The great earthquake, tsunami and subsequent disasters in Northern Japan on March 11, 2011 sent ICU alumnus and current Dean of Program Development at DeVry, Bob Aron a thousands of miles away, into a state of shock. He shares his thoughts below on why he continues to do all he can to support Tohoku and the ICU professors and students involved in rebuilding/relief efforts:

“I had been to those places, I lived in Japan for years. When I heard the news of the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th I immediately got in touch with colleagues at the International Christian University (ICU), where I had studied in the 1970s, to see what could be done to help.

From afar, my contributions were sharing ideas and writing. I had coincidentally at that time been reading a book called Hidden Impact: What You Need to Know for the Next Disaster (A Practical Mental Health Guide for Clinicians) from Jones & Bartlett Publishers. My closest colleague at ICU was a psychology professor, Dr. Hide Kotani. He was telling me that the professionals helping in the disaster area were suffering as much as anyone else, or more.

The population of the region as a whole was entirely traumatized. Dr. Kotani left his teaching in Tokyo at ICU and established himself in the North starting several clinics there. I sent a copy of Hidden Impact to him with the notion that we might translate it into Japanese, and maybe it would help in the future.

More copies made their way to Japan in English and my colleagues in Japan finally finished the Japanese version and published it. Workshops and seminars are being developed around it conjunctions to all the clinical services being offered.

In a world where there are do many disasters, it is important that their work be recognized and the people of Tohoku remembered.”