[img]396|left|Alex Campbell||no_popup[/img]In August 2001, I moved to Japan to be an English teacher. Although I had lived in Boston for years, I went to Japan representing my hometown of New York City. I brought books, maps and photos. Two photos I brought were of the NYC skyline, including the Twin Towers, because, to me, that scene represented New York City so well.
When I arrived and I told people I was from New York City, they often responded, “Cool!” I was, and still am, very proud that I was born and raised there. I believe that if you grow up in NYC, you will be prepared for anything in life. Now, of course, New Yorkers know that “anything” can happen.
[img]691|left|||no_popup[/img] On Sept. 11, I wrote a mass email to my friends about my new life in Japan. The last line of my email was, “How’s life in America?” Immediately after I sent that email, the World Trade Center was hit.
You know who told me? A former student of mine who was Japanese. I had Ayako as a student at my preschool in Boston from 1995-1997. She went back to Japan, and her family and I stayed in touch. She was almost nine when she called me. She said, “Turn on the TV. An airplane flew into the tall building in New York City.” I turned on my TV and watched as the second plane hit the buildings.
A Coincidental Farewell
It was surreal; I felt like I was watching a Sylvester Stallone action movie. I tried to call my family and friends in New York, but of course I couldn’t get through. Finally, I got through to a friend of mine in Boston, and later, to my father. I didn’t know anyone who had been directly affected, but it was interesting to note that after not having been to the World Trade Center for years, I had gone there three times in the six months before the tragedy.
I remember going in to work the next day, and being greeted by pitiful stares. After 9/11, when I told people I was from New York, the response changed from “Cool!” to “I’m sorry.” It was nice that everyone felt for me, but it still didn’t feel real.
In the weeks that followed, we English teachers got many notices warning us to exercise caution, as if there was anything we could do from our posts. “The Department urges Americans to review their circumstances carefully and to take all appropriate measures to ensure their personal safety.” Review my circumstances, review my circumstances. Um, I’m working with first graders tomorrow, we’re going to play a game using weather words. Is that safe? Should I bring an umbrella? The notices didn’t really make sense or seem to have relevance to me in the middle of the rice fields in Hikata Machi, a pig farming town, population 8,000.
Other Buildings Falling Down
I learned how to say “terrorist” in Japanese, and life went on as if that awful thing happened a world away. Which it did. I didn’t have an urge to fly home. Everyone I knew was fine, and I saw the coverage on TV so many times I almost got desensitized. I wrote an email to two friends on Sept. 26, which I printed out and put in my scrapbook:
“So I’m watching the news in English every night since the airplanes hit the World Trade Center. I was shocked and saddened, and surprised at myself when I just had to laugh at the news reporter who explains the daily happenings with 3D maps and little namplates.
The first night he had a model of the Twin Towers and NYC. He took a little, tiny airplane model on a stick and flew it into the Twin Towers to demonstrate. As if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, he knocked over the Empire State Building by mistake in the process. I laughed, I cried.
A few days later, he had models of the Twin Towers and surrounding buildings. He removed them one by one to show how many buildings were affected. That was a good demonstration; you could really see the space that was left.
Next, we moved onto Afghanistan and surrounding countries. He knocked down several countries’ nameplates in the process of talking about them. All of this is in translated English.” Over the Japanese news reporter’s voice there was either a British man or an Asian woman educated in England. It was slower than regular talking because they were translating. Again, it made it a little more removed than if I had actually been in America.
I wrote, “That’s how I get my news. Better than not getting it at all. Getting it this way somehow breaks the tension. Ah, the healing power of laughter.”
Friends had told me about all the American flags that were suddenly in everyone’s windows, and how people got scared when airplanes started flying again. I didn’t get it. I finally went home in February 2002 for a vacation, and it was then that it hit home for me. I read the paper that listed all of the victims’ photos, names and personal stories, and I cried then. So many lives lost, and so many others affected.
9/11 will never have the same effect on me as it did on people who were living in America at that time. Of course, I know and understand how horrible this event was in our history. When I think about Sept. 11, 2001, though, I think of Ayako and her family thinking of me, model airplanes on sticks flying into bad models of tall buildings, and teaching English in Japan.
Ms. Campbell may be contacted at campbellalexandra@hotmail.com
