Recent WSJ Work: RIkuzentakata, Japan

Newly-minted Mayor Futoshi Toba was at work in City Hall when the tsunami devastated his community a month ago. Now he must find a way to balance his duty to his family and his town.



Here is the very moving story written up by two of my esteemed colleagues: http://on.wsj.com/eqSK6b

Some photos also made it into the slideshow and newspaper.

Some impressions from Japan

I've been out reporting in Rikuzentakata for a few days and will be filing soon. But here a few random photos from the trip (Hong Kong > Tokyo > Kitakami > Rikuzentakata > Kitakami > Tokyo > Hong Kong).

Tokyo


I was shooting broll from the Tokyo tower and found this very scary looking view through a window in the floor.

Second time I'm in Tokyo for work during the cherry blossom season. They are truly beautiful, even more so thanks to their short life span.

Rikuzentakata

From a shelter in Rikuzentakata during a charity soccer match between the Japanese national team and an all-star team from the J-League:

From a pre-school graduation in Rikuzentakata:

Recent WSJ Work: Stanley Ho

Here's a video we did in Macau about Stanley Ho, the man who has dominated Macau's casino industry for decades. Recently, the ailing billionaire has been caught up in a war with his family for control of his empire. And four wives, sixteen surviving children and a whole bunch of lawyers make for one very interesting story.

Recent WSJ Work: Japan Earthquake

A woman carrying her baby around in the town of Ishinomaki, Northeastern Japan. She was looking for any supplies she could find in the rubble.

A day after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Northeastern Japan, I hopped on a plane to Tokyo and then to Fukushima airport. From there we visited various areas: one where people were sleeping on the stage of an auditorium waiting to hear whether their hometown had been contaminated with radioactivity; one where rotten fish were strewn on the ground -- a reminder of an industry that used to feed the people in that neighborhood; another one where someone was wading through mud, headed towards their destroyed houses to find the dogs they had left behind. It was a three-day-long stay; three very full days.

There are many things I've learned.
Practical things, like 'don't wear sneakers when you're covering the aftermath of a tsunami'.

Don't save on little things, like 'utility belts' for lenses, extra batteries, a good wind jacket, etc. They make a big difference when you work on little sleep and in difficult environments.

But more importantly I learned that grilling a fish with your pals in a middle of the road after you've lost everything can be incredibly uplifting. So can 5 pieces of chewy candy that a stranger offers you, mumbling the word "candy" in broken English.

Anyhoo, here's a selection of the videos I produced from there (I'm on my second trip here now, so expect more to come):

A video about the economic repercussions of the tsunami for a town of ship building companies and food processing facilities:

A video about the reunion of a family after days of being disconnected:

A video about evacuees from near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant:

And some photographs:

Retracing Saigon - Episode 1 - Mom and Dad

When Tam Thi Tang died in 2007, she left behind 13 children, 9 in-laws, 18 grandchildren and one emaciated, abandoned husband. As I revisited my grandfather six months after my grandmother died, I found a man in his seventies who repeatedly said he was waiting to pass away. And he finally did earlier this month.

The head of a family dies and its members fumble for reasons to gather. The nucleus family loses its core and it becomes easier to find excuses to stay in California, Chicago, Frankfurt, Marseille or countless other places where my family members have settled. But I suppose the remaining glue keeping them together are the memories they shared. So I made it my task to gather those.

I've mostly finished reporting on my family history and will be able to spend the weekends of 2011 putting together a video-driven flash piece. I've been working on this over the past three years and have finally gathered enough footage, information and personal accounts to start smaller video segments. With this project, I hope to explore how historical events intersect with individual lives.

On a purely selfish level it's a way of exploring identity -- mostly my own. Besides, this one turned out to be a great Christmas present for my parents:

Recent WSJ work: Yeonpyeong

Recent WSJ Work: Uhm, yeah, bunnies and chihuahua cakes