This might seem utterly unrelated to the above Kpop group, but while I was going through one fan website after another, fans all over the world are complaining. They are complaining because it seems that the originally scheduled Big Bang concerts in Japan the coming May have not been cancelled or rescheduled due to the recent tragedy of the earthquake, tsunami and of course the unresolved radiation leakage problem.
I can understand what they are worrying about, and the notice that the record company has let out was all the more worrisome to the fans, saying that they “will only go to the safe areas”. They probably don’t quite understand that there is no such thing as “safe areas”, the only workable method for the fans is NOT to go at all. Then the question popped up: what would the Japanese fans think of this?
According to the interviews conducted by different newspapers and TV stations, those who are living in Tokyo seem to think the radiation problem is not a big deal, and that their government would be able to fix it soon. A family friend of mine who is living and working in Tokyo is still carrying on with his normal life; while his wife, who is an Indonesian, brought their daughter with her and moved back to Indonesia for the time being. The fact is, if it were not for the company passed down to him by his godfather, he would have gone to Indonesia with his family.
I’m not saying that this one case can represent all people in Japan, and that all those who can afford to leave have fled the country. However, I can’t help but wonder, how are the people holding up? Those who are staying, how are they feeling about all these? Would they rather walk out of the trauma and carry on with their lives than continue to mourn over what has happened?
For the fans, would they still have the mood to go to this concert after all that has happened? Or would they take this as an opportunity to escape from the reality, even just for a few hours? I can imagine it is very hard for them, because as a “Japaholic”, I literally shiver whenever I see video clips of the tsunami, the smoke-covered nuclear power plants and the disaster victims.
There is nothing we can do except to donate and pray. I’ll keep doing both.