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Thursday, November 14, 2024. Amya (“A-mi-ya”) Miller is a bilingual and bicultural American who was born and raised in Japan. When the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster struck northeast Honshu, she flew from Boston, where she lived with her husband, to the disaster region. Following her conscience, she first visited the Tohoku region as a volunteer interpreter for an American disaster clean-up nonprofit. She spent the next ten years using her skills to help a young new mayor, Futoshi Toba, rebuild Rikuzentakata, a city of 23,000 in 2010 that ranks among the hardest-hit tsunami-affected Japanese communities.
Significantly, Miller returned to the US to write a book about her experience. Northwest Americans need to hear her story, as in her words, “we’re just not ready” to face the similar natural disaster that science says is destined to recur on our Pacific shores.
Miller opens her North American book tour with a talk sponsored by the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington (7-8 PM). It will be followed by book signing and a social (until 9 PM).
Free and open to the public (donations appreciated).
Reservations needed (for planning purposes).
