Experiences of the great East Japan earthquake March 2011.

Written just 5 weeks after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011, this personal account provides new lessons for disaster nursing. Expecting aid to reach a major widespread disaster area within 3 days is optimistic, and survivors may have to exist on extremely limited resources for very much longer. Even in a country as well prepared as Japan, material and human resources after March 11 were stretched to their limits. The nuclear accident dimension created great anxiety especially among pregnant women and mothers of young children.