Missing: Relatives, Friends in Japan

• Yukari Sugiyama of Glenview is combing websites of survivor names for an uncle, two aunts and cousins who live in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. She hasn't heard from them since the March 11 earthquake hit that region.
• Satoi Takasaki of Des Plaines frequently checks Facebook for updates from a gal pal who lives near the deteriorating nuclear power plant (she's been told to shower to wash off radiation) and another friend who lives close to where the tsunami hit. 
• Ai Takahashi of Schaumburg feels her parents in Osaka are safe, but waits for daily e-mails from Japan about how her father-in-law near Tokyo is faring with the frequent earthquakes there.
• And Fumi Koike, who teaches at the relayed that her parents in Japan told her they're glad she and her 4-year-old daughter are in the U.S., far from radiation exposure.

All four women are either teachers or parents at St. Matthew's Japanese preschool, where Japanese families, , send their 3- to 6-year-olds for cultural and language education. The preschool serves families from Morton Grove, Skokie and Wilmette.

The families at the school have become a support network for each other during the Japan crisis, and will collect donations

Worriedly combing lists of survivors

Sitting on a bench outside the preschool Thursday, Sugiyama, who has a 4-year-old daughter at the preschool, said she is hoping her uncle survived the tsunami because his house is on a hill. An aunt lived near City Hall in Miyagi Prefecture.

"One article said City Hall is destroyed," Sugiyama said worriedly. "We don't know. We don't get much news." 

She's close to these relatives--her father's brother, sister and sister-in-law--because they've supported her in the many years since her father's death. Her own mother is safe in Nagoya, which is in southern Japan, far from the epicenter of the devastating magnitude 9.2 quake.

"We know one of my aunts [her father's sister] and one of my cousins is alive, because we reached them on their cell phone," she said. The cell phone was out for days until the power came back on.

She's been combing lists of people taken to evacuation centers, but so far, the missing relatives have not turned up. 

"We're hoping they're just isolated and can't get in touch," she said. "I'm hoping they're alive."

Trying to shower off radiation

Takasaki, 26, a teacher at St. Matthew's, has been glued to Facebook updates from her friend Keiko Inoue, a woman who lives a little under 100 miles from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which is emitting radiation. 

"She should leave, but her whole family is there," said Takasaki, who was born in the U.S. Her parents also live here.

People in Keiko's town, in Shizoka Prefecture, have rice to eat and can get drinking water by waiting in line at a convenience store. Tap water is flowing, but earlier, they had to get river water to flush toilets, and she couldn't shower for two days.

"The government is telling them to shower to wash off the radiation, but the water is contaminated," Takasaki said.

"And they're telling them to wear a mask when she sleeps in case something bad happens," she said ominously. "She says she doesn't know who to believe."

Another friend, Teru Sakurai, lives in Tagajo, near the area that got the worst of the earthquake and tsunami. 

Takasaki worked with the two survivors last year at Mitsuwa Marketplace, a Japanese megastore in Arlington Heights. Keiko was attending DePaul University, and Teru had worked at Mitsuwa's headquarters in Japan. 

Takasaki reached Teru by phone Tuesday. 

"He's glad his house is still standing, but he sounded low," she noted. News articles have reported many deaths in the area. 

Her efforts to cheer him up by telling him people in the Niles area were collecting donations didn't make too much of a dent.

"He said, 'There's so many people not found yet,' " she said. "Physically, he's OK, but emotionally, he's stunned."

Are radiation levels in Tokyo safe?

Takahashi, who has a 3-year-old son at St. Matthew's, gets daily e-mails from her sister-in-law, who lives a little south of Tokyo and away from the affected areas, and they talk about the frequent earthquakes and the shortage of food. Mostly, they're concerned about Takahashi's father-in-law in Tokyo.

"Many Japanese people are worrying about the radiation. The (Japanese) government says it's safe enough, but nobody really knows," she said.

"It's chaos, emotionally."

People in safe parts of Japan are worried about residents in the affected areas, she added, but there is little they can do. Likewise, she can't do much from here except participate in Sunday's benefit, when her 3-year-old will be one of the students performing in the concert.

"I really appreciate that many people who live here ask if my family is OK and if others are OK. They're so open and concerned," Takahashi said.

Have plane ticket to Japan, may not go

Koike worries about her mother, father and sister in Tokyo, and wishes her father and sister could just stay home. But they have to go to work, she said.

One day, her dad had to walk four hours home from work. And commuter trains, always crowded in Tokyo, are operating at reduced service, making them even more crowded.

"On Monday, he couldn't go home. He had to sleep at his office," she said about her father, who owns a business.

"My parents trust what the government is saying, and how it's handling the situation," Koike said, adding she thought information has been coming too slowly and that the government could be more forthcoming. 

Her parents are glad she and her 4-year-old daughter are safe in the U.S., but Koike wonders whether she should go to Japan to visit them for summer vacation.

"They said, 'Why don't you stay (in Chicago) this summer?'  I would normally go. I already have the plane ticket, but I'm not sure if I'll go," she said.