004VP3KHK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,565 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Current Events > Disaster Relief
  • #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Social Sciences

More About the Author

Our Man in Abiko is a British blogger living in Abiko, a commuter town on the edge of Tokyo. He likes his anonymity and would rather not divulge his cover name. It wouldn't be hard to discover it after reading through this biography and spending five minutes on Google, if you really wanted to. But what would be the point?

Our Man graduated from Reading University, although that was nothing to do with him. He started taking a US Studies major and British History minor at Bulmershe College of Higher Education. This is now a car park for a housing estate. But its first step along the road to oblivion was selling out to the more prestigious University of Reading the year before Our Man was due to graduate.

But no matter the prestige, the only jobs forthcoming for Our Man back in the John Major years in the UK were serving shandies behind the bar or flipping hamburgers. Our Man did both, and spent a summer packing gray socks in half-dozen pairs too. He also lasted a whole day at a bread factory. This was actually the longest day of his life. A man in a see-through plastic hat told him to: "Go like this" and squeezed a dollop of dough that an incredibly noisy machine kept crapping out into baking tins. "Go like this" were the only words spoken that day, other than, "I quit".

Then he went to America. Our Man's old man pulled the only strings he had - his best man had worked his way to editor of a small town newspaper in the South and could put in a good word. And lo, Our Man was appointed General Assignment Reporter for the Log Cabin Democrat of Conway, Arkansas. He wrote obituaries, weather reports and fetched biscuits for the real reporters. Then, also nothing to do with him, Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd President of the United States. And suddenly Arkansas was on the map.

But this rise in prestige once more had no impact on Our Man's journeyman trajectory, and he duly landed his second proper job as a reporter at the Jacksonville Patriot in Arkansas, but now covering the world's largest C-130 Air Force base and its 30,000 drums of Agent Orange that were seeping into the groundwater. This is where Our Man became an award-winning journalist. Though not for the obvious Pulitzer-prize story festering on his doorstep, but for the headline "Pot-belly pig proponents pass pork to politicians." Arkansas AP Third Place Best Headline for Small Dailies 1995, people. Oh yeah.

Other career highlights? He managed to last nine months at Voice+ The Magazine of Computer Telephony before hanging up (see what he did there? Don't try this at home, leave such word play to the professionals) and heading off to Japan. There he taught English at Berlitz until he could find a job in journalism. All he could land was a position at the Daily Yomiuri, the English language translation of the world's best-selling newspaper (if you believe what you read in the papers, which you shouldn't), the Japanese language Yomiuri Shimbun.

Then it was back to Blighty and stints as sub-editor at the Birmingham Post, Nottingham Evening Post and Derby Evening Telegraph. It was here that Our Man finally learnt how to write news copy, and also that working for the benefit of media moguls and megalomaniacal editors was not what he really wanted to do with his life. Yes, OK, he was jealous.

So it was back to Japan to do something independent. Teaching English by day and writing by night fit the bill. And something strange happened. He started to enjoy writing again. Not that he's some arty farty la-la "I just write because I love the language" but because he realised how liberating it is to write your own way and to seek an audience for your own work, yourself, on your own terms.

Then the earthquake happened on March 11, 2011, and Our Man realised he could put all these dormant journalistic skills to good use. He rounded up a team of amateur writers and pro journos through twitter to band together to create Quakebook. In a week.

The next writing projects are taking a bit longer, but he's getting there. Look out for a Kindle novel in January 2012, and some non-fiction in early 2012.

Thanks for making it to the end. But there is still a lot more to come.

Our Man in Abiko
December, 2011

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disaster can tear lives apart and bring people together., April 12, 2011

By 

Jake Adelstein "investigative reporter, paladin" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake (Kindle Edition)

I'm in no way an objective reviewer of this book since I contributed a piece to it and I know many of the people who brought it together. On March 11th at 2:46 pm, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by massive tsunami devastated Japan and nuclear reactors in Fukushima Prefecture. The estimated death toll is expected to reach 40,000. It is a tragedy of such magnitude that it's hard to wrap your head around it. Numbers are numbers. They have no face; it is hard to feel for figures. Quakebook tells the story of this earthquake and the aftermath in art, essays, short memoirs, and photographs. Each story is moving its own way. There are accounts from those who directly suffered, those who were left in limbo waiting to find out if their loved ones were missing or dead. There are stories of those who could not but help leave Japan after the earthquake as well. Some of the essays are painful to read. The piece "Positive" is simply about one man watching a news broadcast of a rescue attempt going badly and how he could not watch the rest. If you read it, you'll understand why. There are some thing we do not want to know but perhaps should know. That's for each person to decide. It is not only a book of mourning; it is a book of hope. The book came into existence because one man felt like he could not stand by and do nothing. This book began with his idea and took shape through the hard work of many others. People made enormous sacrifices to make this book into a reality.
Amazon went to great lengths to ensure that all proceeds from this book go directly to the Japan Red Cross, which aids the victims in Japan in many ways. They are not taking a single cent. It is a tremendous act of corporate altruism.
The writing quality in the book is uneven. There are typos as well--the book was rushed together while the memory of the disaster was fresh in the minds of people and also because there are many who still need medical aid, food, blankets, support right now, not months later. Some entries are poorly worded but the sentiments are heart-felt. Yes, there is disparity in the quality of the writing. This is to be expected; this is not a book written by professional journalists or novelists.
These are pieces from Japanese citizens, foreign residents, bystanders, witnesses, journalists,artists, and people who are tied to Japan in often nebulous ways. What they have in common is a love for this country, Japan, and for humanity. All proceeds go to charity.
I'm very fond of Japanese proverbs and there's one that sums up this book quite beautifully. "Nasake wa hito no tame narazu". It's difficult to translate but what it means is this: the kindness we bestow on others benefits not only them but in some ways ourselves as well. I've often felt the best way to mourn the dead is to help those who remain. Reading this book is one way to do it.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very touching account of a great disaster, April 12, 2011

By 

pygenot - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake (Kindle Edition)

I followed the events that led to the creation of that book from TV and from the Internet. As the book was written by people who experienced the quake, tsunami and nuclear event, I find it very moving when reading.

In each page, in each testimonial, in each picture, I feel the pain and the hope of all. It is not a book you can or need to read from cover to cover. Browsing is also an alternate way of reading.

Reading this book is also a way for all to fund the Red Cross of Japan.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope for Japan, April 12, 2011

By 

MysteriousWays - See all my reviews

This review is from: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake (Kindle Edition)

It may be premature to call this ebook a phenomenon, but it has long succeeded the level of mere amazing achievement. What began as the efforts of one man to chronicle the short stories of those who experienced the Great Eastern Japan has grown into a global community and movement to raise awareness of the people affected and how we all can help. This is not an easy read. However, if you want to come closer to understanding the moment Japan's trajectory was forever altered, you need to read this book. More importantly, if you want to understand more about the remarkable spirit of the Japanese people, you need to read this book. What can you do to help Japan recover - read this book.