Canton Resident Deeply Affected by Devastation in Japan

For one local man intimately familiar with Japan and its people, it’s been particularly hard to view the devastation and hardships caused by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

“I’ve been all over Japan; I’ve fallen in love with the country,” said Gregory Boyko, who is honorary consul general of Japan for the Consulate-General of Japan in Boston. “It’s hard to see this.”

The Canton resident has many friends and former business colleagues in the country. He has gotten in touch with many of them through e-mail, including the one he was most concerned about — a former business associate and his family. That friend is a teacher from Connecticut who lives in Sendai, an area that was near the epicenter of the 9.0 earthquake and was hit hard by the subsequent tsunami.

“Fortunately, everyone I’ve heard back from is OK,” Boyko said, adding that they are quite shaken by it all. There are some friends Boyko has not heard back from yet, but those people were further away from the devastation and many have likely not seen the work e-mails he used to contact them, Boyko said.

Even in Tokyo, where things are much better than the heavily affected areas, friends reported initial chaos in mass transit and other services. Short commutes turned into hours of walking, he said. It’s quite a contrast from the norm in a city with so much infrastructure, he said.

He is still hearing about problems, such as long waits for gas north of the city, but some areas are improving.

“Life in Tokyo is getting more normal,” he said.

Of course, many other parts of the country are still facing unspeakable horror from many deaths, continuing worries about a nuclear reactor, power outages and food and water shortages. But Boyko said many of the e-mails he’s received have reinforced the resilience of the Japanese. He also said his friends and the media point out the lack of looting there.

“The folks are supporting one another," he said. “That’s just a hallmark of the people.”

“They have remarkable resilience,” he said, adding that it will, of course, take some time for the country to get back to normal. But Japan has proven it can come back from tragedies, he added.  

Boyko’s connections to the country date back many years. While working for The Hartford, he served as chairman and CEO of its international division. He’s been to Japan more than 100 times and  lived there for 18 months in 2006 and 2007 while CEO of The Hartford’s Japanese subsidiary. He is also a director of the executive committee for the Japan Society in New York.

As honorary consul general, he said, his role is to promote the relationship between the countries.

“The relationship with Japan is so important to both countries,” he said.

Although he retired from The Hartford in 2009, Boyko plans to visit Japan in November for a business meeting as a director for a mutual fund company.

“I’m hopefully going to add a few days and see a lot of the friends I’ve talked to,” he said. 

As far as donating for the relief efforts, Boyko advises, “Be generous, be careful.”

The Japan Society has set up a site to collect donations at www.japansociety.org. The society will give that money directly to relief organizations and is diligently investigating them to make sure they are legitimate as well.

In addition, there will be a fundraiser at Umi Sushi + Tapas, at 53 Isham Road in Blue Back Square in West Hartford on Sunday from 11:45 a.m. to 10 p.m.

General Manager Taki Tanaka, who has family in Japan, said the restaurant will donate all proceeds that day to the Red Cross for relief efforts.

"We have to do something, and all we can do right now is send some money," he said.

Tanaka said his mother, who lives in Soma City, one of the areas that was heavily damaged, happened to be in Tokyo on the day the earthquake and tsunami struck. His mother's husband, who is still in Soma City, has no water, electricity or gas, and the family is trying to convince him to travel to Tokyo. The house they built just last year survived, but the neighborhood around it is gone, Tanaka said.

"Day by day, hour by hour, it seems to be getting worse," he said.

The restaurant is small, and though Tanaka hopes "we'll be packed," he said he would encourage those who can't get inside to donate directly to the Red Cross either online or by texting 90999, which sends $10 to the relief effort. For the link to the Red Cross, click here.